WEBVTT

00:00:13.388 --> 00:00:16.933
In Colombia we\'ve had such a hard time
creating a collective imagination of peace.

00:00:17.225 --> 00:00:19.811
Whereas our imagination of war
is very clear.

00:00:21.396 --> 00:00:24.274
It\'s a violent story,
and it\'s a violent culture.

00:00:25.442 --> 00:00:28.695
It\'s a culture where
the street is a central element.

00:00:29.070 --> 00:00:31.614
The idea of demonstrating
in the street seemed very distant,

00:00:31.781 --> 00:00:34.242
and we had to take
many precautions.

00:00:35.035 --> 00:00:37.412
People are interested
in sending a message,

00:00:37.495 --> 00:00:38.580
in stating a position.

00:00:38.788 --> 00:00:40.957
Not just sharing
a pretty image.

00:00:41.166 --> 00:00:43.043
But saying:
\"This is what I think,

00:00:43.334 --> 00:00:45.253
and I want it to be clear.\"

00:00:46.296 --> 00:00:48.256
Today I consider it the fifth…

00:00:48.506 --> 00:00:50.383
the fifth element
of mass communication.

00:00:50.467 --> 00:00:52.927
Radio, press, television,
internet, and…

00:00:53.303 --> 00:00:54.220
…and murals.

00:00:59.267 --> 00:01:02.062
♪ They call me this and that
\'cos I live my way ♪

00:01:02.395 --> 00:01:04.814
♪ I get dirty in this life
as if it were mug ♪

00:01:04.898 --> 00:01:07.442
♪ I try, I go
if it fails, screw me ♪

00:01:07.650 --> 00:01:10.195
♪ Always faithful to my desire
elbow to elbow ♪

00:01:10.320 --> 00:01:12.489
♪ The north takes me away
the north is mine ♪

00:01:12.572 --> 00:01:15.075
♪ I write it
every morning is a challenge ♪

00:01:15.158 --> 00:01:17.160
♪ I breathe, I watch and I trust ♪

00:01:17.202 --> 00:01:19.954
♪ And when the night comes
I stare at the moon and smile ♪

00:01:19.996 --> 00:01:22.123
♪ Nomad life
wherever life ♪

00:01:22.332 --> 00:01:24.667
♪ Lighter life
live your way ♪

00:01:24.834 --> 00:01:27.420
♪ Live carefree
live as you want ♪

00:01:27.504 --> 00:01:30.548
♪ Don\'t let anybody set your horizon
or the border ♪

00:01:30.673 --> 00:01:32.967
♪ Live without boss
live without master ♪

00:01:33.009 --> 00:01:35.470
♪ I\'m led by the beat
of my heart ♪

00:01:35.512 --> 00:01:37.889
♪ I ride the wind
and this song ♪

00:01:38.014 --> 00:01:40.809
♪ They say I\'m lost
I say revolution ♪

00:02:24.394 --> 00:02:28.106
The walls represent
the power of the city.

00:02:28.565 --> 00:02:30.358
Particularly in Cali,

00:02:30.650 --> 00:02:34.654
there are many political,
aesthetic, ethical interests

00:02:34.696 --> 00:02:36.489
behind the walls,
in the territories.

00:02:37.031 --> 00:02:40.535
I see walls as an excellent
means of communication.

00:02:41.077 --> 00:02:43.955
I intend to fill the social
communication gaps we have.

00:02:44.247 --> 00:02:46.332
Here in Colombia.
And in my territory.

00:02:48.668 --> 00:02:51.546
Right now in Cali, I see
there\'s a big boom.

00:02:51.588 --> 00:02:54.591
But it has
to be steered…

00:02:54.883 --> 00:02:57.302
away from just painting
for the sake of painting,

00:02:57.427 --> 00:02:59.262
or painting for the spaces
to look pretty,

00:02:59.387 --> 00:03:02.807
toward painting because…
it sends a message,

00:03:03.141 --> 00:03:04.767
a strong and powerful
message for people.

00:03:04.934 --> 00:03:06.644
The goal is for people
to understand it.

00:03:06.728 --> 00:03:07.979
And question themselves.

00:03:08.146 --> 00:03:11.816
And say \"Of course,
this is happening in the country…

00:03:12.150 --> 00:03:14.110
They’re violating
my rights.”

00:03:16.946 --> 00:03:18.448
There\'s a context for each mural.

00:03:19.908 --> 00:03:21.326
They\'re strategic.

00:03:21.409 --> 00:03:24.787
There are murals that,
depending on where they\'re placed,

00:03:24.829 --> 00:03:26.289
change completely.

00:03:26.581 --> 00:03:29.751
There have always been
disputes over… some territories.

00:03:30.043 --> 00:03:31.544
The main roads…

00:03:31.669 --> 00:03:34.047
I’ve often seen
paintings under the bridges,

00:03:34.130 --> 00:03:35.715
and they come back and cover them…

00:03:35.798 --> 00:03:37.050
I’ve lost count.

00:03:37.926 --> 00:03:40.136
This is a very important
place in the city,

00:03:40.178 --> 00:03:41.971
because it’s
the Students’ Park.

00:03:42.513 --> 00:03:45.975
People gather to talk,
conspire, create,

00:03:46.351 --> 00:03:49.020
To think about cities
from their places in society:

00:03:49.062 --> 00:03:51.940
as students, artists,
common people.

