Speaker Introduction – Gustavo Ferrari

If you read the beyond tellerrand Newsletter, you already know that I am quite jealous about the name of the person I want to introduce to you today. I mean: Gustavo Ferrari sounds much cooler than my own name, in my opinion. But next to the lovely name he has, Gustavo had a job in which he preserves history, an art that might otherwise be gone at some point and has a job that, in my opinion, must be quite fulfilling.

Gustavo Ferrari is from Argentina and he does Fileteado. Sign painting in a very beautiful and wonderful way. I met him in Berlin at the Berlin Letters event last year and I was directly in love with his work and the story behind it.

Fileteado began as a simple decoration on the trade carts in the early 20th century. In the 1920s and 1930s as it expanded to the decoration of buses and trucks its imagery grew more complex with the use of visual symbols and the incorporation of short text, including popular and humorous sayings.

Today it can be found all over the city of Buenos Aires, in shop windows, murals and signs. The vernacular style of Fileteado led to it being declared a World Cultural Heritage by UNESCO in 2015.

Gustavo Ferrari is going to be in Düsseldorf, talking about and showing what Fileteado is. Not just on stage, but also as part of the exhibition.

beyond tellerrand Düsseldorf 2025 is taking place on May 5 and 6 with workshops and Side Events on 4th and 7th.