From February 18 to March 6, 2022, it is on the Caribbean coast of Colombia that our team met again with Lili, Mugre and SEPC, our three Colombian muralists, after the completion of the first part of our project : “When street art re-enchants Saint-Denis”.
First stop in Dibulla, near the Sierra Nevada which culminates at almost 6,000 meters above sea level, the fishing village is in a superb location in the northeast of Colombia, on the edge of the Caribbean Sea. A beauty which should not however mask its socio-economic issues. Malnourishment, prostituted girls, pregnant minors… these difficulties affect especially the indigenous and Afro-Colombian populations as well as the migrants. There Artivista worked with the association Pro Familia, which supports young people suffering from sexual abuse and arranged marriages. The idea behind this collaboration was to offer, through art, a new tool of expression to the children of this community. The second part takes us to Barranquilla, a mecca of Caribbean culture. It is in the neighborhood of La Luz, a place of insecurity and violence, that we worked with the Foundation La Cuadra Bacana and the Institucion Educativa de la Luz, which replace the state institutions that have forsaken the inhabitants.
On the menu? Twelve frescoes made in two schools, on the walls of a parish house and along a street, that is to say more than 600 m2 of paintings. For this, there was the artists, but also sixty additional hands, those of schoolchildren, students and volunteers. Moreover, there were five workshops for a hundred children and teenagers, on the theme of the body, differences, listening and dreams, participatory frescoes and festive moments to complete the picture.
But this is not only about numbers, most importantly, it is about many moments of joy, parties, and dances that we have shared, many smiles that we have exchanged and many generous and warm people that we have met.
