AURELIO BENEDICTO
DURANDO, KNOWN AS OCHO.

Youth.

From childhood, Benedicto showed a strong interest in nature and animals, along with a marked sense of adventure. He loved life in the countryside. He happily played with peers but also sought moments of solitude, taking long walks to explore the surrounding landscape.
He became interested in botany, learned to recognize local plants and their healing properties, and began preparing natural remedies from them, illustrating them in detailed drawings.
He was very curious, eager to discover new countries, people, and cultures. This is why he decided to travel.

World War II did not affect him directly until 1943, when his father’s brother — a soldier in Italy — was killed.

Thanks to an inheritance from his uncle, in 1947 Durando began studying art in Buenos Aires. Despite his love for art history — a passion that would follow him throughout his life — his relationship with the big city was difficult: for the first time, Durando realized that metropolitan rhythms felt foreign and alien to him. To this was added his disappointment over the second election of Juan Perón, whom he did not support.

In 1951 he began traveling alone around the country, taking occasional jobs, exploring Argentine lands, and often staying — sometimes for weeks — in isolated areas of the Cuyo region and the Jujuy province. These years of voluntary isolation marked his first period of deep reflection, during which he created his first works and began defining the core of his artistic experience in relation to nature and art.

The journey to the United States.

In 1952 Durando left for the United States, where he had the opportunity to meet Ernest Hemingway, whose works he knew well. The two soon became drinking and fishing companions. It was Hemingway who jokingly nicknamed him “Ocho,” due to his love for a quiet life — a name the artist later adopted as his own.

After a few months in Florida, Durando returned to the nomadic lifestyle that had become characteristic of him: he began traveling across the United States, exploring natural wonders and avoiding large cities. Years later he would say, “In the ten years I spent in the United States, I never saw Los Angeles — and honestly, I’ve never missed it.”

“The freedom of man.”

Each time Durando arrived in a place that suited him, he looked for work to support himself and began observing the environment to understand how and where to create his artworks. Over the years he worked as a laborer, farmhand, forest ranger, secretary, tutor, and — in more recent years — as an art teacher.

Letters.

Durando’s itinerant lifestyle made personal relationships logistically difficult. Without a fixed residence or long-term plans, it was hard for friends to stay in touch, but Durando arranged to receive mail at the nearest town and made sure to inform everyone whenever he moved.
Though he chose a form of voluntary solitude, the Argentine artist remained deeply connected to the few strong friendships he built over the years — some of which lasted more than thirty years.

Ocho Contento.

After returning from the United States, he stayed for two years at his parents’ home in Salta, helping with livestock farming and cultivating medicinal and aromatic plants. Using these, he prepared natural remedies and opened a small shop to sell them.

The most famous of these preparations was “Ocho Contento,” a cheerful mood-boosting remedy packaged in boxes illustrated by Benedicto. Many customers returned to buy it, grateful for its beneficial effects.

Benedicto dedicated himself fully to this new activity and found great satisfaction in it. While working at the shop, he met Malena Rios, a Chilean tango dancer. Malena was a young woman with both gentle and determined features, dark hair, and deep brown eyes.

Malena became a loyal customer, and Benedicto — fascinated by her appearance and demeanor — explained the properties of plants and herbs to her each time she visited. One day, he asked if she would be willing to pose for a portrait, and she agreed.

Malena was astonished by the artistic result, struck by the depth revealed in the portrait.

The two fell in love, and Malena became the muse for many works from that period, during which Benedicto explored representations of the female figure — at times maternal, at times sensual.

Jamaica.

In 1964 Benedicto decided to follow Malena to Jamaica, where she had been hired for several months to dance in a hotel on the island’s northern coast — a place frequented by many Europeans during the summer season.

At this hotel, Benedicto offered to work as a handyman, painting beautiful landscapes in his free time, inspired by the surrounding nature, and selling his paintings to tourists.

Malena and Ocho were well-liked and formed friendships with the hotel’s owner, Michele (an American of Italian origins), as well as with the waiters, cooks, and locals.

They stayed for three years, until Benedicto received news that his father Giovanni was gravely ill. The couple returned to Salta.

After their departure, Michele requested that the beach adjacent to the hotel be named after the two young Argentinians. Since then, that beach has commonly been known as Ocho-Rios.

Origins.

In 1967 Benedicto and Malena returned to Salta. The family situation was difficult: his father seriously ill, and his mother grieving.

In the days following his return, Benedicto spent much time speaking with his father, who recounted his childhood — a past Benedicto had known very little about.

Giovanni was born in 1904 in Turin, the youngest of seven children. He left Italy with two uncles, as his parents — struggling with poverty — entrusted their youngest child to relatives heading to Argentina, hoping to offer him a better future.

Despite his parents’ intentions, Giovanni suffered greatly from the separation and never lost the desire to see at least one of his siblings again.

At the end of their conversations, Giovanni asked Benedicto to return to Italy to find his uncles and bring them back to Salta for a final reunion.

Turin.

Thus, in December 1967, Benedicto left for Turin in search of Carlo, Giacomo, Bruno, Alberto, Anna, and Maria Durando, while Malena remained in Salta to care for Giovanni and help Daniela.