00:03:52.649 --> 00:03:54.484
Here everyone wants
to erase memory,

00:03:54.567 --> 00:03:56.444
so here in the
Students’ Park,

00:03:56.569 --> 00:03:59.447
they installed that statue over there,

00:03:59.530 --> 00:04:01.866
a lady who was mentally ill,

00:04:02.533 --> 00:04:06.412
the bourgeoisie maintained her,
gave her clothes,

00:04:06.746 --> 00:04:09.499
just to make fun of her,
and they made her an icon of Cali.

00:04:09.916 --> 00:04:11.501
And the lady died a while ago,

00:04:11.542 --> 00:04:13.878
and then they brought her here,
Crazy Jovita.

00:04:14.087 --> 00:04:16.631
So people don\'t call it \"Students’ Park\" anymore,

00:04:16.756 --> 00:04:19.884
they say \"let\'s go to Jovita\'s Park\".

00:04:20.051 --> 00:04:22.262
So that\'s why I call it
a \"memory eraser\".

00:04:25.223 --> 00:04:26.975
The idea is
to resignify that,

00:04:27.016 --> 00:04:28.643
to write \"Students’ Park\",

00:04:28.893 --> 00:04:30.478
and try to remove
the Crazy Lady from here.

00:04:33.398 --> 00:04:35.775
We’re in Cali
with the best graffiti writers…

00:04:37.360 --> 00:04:38.653
…in the city.

00:04:38.987 --> 00:04:41.447
In this emblematic park,
called Students’ Park,

00:04:41.531 --> 00:04:42.907
now called \"Jovita\".

00:04:44.200 --> 00:04:45.743
Blessings to you all.

00:04:45.910 --> 00:04:47.954
And remember to turn up the color,
cover your face,

00:04:48.037 --> 00:04:50.164
and hear the \"clip-clap\",
a minute of silence,

00:04:50.248 --> 00:04:53.209
don\'t take out the spray,
we\'re soldiers in the streets,

00:04:53.418 --> 00:04:55.420
tattooed, narrated by MCs,
right now,

00:04:55.503 --> 00:04:57.922
telling ghetto stories
in your face, you know,

00:04:57.922 --> 00:04:58.798
first stroke,

00:04:58.923 --> 00:05:00.633
life is a process,
not a failure,

00:05:00.717 --> 00:05:03.094
don\'t let it slip
if you don\'t have something clear,

00:05:03.136 --> 00:05:05.096
first prepare the idea,
write and read,

00:05:05.179 --> 00:05:06.347
what the heart pumps,

00:05:06.389 --> 00:05:08.474
and then tag
to create odysseys.

00:05:23.614 --> 00:05:26.409
Graffiti, in Cali,
in Colombia, for me…

00:05:26.492 --> 00:05:29.871
the basis is protest graffiti,

00:05:29.912 --> 00:05:32.665
that of phrases, political messages.

00:05:32.957 --> 00:05:35.877
The social side
is always relevant,

00:05:36.294 --> 00:05:38.087
the defense of the territory,

00:05:38.463 --> 00:05:41.299
or the peasant marches,
and the strikes,

00:05:41.424 --> 00:05:43.551
that\'s reflected on the walls too.

00:05:44.344 --> 00:05:47.847
Then later
hip-hop graffiti arrived,

00:05:48.181 --> 00:05:50.516
more graffiti artists
began to appear,

00:05:50.558 --> 00:05:52.185
among them Somos,

00:05:52.310 --> 00:05:54.854
who at some point
completely covered Cali.

00:06:01.736 --> 00:06:03.821
In the streets
many people asked:

00:06:03.905 --> 00:06:05.573
\"What\'s that
\'Somos\' (We Are) thing?\"

00:06:06.074 --> 00:06:08.701
What “are we”?
Why \"Somos\"?

00:06:08.785 --> 00:06:09.869
Why do you write ‘Somos\'?”

00:06:09.911 --> 00:06:11.287
It turns out that the human being

00:06:11.329 --> 00:06:14.374
doesn\'t flow
with the wisdom of nature.

00:06:14.624 --> 00:06:17.001
We generate a lot of friction.

00:06:17.502 --> 00:06:20.171
And part of that is because
we don\'t recognize ourselves

00:06:20.546 --> 00:06:21.714
as what we are.

00:06:21.923 --> 00:06:24.550
As human beings,
as indigenous,

00:06:24.675 --> 00:06:26.260
as Afro…

00:06:26.427 --> 00:06:29.597
So, the word \"somos\" (we are)

00:06:29.764 --> 00:06:32.475
helps us create
our identity.

00:07:00.128 --> 00:07:01.754
University of Valle

00:07:01.838 --> 00:07:04.382
is a space that has been
reappropriated by the community.

00:07:05.007 --> 00:07:08.136
So, the city is full
of the walls of the powerful,

00:07:08.428 --> 00:07:09.595
the untouchable walls,

00:07:10.263 --> 00:07:13.391
but the walls of this university
can be touched.

