Medellin's Murals
This chapter will differ from my other Road Less Taken chapters in that the narrative will be limited, and the content will consist primarily of photos of Medellin’s street art. Please note that the smaller pictures can be expanded to full screen by clicking on them with your mouse. Enjoy!
During my 2018 trip to Medellin, I toured Medellin’s Communa 13 and posted photographs of some of the murals I found there. Communa 13 was previously held, off and on By FARC, the revolutionary insurgents during Colombia’s civil war. After the government had negotiated a peace treaty with FARC, it began to spend money in the area with new schools, a youth center and escalators that carried people between Communa 13 and the city below though the communa remains one of the poorer areas in Medellin. The communa was also spruced up with a large number of wall murals which were usually painted by community youth groups. This chapter revisits these murals and posts some of the best ones. In 2018 I also photographed murals in the Poblado neighborhood, a relatively wealthy neighborhood that harbors many tourists and ex-pats living permanently in Medellin.
I returned to Medellin in 2021 when COVID restrictions were lifted and my first photo-shoot was in Poblado where the mural that begins this post had been painted over with new a one. I posted these 2021 Poblado photos on Facebook, and now re-post them here in this chapter in order to provide a full picture of Medellin’s murals.
In 2021-22 I also spent a few days photographing the murals in the Industriales neighborhood where I discovered even more spectacular murals than I had found in Communa 13 three years earlier. Many of these I have not previously posted on Facebook.
Industriales originally resembled its name. It was a district of warehouses and factories. Industriales has changed since it first gained its name. It now includes two huge shopping plazas, the modern art museum, 21st century office buildings, one of the ten best hospitals in South America, and a stand alone mall that contains nothing except specialty restaurants. There are, however, many old warehouse walls still standing where artists can exhibit their art. Below are those I found one quiet Sunday morning:
I have probably only shown a small percentage of Medellin’s murals. I hope you enjoyed seeing them as much as I did photographing them.
