Street art to turn the periphery of Bogotá into a tourist power

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At the top of the mountains in southern Bogotá, several streets in the Mirador and Paraíso neighborhoods have been converted into urban art galleries.

The houses with blue backgrounds display murals of athletes, musicians, landscapes, and even neighborhood characters, which form authentic artistic corridors in the heights of the town of Ciudad Bolívar.

A historically marginalized area of ​​the capital that is being transformed into a cultural scene, thanks to the work of a couple of young people who, with their

Bogotá Colors project,

want to turn the town into a tourist reference in the city.

Everything about street art.

The plan began in 2016 when May Rojas wanted to bring Paradise to life with her talent for painting.

“I dreamed of streets full of colors and I told my girlfriend about it,” says the 28-year-old.

At that time, his partner Luisa Sabogal decided to support his vision and together they embarked on a plan to create murals in the neighborhood, and invite tourists to enjoy the art of Ciudad Bolívar.

“May was in charge of the artistic part and I coordinated some

tours

,” explains Sabogal, co-founder of Bogotá Colors.

The process began with portraits of local people.

“The first one that was made was that of Videlma Yaima, who ran the home for the elderly in the neighborhood,” remembers Sabogal, who usually helps her boyfriend paint the backgrounds of the walls and fill in some figures with color.

“She wanted to show the people who made a difference in the neighborhood.

Athletes, artists and social leaders,” explains Rojas, who began his path as a visual artist doing graffiti when he was a teenager.

Inhabitants of Ciudad Bolívar walk along the street of color, in Bogotá, on January 19, 2024. NATHALIA ANGARITA

The idea was to take the walls of the houses to show the potential of Ciudad Bolívar, an area of ​​Bogotá where monetary poverty exceeds 35%, according to data from the city's Mayor's Office.

For decades, the town has dealt with the stereotype of being a dangerous place reserved for locals, marginalized from the spaces that Bogotá intends to show to tourists.

“We wanted to eliminate those stigmas and change the territory through art and culture,” highlights Sabogal, who has lived in Ciudad Bolívar all his life.

That goal made them both study graphic design to give direction to their project and create their own concept of street art at the top of the town, surrounded by one of the best panoramic views of Bogotá.

“We wanted to distinguish ourselves from other proposals.

That's why we decided to think about the color palette, and we talked to the owners of the houses so that the murals could relate to their stories and their tastes," argues Sabogal, who at 24 years old is the manager of these artistic corridors to which They have called

Streets of Color

, and they have managed to capture the works of more than 30 national and international artists.

Tiger Vives has been one of the collaborators of this project, which for him meant reinventing the imagination he had of Ciudad Bolívar.

“It was like coming out of the cave.

I met very hard-working and humble people, full of desire to improve,” says the 31-year-old artist from Bogotá.

“I was shocked to see Koreans, Australians and French passing by taking photos and enjoying the graffiti tour with astonished faces and looks that sought answers to the works,” continues Vives, who wanted to pay tribute to the master Fernando Botero with his mural. .

Aerial view of Ciudad Bolívar, January 19, 2024. NATHALIA ANGARITA

All of the paintings exalt Colombian culture, while representing the interests and stories of the homeowners.

For example, the figures of James Rodríguez and Linda Caicedo are portrayed on the facade of a family of soccer players;

García Márquez's face rests in a home of readers;

and the image of a peasant with a sack on his shoulder colors the walls of the house Gladys Algarra, a 64-year-old woman who arrived in Bogotá when she was a teenager, from the countryside.

“I still need to paint a donkey carrying jugs of water, because that was how we lived when we arrived in this neighborhood 50 years ago,” says the woman, while she laughs looking at her wall.

An accessible paradise

Sharing this cultural experience in Ciudad Bolívar with visitors was a very difficult challenge during the first years of the project, because getting to the neighborhoods was quite a journey.

The bus or car trips took more than an hour and a half from the city center to the tip of the mountain where El Paraíso and El Mirador are.

However, everything changed with the appearance of TransMiCable in 2018. The journey from the Tunal portal was reduced to 25 minutes on the public transport cable car system, which became a tourist attraction and the starting point of the graffiti torurs of Bogotá Colors.

These red wagons boost the hope of entrepreneurs and artists like Rojas and Sabogal, who hope that their project will benefit the area.

“On our tour we offer artisanal snacks that come from a local business,” explains Rojas, who wants his art to not only be a cultural driver, but also serve the economic development of the community.

May Rojas and Luisa Sabogal walk down a street in Ciudad Bolívar. NATHALIA ANGARITA

Shine in a city of street artists

For now, it comforts him to know that, three thousand meters above sea level, in the Calles del Color, is where the urban art of Ciudad Bolívar gains more strength.

An important achievement in a city like Bogotá, recognized for its murals worldwide.

In fact, the National Geographic digital portal named it among the seven best cities on the planet to enjoy street art.

An intangible asset that young people from the most remote places have dared to exploit.

Rojas and Sabogal dream that the art of

Bogotá Colors

reaches as far as that of Comuna 13 in Medellín, the East Side Gallery in Berlin or the walls of Wynwood in Miami.

Of course, without ever forgetting the identity of Ciudad Bolívar.

That is the legacy that Rojas defends with his aerosols: “Being the memory of the street.”