00:07:20.940 --> 00:07:23.901
A lot of thinkers converge here,

00:07:24.110 --> 00:07:27.989
not only the people
who study there,

00:07:28.030 --> 00:07:30.366
but also external thinkers,

00:07:30.450 --> 00:07:32.952
who find, within the campus,

00:07:33.035 --> 00:07:36.164
a free space
to generate discussions,

00:07:36.205 --> 00:07:39.167
to generate knowledge,

00:07:39.417 --> 00:07:41.794
to weave social changes.

00:07:43.045 --> 00:07:45.798
That\'s why the walls of
this university have remained.

00:07:45.882 --> 00:07:48.009
Because they’re out of reach
to the powerful.

00:07:48.176 --> 00:07:50.595
I mean, what you painted
at University of Valle,

00:07:50.845 --> 00:07:52.763
was something
that could stay there.

00:08:01.355 --> 00:08:03.149
We painted a character

00:08:03.191 --> 00:08:04.817
that’s very emblematic

00:08:05.151 --> 00:08:07.487
for indigenous communities in Colombia.

00:08:08.279 --> 00:08:10.031
Manuel Quintín Lame.

00:08:11.574 --> 00:08:13.075
Originally from the Nasa people,

00:08:13.367 --> 00:08:16.996
he has represented the struggles
of indigenous communities

00:08:17.038 --> 00:08:20.374
for land liberation,
the recovery of the territory.

00:08:20.625 --> 00:08:22.502
He was unjustly imprisoned,

00:08:23.127 --> 00:08:25.129
a long time,
and while in jail,

00:08:25.379 --> 00:08:27.215
he became a lawyer
and defended himself.

00:08:27.548 --> 00:08:29.842
And he was able to get out,
and be free again,

00:08:29.926 --> 00:08:33.638
and continue the struggle
for land recovery.

00:08:37.725 --> 00:08:39.977
When you ask
any young person

00:08:40.061 --> 00:08:42.813
who are the top 10
soccer players in the world,

00:08:42.980 --> 00:08:44.190
they know 20.

00:08:45.149 --> 00:08:48.361
But when you tell them:
“Tell me 10 indigenous women

00:08:48.444 --> 00:08:52.240
that have marked the history
of this community”,

00:08:52.823 --> 00:08:53.533
well…

00:08:54.659 --> 00:08:56.744
No.
Or the history of Colombia…

00:08:56.869 --> 00:08:59.539
No, they don\'t know.
Or 10 Afro leaders.

00:08:59.997 --> 00:09:02.124
No, they don\'t know them either.

00:09:02.416 --> 00:09:04.627
The point is,
there’s no media visibility.

00:09:05.169 --> 00:09:07.797
And Manuel’s story,

00:09:07.922 --> 00:09:10.716
it\'s a story that
the Nasa people know very well,

00:09:11.008 --> 00:09:12.635
and wear as a badge,

00:09:12.677 --> 00:09:14.595
and other
indigenous peoples,

00:09:14.762 --> 00:09:17.473
also recognize, in the figure
of Manuel Quintín Lame,

00:09:17.598 --> 00:09:20.268
a leader who opened the doors
for struggle and resistance

00:09:20.309 --> 00:09:22.061
for the indigenous peoples
of Latin America.

00:09:32.321 --> 00:09:34.490
A moment that
I feel was decisive,

00:09:34.824 --> 00:09:38.202
was when the \'minga\' of indigenous
people from Cauca arrived,

00:09:38.286 --> 00:09:40.246
in 2008, in Cali.

00:09:40.830 --> 00:09:42.081
We were there,

00:09:42.248 --> 00:09:44.292
and I began to meet
all these people

00:09:44.417 --> 00:09:46.377
who were from the
University of Valle Assembly.

00:09:47.545 --> 00:09:50.339
And then I started
to get more involved

00:09:50.840 --> 00:09:53.467
in the politics
of the community,

00:09:54.552 --> 00:09:57.221
its connection
with their spirituality,

00:09:57.638 --> 00:10:00.433
working with the
indigenous communities,

00:10:01.350 --> 00:10:03.644
I started to invite
other people, so…

00:10:04.312 --> 00:10:05.855
I invited Somos,

00:10:05.938 --> 00:10:07.690
I told him
\"Let\'s go to Cauca.\"

00:10:37.303 --> 00:10:40.514
When I arrived, I found
something very beautiful,

00:10:40.681 --> 00:10:45.561
the mountains, the people,
with their tongue,

00:10:45.853 --> 00:10:47.271
a very beautiful town,

00:10:47.438 --> 00:10:51.609
we decided to stay
and take a chance on this territory.

00:10:53.736 --> 00:10:56.405
When you arrive
in a rural place,

00:10:56.781 --> 00:10:59.492
a little town, a village,

00:11:00.201 --> 00:11:04.497
where nobody has ever
painted a mural before,

00:11:04.580 --> 00:11:07.208
or stopped by
to leave a message,

00:11:07.667 --> 00:11:10.753
and you come and do it,
they welcome you.

00:11:11.045 --> 00:11:13.464
Because I think
our country, Colombia

00:11:13.881 --> 00:11:15.508
is still very rural.

00:11:24.308 --> 00:11:26.811
We have a great
diversity of villages,

00:11:26.977 --> 00:11:29.105
and of people
who live in rural areas.

00:11:29.188 --> 00:11:32.900
And very little intervention
comes to these areas

00:11:33.067 --> 00:11:35.611
from the State
and other institutions.

