Several giant portraits have gone up on the rooftops and walls of a Medellin neighborhood as part of a project to decrease crime and violence in a deprived part of the city.
Local heroes now gaze down at the residents of Comuna 1 from posters measuring 26ft by 20ft and 16ft by 22ft, in the northeast of Colombia’s second-largest city. One of the heroes is Doña Emiliana Ojendo, a stylish 90-something-year old, and mother of 14 children.
“People from the neighborhood looking at the images and interacting with them,” is the aim of the exhibition, according to Felipe Mesa, one of the photographers of the project. He told Colombia Reports that the locations of the portraits were strategically chosen, such as areas where two rival gangs were vying for control. “[We chose] places where people couldn’t go from one place to another. The aim of the project is to eliminate invisible barriers,” he said.
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JR, a French graffiti artist and photographer who won the TED prize 2011, set people around the world the challenge of pasting giant prints of something important to them, in what he called the Inside Out project.
The Peace and Reconciliation Program, a national initiative which works to reduce violence and promote community integration, heeded his call. They asked Heroes without Borders, a Medellin-collective dedicated to promoting tolerance and legality among young people, to take the photos. Local residents deemed by their peers to be heroes of the community were chosen as the subjects.
Carrying out this project in an area so used to violence had its complications. The photoshoots took place in a school so as not to cause too much commotion in the neighborhood.
Even going to and from the school, members of the collective had to wear bullet-proof vests with the Peace and Reconciliation Program logo. The community artists also had to contend with long days in hot weather.
Mesa also said that one of the challenges “was gaining the trust of the people, the kids, the heroes. To do this “while taking the photos [we were] asking permission, telling people what was going on.
“Just by giving their approval and telling others in the neighborhood what was going on, the local residents supported and helped the project.”
Popular 1 is home to a large number of demobilized paramilitary fighters. Lina Maria Alvarez of the Peace and Reconciliation Program from Medellin’s Mayor’s Office told Colombia Reports that Comuna 1 children as young as eight are receiving an education in violence. In 2010 a student from the local high school was killed in a gang related incident.
Alvarez said that the project could be extended to other violent neighborhoods such as Comuna 13. Mesa said “We hope we can do this in other neighborhoods where Peace and Reconciliation are working and that we can get support from private companies.”
Felipe Mesa told Colombia Reports that the is for the photos to send a positive message. “This is an exhibition of the street open for all Medellin to see.