I took this picture on my second-last day in Bogotá. I love that the lovers are portrayed as old. The piece is called El Beso de los Invisibles- the Kiss of the Invisibles. It’s based on a photo by a journalist of 2 homeless lovers, Hernán and Diana, living in Bogotá’s ‘Bronx’. It was painted over 6 days by a team of 5 graffiti artists from Colombia & Peru, including…
Tag: bogota
ecobarrios bogotá, a reflection
Meeting in San Cristóbal, 25 Jan 2014 @ 9 am. We arrive. There is a group of people clearing the bushes and branches surrounding a particular house. Apparently, a group of thieves/drug users had taken up in the house and this is a way to increase visibility for community scrutiny and improved safety. I am impressed at the group effort evident. Young and old with machetes in hand. The meeting…
uses and abuses
The ab/use of the term ecobarrios. I wanted to know how people in informal settlements and in urban marginalities understood the environment. How they made the environmental movement theirs. Pues, here it is. Whatever I thought eco-neighbourhoods are imagined to be, are not what they are here. What was in the article, was simply the articulation of the elements of ecobarrios, with no application of these elements on the ground-…
first night
We walked up, We kept walking up. I was sure I would never leave the place- What? And suffer this treacherous walk again? No way. Slightly drunk- it was the holidays- he stumblingly stopped, at a dark spot on the curved road. Dark because of the ravine, from which shot up tall tall trees. Dark too because it was night. I half-feared for my luggage, So close was he to…
a meeting
Drinks in hand, Director with lives in his as well. Gestor, hopes and dreams in his- And they fly everywhere- An effort at transferring these intangible tangibilities Into our hands, into the director’s. Young man, bright looking- So much responsibility. Eco-hotel. Tourists. Sips. Stories. Of a land that rejected those who had left it. Somos amigos. Aqui sabemos vivir con riesgo.
detour
Remember when I wondered why I hadn’t gone to Colombia? Well I decided to go to Bogotá after all – I will be spending a month, beginning tomorrow, in the eco-neighbourhood project in the neighbourhoods in the east of Bogotá en Los Cerros Oriantales. (After which I will come back to Santo Domingo). I want to visit with them and learn how they managed to keep going with an eco-neighbourhood…