00:11:35.820 --> 00:11:41.283
The fact that people
with talent arrive…

00:11:41.492 --> 00:11:45.162
the willingness to put
some color in these spaces,

00:11:45.413 --> 00:11:48.541
is already a great effort.

00:11:48.624 --> 00:11:50.084
Just by getting there,

00:11:50.376 --> 00:11:53.421
people are contented, they’re glad,

00:11:53.754 --> 00:11:54.964
when they see that,

00:11:55.089 --> 00:11:58.008
besides coming to visit them,
that person leaves a message.

00:12:10.438 --> 00:12:12.940
We knew the conflict
they were going through,

00:12:13.023 --> 00:12:16.193
not only in this territory,
but in the entire country.

00:12:17.236 --> 00:12:19.488
The people from the cities
don\'t know what\'s going on,

00:12:20.072 --> 00:12:21.490
here in this territory.

00:12:25.119 --> 00:12:27.329
They brought me
along with other artists,

00:12:27.413 --> 00:12:30.833
to cover a wall
of about 40 meters,

00:12:31.000 --> 00:12:34.044
where the faces of
the commanders were painted.

00:12:38.007 --> 00:12:41.302
When one enters a territory,
just by seeing what\'s painted,

00:12:41.427 --> 00:12:43.763
one immediately realizes
the history of that territory.

00:12:45.598 --> 00:12:48.809
The Colombian United Self-Defense Forces
on the South Pacific coast,

00:12:48.893 --> 00:12:51.270
they showed up spraying,

00:12:51.395 --> 00:12:53.105
there was one person
within their group

00:12:53.397 --> 00:12:55.024
who always carried spray paint,

00:12:56.901 --> 00:12:58.861
to mark their territory.

00:13:03.741 --> 00:13:06.786
PAIN HAS NO COLOR

00:13:08.871 --> 00:13:11.207
The first thing they did
was scribble on a wall, saying:

00:13:11.290 --> 00:13:13.250
\"Fucking snitches,
we\'re going to kill you.\"

00:13:14.293 --> 00:13:17.421
As soon as they arrived, they wrote that,
and nobody could erase it.

00:13:18.422 --> 00:13:20.549
So it was a death threat,

00:13:20.674 --> 00:13:22.218
clearly written on a wall,

00:13:22.259 --> 00:13:24.804
and you can still find
these messages.

00:13:25.346 --> 00:13:27.473
They were marking the territory…

00:13:27.890 --> 00:13:29.308
with messages of terror.

00:13:29.600 --> 00:13:33.521
Just as other guerrilla or revolutionary
groups, FARC, EPL, ELN,

00:13:33.938 --> 00:13:35.731
and religious groups…

00:13:36.190 --> 00:13:38.818
the walls of the rural territories

00:13:39.109 --> 00:13:43.614
show which groups of power
are over them in that conflict.

00:13:47.451 --> 00:13:50.913
The M19 was a group
whose actions were graffiti.

00:13:51.288 --> 00:13:54.500
They started
their revolutionary act,

00:13:54.667 --> 00:13:56.126
stealing Bolivar\'s sword.

00:13:56.210 --> 00:13:57.586
That is a graffiti act.

00:13:58.212 --> 00:14:00.673
Imagine,
the Libertador\'s sword!

00:14:01.090 --> 00:14:04.051
And they kept it,
and then they returned it.

00:14:04.468 --> 00:14:06.303
And they put ads
in the press,

00:14:06.345 --> 00:14:08.514
\"It\'s coming, it itches,
it bothers you,

00:14:08.556 --> 00:14:10.474
it\'s a poison,
the M19 is coming”,

00:14:10.724 --> 00:14:12.768
using the media.

00:14:13.602 --> 00:14:15.896
They have successfully
sold us their propaganda…

00:14:16.105 --> 00:14:17.690
about who the guerrilla groups are.

00:14:18.065 --> 00:14:21.735
The press has discredited
social struggles and achievements

00:14:21.819 --> 00:14:24.864
achieved by the revolutionary
groups in Colombia.

00:14:30.619 --> 00:14:32.955
Because now that we are in the peace process,

00:14:33.289 --> 00:14:34.623
Everybody asks:

00:14:34.915 --> 00:14:36.917
”Why did the guerrillas appear?”

00:14:37.543 --> 00:14:39.628
Everybody\'s wondering,

00:14:39.837 --> 00:14:41.672
“What was the history

00:14:41.964 --> 00:14:44.425
that produced
these guerilla groups?\"

00:14:44.633 --> 00:14:46.343
Where did they come from,
and why.

00:14:46.802 --> 00:14:49.179
You have to go back to the 40s.

00:14:49.555 --> 00:14:52.224
To the death of the great leader
Jorge Eliecer Gaitán.

00:14:52.433 --> 00:14:55.227
These liberal and conservative
governments,

00:14:55.311 --> 00:14:57.187
especially the conservative ones,

00:14:57.354 --> 00:14:59.523
that were very fascist governments,

00:15:00.024 --> 00:15:01.984
prevented the people
from receiving an education.

00:15:02.359 --> 00:15:03.903
The people were alienated

00:15:04.028 --> 00:15:07.364
by the symbols of
two antagonistic parties.

00:15:07.573 --> 00:15:09.742
Either you’re liberal,
or you’re conservative.

