Fileteado

Fileteado (Spanish pronunciation: [fileteˈaðo]) is a type of artistic drawing and lettering, with stylised lines and flowered, climbing plants, typically used in Buenos Aires, Argentina. It is used to adorn all kinds of beloved objects: signs, taxis, trucks, and even old colectivos, Buenos Aires's buses. Filetes (the lines in fileteado style) are usually full of colored ornaments and symmetries completed with poetic phrases, sayings and aphorisms, both humorous or roguish, emotional or philosophical. They have been part of the culture of Porteños (inhabitants of Buenos Aires) since the beginning of the 20th century. The filetes were born as simple ornaments, becoming an emblematic form of art for the city. Many of its initiators were European immigrants, who brought from Europe some elements of what later fileteado, which became the distinct Argentine art form known today when mixed with local traditional art styles. Fileteado was recognized as a unique art after 1970, when it was exhibited for the first time.