I loved the street art in Bogota, Columbia.  Relished it. 

The largest city in this South American country explodes with colorful buildings, street poles, old warehouses and even a wild labyrinth. 

There’s a reason for these incredible high quality bursts of color. 

In 2011, a 16 year old boy, Diego Felipe Becerra was shot by police when he was spray painting his signature cat, Felix, on a public wall. As you can imagine the people were furious and many protests ensued. 

The situation briefly escalated once more in the following year, when Justin Bieber visited Bogotá during his South America tour. He decided to paint his own mural under a bridge pass, depicting the Canadian flag, with a marijuana leaf replacing the classic maple. He had a police escort with him and the whole event was televised live around the city.

As you can imagine the artists and general public were irate especially since Diego had been shot in the same area just six months prior. It was clear to them that the recent police crack-down on graffiti was more about where you came from and less about the act of vandalization itself. They organized a 24-hour street art marathon in protest, with around 300 local artists in attending.

As a result, legislation was passed making it legal to create graffiti on buildings. 

Probably the most significant venue we visited was Puente Aranda Distrito where there is a University and many old warehouse.Interestingly while Columbia and it’s major cities have become some of the safest urban environments in the world.  This area is one where our tour leader was aware of gangs on motorcycles, who swoop in to snag cameras and bags. He hired a couple of security guards to watch us so we could photograph at leisure. As are result I felt very comfortable. Totally safe. 

The two long blocks of warehouses with incredible art had me enthralled. Here are a few examples.  It was a gray and gloomy day so the art work probably didn’t pop as much as it would have if we had had sunshine. 

I also enjoyed seeing the police station with very small figures painted around it. What an incredible contrast to the huge scale of most of the art work on the street. 

I’d be remiss in not sharing this one.  

The Columbians even paint the utility poles.

Of course we saw lots of bursts of color from our bus window as we made our way around town.  Sometimes it was hard to capture from a moving vehicle, but I found the art on stores and businesses very appealing.  

I learned that it is “not cool” to paint over another artists’s work, so many property owners hired accomplished artists to paint on their buildings discouraging people from less professional work. 

As a result, street art has become a form of cultural expression, a way to share stories and form a sense of community. 

Another interesting venue providing an example was outside a church in a former salt mine where a labyrinth was painted creatively. What a fun way to explore a maze. 

As a result, street art has become a form of cultural expression, a way to share stories and form a sense of community.

And then there’s the ones that made me laugh….. 

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