00:15:09.867 --> 00:15:13.162
And the government of
Ospina Pérez and Laureano,

00:15:13.245 --> 00:15:16.832
created a police force
that were murderous police.

00:15:16.916 --> 00:15:18.834
Everyone who was liberal
was killed,

00:15:19.001 --> 00:15:23.297
no matter whether they were children,
pregnant women, whatever.

00:15:24.423 --> 00:15:29.386
We had 300,000 dead from the
liberals vs. conservatives struggle.

00:15:30.679 --> 00:15:32.389
Landowners paid…

00:15:33.015 --> 00:15:35.100
hired killers
who they called \"birds\",

00:15:35.476 --> 00:15:38.437
to kill the leaders,
because by killing the leaders

00:15:38.812 --> 00:15:41.023
they could end
the indigenous movement.

00:15:41.732 --> 00:15:43.400
The first Self Defense appeared,

00:15:43.609 --> 00:15:45.235
with a character that marked

00:15:45.277 --> 00:15:46.362
the history of Colombia,

00:15:46.445 --> 00:15:49.156
Manuel Marulanda Vélez, aka \"Tirofijo\".

00:15:49.406 --> 00:15:52.993
He said “After Gaitan’s death,
our life totally changed,

00:15:53.077 --> 00:15:55.454
and I won’t let them come

00:15:55.454 --> 00:15:57.456
and rape my wife, my children, my mother. “

00:15:57.539 --> 00:16:01.168
And he began to organize
among his cousins, his friends,

00:16:01.335 --> 00:16:03.671
with old shotguns,
whatever,

00:16:03.796 --> 00:16:07.633
and that was the first resistance,
which later gave rise to the guerrillas.

00:16:37.538 --> 00:16:41.834
The FARC, since its inception,
since they were founded,

00:16:42.001 --> 00:16:44.294
searched for these territories

00:16:44.378 --> 00:16:46.630
because they’re very strategic.

00:16:47.131 --> 00:16:51.301
The war intensified
in our territory,

00:16:51.385 --> 00:16:54.346
in the 1980s, more or less,

00:16:54.471 --> 00:16:57.433
at the time of
President Álvaro Uribe.

00:17:03.647 --> 00:17:08.193
He lashed out with much more force,
with the paramilitaries,

00:17:08.318 --> 00:17:12.448
many leaders were killed
by the FARC,

00:17:12.531 --> 00:17:13.991
and also by the police…

00:17:14.158 --> 00:17:17.161
But the war had us…
even though we resisted,

00:17:17.202 --> 00:17:18.912
we had to hide,

00:17:18.996 --> 00:17:21.957
we had to lower our heads
in front of any armed people.

00:17:22.124 --> 00:17:25.419
But at some point
some elders said:

00:17:25.711 --> 00:17:27.963
\"If we don\'t talk, they kill us.

00:17:28.213 --> 00:17:30.090
If we talk, they kill us.

00:17:30.299 --> 00:17:34.219
So we prefer to die talking\".

00:17:34.344 --> 00:17:37.473
And the Indigenous Guard
strengthened.

00:17:40.517 --> 00:17:43.604
The Indigenous Guard was born as…
a process of territorial autonomy

00:17:43.604 --> 00:17:45.022
of the Nasa people.

00:17:45.147 --> 00:17:48.942
They trained and prepared
people in the community,

00:17:49.109 --> 00:17:51.278
to fulfill authority functions.

00:17:51.445 --> 00:17:53.447
So they’re people
who have a distinctive feature,

00:17:53.489 --> 00:17:55.949
a red and green scarf.

00:17:56.200 --> 00:17:57.659
Those are the colors of the CRIC,

00:17:57.743 --> 00:17:59.912
the Indigenous Regional Council of Cauca.

00:18:04.792 --> 00:18:07.836
You can see the Indigenous Guard
building a checkpoint,

00:18:07.961 --> 00:18:09.880
for example,
for territorial control.

00:18:10.089 --> 00:18:11.757
\"Where are you going?\",
\"Who are you?\"

00:18:12.049 --> 00:18:15.969
To expel military forces,
revolutionary forces.

00:18:16.095 --> 00:18:18.722
Everyone joins together,
you\'ll never see a guard alone,

00:18:18.847 --> 00:18:22.935
instead there’ll be 50, 100,
200, 500, a thousand guards.

00:18:23.060 --> 00:18:25.687
The defense of life is the essential principle,

00:18:25.938 --> 00:18:29.775
therefore the guard
is not an armed guard,

00:18:29.775 --> 00:18:32.319
it\'s not an attack guard,

00:18:32.778 --> 00:18:34.154
it\'s a guard where…

00:18:34.238 --> 00:18:37.366
it\'s understood that there are guards,
but “the guard” is everyone, that is…

00:18:37.658 --> 00:18:40.244
at the moment it\'s required,
I’m also a guard.

00:18:40.994 --> 00:18:43.747
In the Nasa Yuwe language,
\'kiwe thegnas\',

00:18:43.872 --> 00:18:46.416
means the
defender of the land.

00:18:46.500 --> 00:18:50.587
The defender of the land is
something that has transcended.

00:18:50.963 --> 00:18:53.924
A person who, when defending the earth,

00:18:54.216 --> 00:18:55.759
will not use violence.

