Just over a month later Death of Eduardo Alcántara, better known by his stage name Lumpen BolaFamily, friends and local artists will pay homage to celebrate the life and work of the muralist who left an indelible mark on the walls of La Plata with his distinctive brush, always linked to the world of rock.
The activity will take place at the corner of 8 and 63 and is scheduled from 6:00 p.m. As the organization reports, it will be an open and collective day that will include performances, body painting, acrobatics, slackline, dancing with fire, live music and stories, and will involve several artists and people close to the creator.
The organization announced that the event will be postponed in the event of rain.
The musical conclusion will be provided by Narvales, the band from La Plata, which returned to the stage this year after a long break. Previously, the bands Ponja, Tóxipa and Entretantos will perform, in a line-up that will accompany the homage with a rock spirit, as has always characterized the work of Lumpen Bola.
Rags Bola, the artist who filled the city’s walls with stones
Lumpen Bola, artist name of Eduardo Alcántara, one of the central references of urban art in La Plata in the last 25 years. His sudden and unexpected death had a profound impact on friends, colleagues and followers. “Fly high and rest in peace, dear friend,” Rocambole wrote on a black board with white letters in one of the first public farewell greetings.
The shock was immediate. Lumpen Bola was full of projects, energy and plans for the future: in a few days he wanted to inaugurate Taller 321, a cultural center that he transformed with the same dedication with which he painted hundreds of walls. His departure ended the new phase, which excited him just as much as his first wall intervention.
In recent years, he had developed an artistic and emotional partnership with Entretantos, a rock band with whom he traveled to different corners of the country, intervening in spaces, supporting causes and leaving murals celebrating music and community. In Iruya, Salta, despite the oppressive heat, they painted the facade of a small school in the neighborhood together. It wasn’t an assignment: it was his way of giving back.
The musicians defined it as being part of a “brotherhood of friends.” In fact, part of the band – led by Rodrigo Zito – was in Chile today for a cultural cause that also included Lumpen Bola. They received the news from Valparaíso. “Heartbroken,” they wrote, unable to understand how a sudden death could take away a friend whose work would continue to speak from every wall.
A heritage that is already part of La Plata’s DNA
In addition to his iconic murals in La Loma, Eduardo had painted works that marked milestones in the city: his depiction of the legacy of La Plata in 6 and 46, his mural for the 40 years of democracy in the UNLP with Alfonsín and Sábato or his recent “good Argentine” mural in Altos de San Lorenzo with Messi, Maradona, Evita, Favaloro, the Abuelas and the Malvinas, which was created in dialogue with the neighbors. “Once the job is done, it’s no longer mine…it’s the neighborhood’s,” he would say.
He completed between 40 and 50 murals per year. I painted every day. The job exhausted him, but also motivated him. “First I feel excitement, then I get angry because of fatigue, and when I’m done I want to start a new one,” he confessed. What he enjoyed most was seeing people’s reactions: that, he said, was the true meaning of the mural.
His death surprised even those who saw him every day. There were no signs, there was no break: Rags Bola was active, working, dreaming.
His absence will be felt, but he will continue to speak through the walls and tell his story and those of others. His murals – most of them done by heart, without aiming for more than a gesture with the community – will remain a testament to a life dedicated to transforming the street into shared beauty.
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