Fernanda Laguna
Belleza y Felicidad
Visual artist, writer and cultural manager Fernanda Laguna initiative’s Belleza y Felicidad, is a cultural activism project in Fiorito, Argentina. The initiative uses art as a tool for social transformation, providing educational and creative resources to the local community while breaking down social barriers.
Fernanda Laguna founded Belleza y Felicidad Fiorito in 2003 as a response to the social inequalities and neglect faced by marginalized communities in Villa Fiorito, Buenos Aires. The project channels care absent from the state by offering various cultural services, including a contemporary art school, a gourmet canteen that feeds 250 people weekly – transforming the act of eating into a revolutionary experience -, an exhibition space, a publishing house, or a silkscreen printing workshop selling exclusive t-shirts designed by the community. Through various cultural events and workshops, it promotes collective memory, desire, and pleasure as tools of empowerment and struggle.
Over its 20 years of operation, more than 1,000 people have engaged with its activities, with the project working to foster a collective memory of the neighborhood through art and care. Its impact, however, extends far beyond these numbers, influencing the wider community in profound ways.
Alongside Belleza y Felicidad, Fernanda is also involved in The Liliana Maresca Secondary Project (PSLM), an innovative art education program integrated within a public school. The program brings together teaching artists to engage with adolescents through innovative and experimental art education. The PSLM curriculum spans from 1st to 6th year, offering courses like Image Production and Analysis, Image and New Media, and Project and Production in Visual Arts. By intertwining art with traditional academic subjects, PSLM aims to rethink learning methods and challenge conventional content delivery.
Fernanda Laguna lives and works in Buenos Aires. She is a highly influential artist in Argentina, who besides her art production and published poetry has created and directed several alternative organizations, which are effectively part of her art practice.
In 2000, in the midst of the worst economic crisis in Argentina’s history, Laguna founded artist-run gallery Belleza y Felicidad, which for many years was the cauldron of emerging art and literature in Buenos Aires.
She then moved the gallery to the underprivileged neighborhood of Fiorito on the outskirts of the city, where it evolved into an experimental art-based general education project for disadvantaged children and teenagers. Laguna was involved in starting Eloisa Cartonera, a publishing cooperative which brings together well established writers and the cartoneros, who make a living collecting discarded cardboard from the garbage.
In 2011-2012 she ran TuRito, a space open 24 hours a day (it had no doors) to performances, readings and actions. Laguna has been extremely active not only as visual artist and writer but also as curator, organizer and performer.