00:18:56.552 --> 00:18:59.054
There was word that
they had killed two guards,

00:18:59.138 --> 00:19:01.932
and right then we mobilized a thousand people,

00:19:02.432 --> 00:19:03.809
about two thousand people,

00:19:04.434 --> 00:19:07.855
and seven guerrilla fighters were arrested,

00:19:08.480 --> 00:19:10.482
all their armament was taken off,

00:19:10.524 --> 00:19:13.485
and it was burned here,
in a 7,000-people assembly.

00:19:16.029 --> 00:19:18.115
This was destroyed when…

00:19:18.574 --> 00:19:21.451
they did the…
the damage,

00:19:21.577 --> 00:19:22.744
over there on El Tablazo mountain,

00:19:23.078 --> 00:19:27.040
then this was salvaged,
and we cut it all in pieces.

00:19:33.505 --> 00:19:37.467
Look, here are the clothes,
they were burned too.

00:19:38.760 --> 00:19:41.221
These are from several parts
that were taken away from them.

00:19:41.430 --> 00:19:42.973
It\'s not just here,

00:19:43.056 --> 00:19:45.058
because in Corinto
the same thing happened,

00:19:46.018 --> 00:19:47.519
elsewhere…

00:19:48.520 --> 00:19:49.605
so that\'s it.

00:20:06.205 --> 00:20:10.042
In 2011,
this territory was in dispute,

00:20:11.418 --> 00:20:15.172
between the military state forces,
the police,

00:20:15.255 --> 00:20:17.132
and the FARC
revolutionary group.

00:20:17.257 --> 00:20:19.927
And one market day,
they carried out an attack

00:20:20.010 --> 00:20:23.430
where a bus was loaded
with 200 kilos of dynamite,

00:20:23.555 --> 00:20:25.098
and went down this street.

00:20:25.724 --> 00:20:30.979
And when the \"bomb-bus\"
went down this street,

00:20:31.063 --> 00:20:32.272
it exploded here,

00:20:32.981 --> 00:20:36.443
and the explosive wave
destroyed 200 nearby houses.

00:20:39.321 --> 00:20:41.114
The army, the police,

00:20:41.740 --> 00:20:44.785
began to build trenches
in each of these empty houses,

00:20:44.952 --> 00:20:48.372
and began to create
a space of terror,

00:20:48.455 --> 00:20:51.291
where people no longer
walked on the streets,

00:20:51.333 --> 00:20:53.543
and all this began
to become a ghost town.

00:20:59.424 --> 00:21:01.677
Many times,
when you do mural art,

00:21:02.511 --> 00:21:05.555
some artworks
are more satisfying,

00:21:05.597 --> 00:21:08.350
due to different expectations
that you have for them,

00:21:08.684 --> 00:21:10.936
but you also know
that there are murals that…

00:21:11.270 --> 00:21:12.729
will be totally worth it.

00:21:13.105 --> 00:21:16.441
Knowing for example that
you can come to paint a trench,

00:21:16.608 --> 00:21:18.694
they are all
buildings collapsed

00:21:18.735 --> 00:21:20.570
by the explosion
of a bomb.

00:21:20.988 --> 00:21:23.657
That was something that
motivated a lot of people,

00:21:23.699 --> 00:21:25.450
and encouraged them to come here.

00:21:35.252 --> 00:21:36.962
With the muralist \'minga\'
we wanted

00:21:37.045 --> 00:21:38.922
to recover spaces
for the community.

00:21:39.047 --> 00:21:40.966
So, this was a forbidden space,

00:21:41.174 --> 00:21:43.385
you couldn\'t even pass by.

00:21:43.885 --> 00:21:46.638
The last day of the minga,

00:21:46.763 --> 00:21:49.141
a group of some 30 people came

00:21:49.224 --> 00:21:51.184
including guest muralists,

00:21:51.226 --> 00:21:53.603
and also children
and people from the community,

00:21:53.854 --> 00:21:55.814
and we started to take over
these trenches,

00:21:56.023 --> 00:21:58.900
and we began to take over
each of these spaces,

00:21:59.359 --> 00:22:03.071
to recover them,
through imagery.

00:22:03.405 --> 00:22:05.282
And also to have
a direct action

00:22:05.407 --> 00:22:06.742
regarding what had happened.

00:22:06.825 --> 00:22:11.246
And we believe that
through muralism, painting,

00:22:11.413 --> 00:22:14.166
workshops, social work
with the community,

00:22:14.291 --> 00:22:18.962
we could also make our contribution
towards that transformation,

00:22:19.171 --> 00:22:22.758
to achieve the peace
we so long for,

00:22:22.841 --> 00:22:27.304
that through painting,
the kids can…

00:22:29.139 --> 00:22:33.018
forget those bullets a little,
those blasts,

00:22:33.894 --> 00:22:35.645
from the conflict
that happened there,

00:22:36.146 --> 00:22:40.734
and focus on the experience of painting.

00:22:44.946 --> 00:22:46.948
And we were painting
in different places…

00:22:47.324 --> 00:22:49.201
of that whole territory where…

00:22:49.284 --> 00:22:52.954
where a massacre had occurred,
a violent event, but…

00:22:53.080 --> 00:22:56.750
through painting, the environment
was beginning to change.