In Turin, he found a lively environment. Unlike Buenos Aires, the city felt different: on November 27, 1967, students occupied Palazzo Campana, the humanities faculty of the University of Turin. Young people fought for change and a democratic vision of culture, and although the atmosphere was tense, Benedicto was fascinated by it.

To immerse himself more deeply, he sought a teaching position at the Passoni Art High School and obtained a temporary assignment as an Art History substitute.

He fell in love with teaching — it rekindled his artistic path, reshaping everything he had learned over the years. His students admired him and achieved excellent results.

In Turin he met Primo Levi, who, in early 1968, was preparing to travel to Israel with a group of partisans. The two spent considerable time together, sharing personal histories — Levi of World War II, Benedicto of Peronism in Buenos Aires.
A deep friendship grew, lasting many years despite the distance.

His works from this period often depict contemporary figures and events. Nature remained present, portrayed with his typical delicacy, softening the urban landscapes behind them.

The return.

Unfortunately, the search for his uncles was unsuccessful; it appeared none remained in Turin. Some had likely moved to Rome or Milan.

When Benedicto received word that his father was near death, he returned to Salta to say farewell. Giovanni died shortly thereafter, in early 1969.

Benedicto stayed in Argentina for several years, supporting his family. The Passoni experience had left a strong impression, and he sought a teaching position in Salta. In 1970 he became a portrait instructor at the Cultural Docente High School.

In 1971 Miguel Durando was born, the first and only child of Malena and Benedicto — a boy with Amerindian features like his mother, and energetic curiosity like his father.

In the following years, Benedicto devoted himself to teaching and raising Miguel, without abandoning art. He continued his figurative exploration of the landscape while also observing Miguel’s early drawings, which sparked his interest in children’s graphic language as a “primitive” form of visual expression.
His works from this period reveal a search for essential lines and expressive use of color.

In 1977 Malena opened a tango school with several colleagues, and in 1980 Daniela, Benedicto’s mother, passed away.

Rome.

After losing his mother — the last link to his family of origin — Benedicto returned to the idea he had never fully abandoned: finding his father’s relatives.

In 1992, nearly sixty, he left teaching and moved to Rome with Malena and Miguel.

Thanks to a contact provided by the principal of the Passoni, he temporarily stayed at Casa Don Orione, a religious guesthouse. There he met Father Paolo Brizzi, to whom he confided his story and the reason for his journey.

They developed a deep friendship, and Paolo helped Benedicto secure a position teaching art at the Sant’Orsola Institute, where Paolo was headmaster.

Meanwhile, Miguel began studying Natural Sciences at La Sapienza University.

One day, Paolo told him that an elderly priest, Father Carlo Durando — over ninety years old — was living at a retirement home called “Le Grazie.” With Paolo’s help, Benedicto visited him and discovered that he was indeed one of the long-lost uncles.

Their conversations were profound; for Benedicto, it meant making peace with the past and resolving the painful doubt that his father had been abandoned.

Father Carlo also informed him that the Vatican’s Congregation for the Causes of Saints had opened a beatification process for their ancestor, Father Marcantonio Durando, a priest devoted to helping the poor, who died on December 10, 1880.

Benedicto’s works from this period often depict family subjects: Malena, Miguel, Paolo, Uncle Carlo, and the Roman landscape — blending nature, archaeology, and modern architecture.

In 1997 Miguel graduated; in 2001, the year Benedicto retired from teaching, the beatification of Marcantonio Durando was celebrated.

Milan.

After New Year’s 2010, Benedicto and Malena moved to Milan, where — thanks to Father Paolo — they had an appointment with Mariella, a gallery owner interested in exhibiting his works. At 75, Benedicto was still full of artistic energy.

One cold February morning, in a bar on Via Durando in Milan, Benedicto drank a coffee at the counter while studying a map, trying to trace the route to Mariella’s gallery.
He struggled to orient himself: Milan felt overwhelmingly chaotic.

Looking around, he noticed three young people engaged in lively conversation. Their enthusiasm reminded him of the group projects his students used to develop under his guidance — fond memories.

He approached them to ask for directions to Via Lambruschini, where he was due to meet Mariella.

One of the three quickly gave him directions, but another — intrigued by his appearance — asked where he was from.
Feeling both Argentine and Italian, and even a bit Jamaican thanks to Ocho-Rios, Benedicto began telling his story.

The three were fascinated. They listened, asked many questions, and time slipped by as their conversation became increasingly engaging.

The young people had met to discuss the communication agency they were about to found — ideas to shape, decisions to make, even the name to choose.

But Benedicto’s story captivated them for two hours. Suddenly realizing he was very late for his appointment, he hurried off but expressed his wish to meet them again.

That unexpected meeting with Benedicto — nicknamed Ocho — inspired the young founders.
They decided to name their new agency **Ocho Durando**, in honor of the extraordinary man who had never stopped growing and nurturing what he loved.
And to remember him, they officially founded the agency on **February 14**, his birthday.

AURELIO BENEDICTO
DURANDO, KNOWN AS OCHO.