Chota 13 y Comuna 13

The evolution of Chota's artwork is also the evolution and transformation of Comuna 13. There, it has a privileged spot from which to observe the city and the way colors have given a new face to these western slopes of Medellín. When this maze of houses and alleys was disputed by armed men, Chota was just a child locked in his own fears. That experience was enough for him to gather the courage needed so that years later he could change the face of the facades of Independencias number 1 through street art, along with 10 other artists from the area. They, starting in 2008, began by making Christmas decorations. And people liked it so much that it became a tradition until 2012. During that time, they always came together to beautify the neighborhood and to express the feelings of its inhabitants on its walls. The inauguration of the escalators, which coincided with that year, gave another boost to the initiative because it not only broke the imaginary fears, but also began to show the more humane side of its people.

"Ángel Ortiz, who is a professor at the University of Antioquia, resumed the artistic project of painting the facades that are at the edge of the escalators, some of the retaining walls, and we, as empirical artists from the neighborhood, decided to support them. It was a process that took about 2 months."

A wake-up call for him as an artist, because the walls of anonymity and clandestinity then turned into a festival of expression. His neighbors and the artists took advantage of the moment to draw their dreams, their hopes, and for those walls to also serve as a collective memory, of those grim nights they never wished to feel again.

"Most of all, what we do is like, involve animals, moments of hope, strength, so that people can visualize themselves in another way but with part of that history. So, we want those walls to be like more artistic graffitis and that the walls, in addition to serving the function of dividing the internal and the external, also come to life, take on memory, and now are those spaces that are being recreated in the neighborhood to get to know."

In 2014 other artists joined, and the gallery began to grow. As the colors and hopes began to grow, there was no stopping it.

"Then artists from the city wanted to come and take a bit of ownership of the space. They also began to intervene and the boom in art, commerce, entrepreneurship, and local guides really started in 2017."

The matter diversified so much that this chromatic and multifaceted spectrum extended through the slopes and people began to join it with other attractions, eventually turning into the famous Graffitour 13, which before the pandemic drew about 20,000 people a week, many of them foreigners. Chota calls from this balcony because inside he has put together a diverse gallery. Where not only does he sell part of his work on canvases, but there is also a mural that interprets the memory of Comuna 13.

"For us, the elephant is very important because the elephant is among the animals that tend to have more memory, they do not forget, they stay united among them in the community, and that's what we're made of here in Comuna 13. We also see part of a broken tusk, a part of a tusk that continues. These are like part of those sequels of the history of what we have lived through, and the complete tusk is part of that overcoming. Here we see a slightly smaller elephant, as if asking for some of that hope. It's what we're made of right now."

"Normally I have my catalog, so in the catalog, all the people of what I've done, the meaning of many things, and in this way, we have that dialogue to be able to personalize something. Right? Normally I paint with acrylics the subject of the paintings."

And from his balcony, or from the mural, or from the stairs, Chota waits, a new opportunity for his art and for his people