00:22:57.542 --> 00:22:59.378
Spaces are transformed.

00:23:00.045 --> 00:23:01.963
The collective imagination is transformed.

00:23:02.214 --> 00:23:05.592
People can be healed by painting.

00:23:41.211 --> 00:23:43.338
Many of us who are
painting in the street,

00:23:43.380 --> 00:23:45.632
we bring themes of identity
with us,

00:23:45.715 --> 00:23:47.551
the reclaiming
of popular culture.

00:23:47.884 --> 00:23:51.430
And in a context of capitalist culture,

00:23:51.555 --> 00:23:52.973
this can be read as resistance,

00:23:53.056 --> 00:23:56.059
because we keep proposing
to reclaim what’s human,

00:23:56.309 --> 00:23:59.229
to claim a social sense,

00:23:59.271 --> 00:24:01.356
where relationships
between people

00:24:01.481 --> 00:24:05.735
are not based on the idea
of interest, and surplus value,

00:24:06.027 --> 00:24:09.114
but on human relationships,
solidarity,

00:24:09.364 --> 00:24:10.740
mutually supportive relationships.

00:24:11.491 --> 00:24:14.995
And the vindication of that
genuine and original culture,

00:24:15.203 --> 00:24:16.830
of what we really are.

00:24:19.124 --> 00:24:21.751
I\'ve tried to develop series

00:24:21.877 --> 00:24:25.088
that are symbolic explorations
of issues that are important for me,

00:24:25.505 --> 00:24:28.550
and making them public
seems important to me.

00:24:28.842 --> 00:24:30.927
For example, the vindication

00:24:31.052 --> 00:24:35.182
of the aesthetics and symbolism
of ancestral cultures,

00:24:35.974 --> 00:24:38.518
Colombian and American in general,

00:24:38.852 --> 00:24:44.065
as a proposal to take back
a kind of relationship

00:24:44.483 --> 00:24:48.653
that is more harmonious
and horizontal among beings.

00:24:52.073 --> 00:24:55.744
I also use a lot of
graphic symbolism,

00:24:56.995 --> 00:24:58.079
of those cultures,

00:24:58.163 --> 00:25:00.582
but I don\'t want it to remain
as merely indigenous,

00:25:00.665 --> 00:25:02.959
but I collect
many elements from artisanship,

00:25:03.001 --> 00:25:03.835
popular culture,

00:25:03.960 --> 00:25:05.879
Afro culture,
Caribbean culture.

00:25:18.934 --> 00:25:22.270
There are several interesting things
to think about, from…

00:25:22.521 --> 00:25:25.857
how art has been configured
in general, in Colombia,

00:25:25.982 --> 00:25:27.651
and our political history.

00:25:28.026 --> 00:25:30.445
It\'s a violent story,
and it\'s a violent culture.

00:25:30.737 --> 00:25:33.865
And it\'s a culture that has developed
in relation to politics,

00:25:34.074 --> 00:25:36.243
under perverse logics
of violence.

00:25:36.368 --> 00:25:37.577
And of cronyism,

00:25:37.702 --> 00:25:40.830
and all the problems that we,
as a society, need to solve.

00:25:48.338 --> 00:25:52.008
I’ve had the opportunity
to travel a lot through communities,

00:25:52.259 --> 00:25:54.094
through almost all of Colombia,

00:25:54.219 --> 00:25:57.556
and many places in Latin America,
and elsewhere.

00:25:59.057 --> 00:26:01.059
What matters is the results

00:26:01.226 --> 00:26:03.520
of some relationships
that I’ve had with the communities,

00:26:03.603 --> 00:26:07.482
while accompanying
collective mural creation…

00:26:07.607 --> 00:26:10.860
in rural areas,
in jungle areas,

00:26:11.278 --> 00:26:13.905
or simply working
in neighborhoods in cities.

00:26:21.288 --> 00:26:24.082
Well, muralism,
especially pictorial muralism,

00:26:26.167 --> 00:26:27.711
brings all the strength
of the paint,

00:26:27.836 --> 00:26:29.879
the force of creation
of a new reality,

00:26:30.088 --> 00:26:31.631
and puts it
in a public space,

00:26:31.715 --> 00:26:33.675
so that anyone can see it.

00:26:35.385 --> 00:26:37.596
The power of muralism

00:26:37.846 --> 00:26:39.472
is precisely about refreshing,

00:26:39.681 --> 00:26:44.603
and sensitizing…
the street, and the city,

00:26:44.811 --> 00:26:47.439
which is designed
to be productive,

00:26:47.522 --> 00:26:50.775
for people to produce,
for roads to be fast,

00:26:50.942 --> 00:26:52.944
and I believe that muralism,
is precisely…

00:26:53.069 --> 00:26:56.072
that human sense,
that playful sense,

00:26:56.156 --> 00:26:58.867
and that colorful sense
of what real life is.

00:27:33.902 --> 00:27:35.904
Well, the boom
of urban art in Bogotá,

00:27:36.363 --> 00:27:39.199
has – in my opinion – many causes,

00:27:39.240 --> 00:27:40.992
and has also developed…

00:27:41.117 --> 00:27:43.620
…it has become
a social phenomenon.

00:27:44.162 --> 00:27:45.955
That has also generated…

00:27:46.915 --> 00:27:52.253
greater visibility
for urban art and graffiti,

00:27:52.337 --> 00:27:55.799
as a practice that represents
a living and breathing society.

00:27:56.758 --> 00:27:58.426
The people who are
painting in the street,

00:27:58.510 --> 00:28:00.762
and if you go to a city
that’s painted, like Bogotá,

00:28:00.929 --> 00:28:03.932
you realize it\'s a city
of people who are thinking,

00:28:04.099 --> 00:28:06.351
it\'s like a city’s respiration,
which shows…

00:28:06.893 --> 00:28:08.395
what life in that city is.

00:28:08.812 --> 00:28:10.772
And even more in a city
like Bogotá,

00:28:10.855 --> 00:28:12.691
that\'s so full
of social inequity,

00:28:12.857 --> 00:28:13.983
and great differences,

00:28:14.651 --> 00:28:16.361
It\'s a city that appears to be in chaos.

00:28:30.917 --> 00:28:34.337
Bogotá has suffered…

00:28:35.505 --> 00:28:37.590
hard moments,

00:28:37.674 --> 00:28:41.136
like the murder
of Jorge Eliecer Gaitán,

00:28:41.344 --> 00:28:43.430
the city is semi-destroyed,

00:28:43.680 --> 00:28:44.806
it\'s rebuilt…

00:28:45.348 --> 00:28:46.933
The era of terrorism,

00:28:47.183 --> 00:28:48.476
from drug trafficking.

00:28:48.893 --> 00:28:51.604
A city with a lot of immigration,

00:28:51.730 --> 00:28:53.356
at different times.

00:28:55.483 --> 00:28:58.069
They called Bogotá
\"South America’s Athens\",

00:28:58.194 --> 00:29:01.740
and then they called it
“South America’s Tenaz” (‘Hardcore’),

00:29:01.865 --> 00:29:03.783
because it became something else.

00:29:03.908 --> 00:29:05.869
There was a time when it was planned

00:29:05.910 --> 00:29:07.454
to be a resplendent city,

00:29:07.620 --> 00:29:09.080
but in a moment
that course changed.

00:29:09.372 --> 00:29:11.332
The center of Bogotá,

00:29:11.833 --> 00:29:15.712
from that moment
known as “the Bogotazo”,

00:29:15.920 --> 00:29:17.797
became different
from other cities\' centers.

00:29:17.922 --> 00:29:19.591
It used to be an inhabited center,

00:29:19.924 --> 00:29:22.594
the center of power,

00:29:22.677 --> 00:29:26.055
where the wealthiest
neighborhoods were established.

00:29:26.181 --> 00:29:29.684
No. The center of Bogotá,
after the Bogotazo,

00:29:30.435 --> 00:29:32.228
became the
\"center of terror\".

00:29:36.232 --> 00:29:38.693
The center where everything can happen,

00:29:38.777 --> 00:29:41.988
where everything coexists, prostitution,

00:29:42.113 --> 00:29:46.576
universities, the highest
concentration of work.

00:29:48.620 --> 00:29:51.831
And drug trafficking culture
appeared later,

00:29:51.915 --> 00:29:53.958
which directly marked
everyone\'s life.

00:29:54.125 --> 00:29:56.586
It was even said that
the life of every Colombian

00:29:56.961 --> 00:29:59.923
was related to drug trafficking
in one way or another,

00:29:59.964 --> 00:30:02.467
the economy of the country,
and the victims…

00:30:02.884 --> 00:30:04.719
how the street was experienced.

00:30:04.844 --> 00:30:07.305
The center of Bogotá
and other areas of the city

00:30:07.347 --> 00:30:08.431
were full of phrases,

00:30:08.640 --> 00:30:10.600
made by spray
or brush.

00:30:11.351 --> 00:30:13.728
And in the 90s
they practically disappeared.

00:30:14.103 --> 00:30:17.607
There were some attacks that
had a deep impact on our everyday lives.

00:30:17.774 --> 00:30:19.984
Basically a constant
state of fear,

00:30:20.068 --> 00:30:23.196
of when the next attack
or the next bomb would be.

00:30:23.780 --> 00:30:26.115
The idea of demonstrating
in the street was very distant,

00:30:26.241 --> 00:30:27.575
seemed very distant,

00:30:27.659 --> 00:30:29.744
and we had to take
many precautions.

00:30:30.245 --> 00:30:32.038
And the city changed
in that sense.

00:30:32.956 --> 00:30:35.708
And at that same moment,
another type of graffiti arrived…

00:30:36.042 --> 00:30:37.085
in the city.

00:30:37.293 --> 00:30:39.420
The breakthrough of this graffiti
occurs in New York.

00:30:39.587 --> 00:30:41.130
It was rather figurative.

00:30:41.381 --> 00:30:45.176
with a characteristic that\'s very interesting,

00:30:45.468 --> 00:30:47.971
and it\'s that this
New York graffiti,

00:30:48.054 --> 00:30:49.222
didn\'t say anything.

00:30:49.389 --> 00:30:51.224
The revolutionary thing
was to say nothing.

00:30:59.941 --> 00:31:01.484
Some children in the street,

00:31:01.776 --> 00:31:03.736
in the middle of
a destroyed street,

00:31:03.945 --> 00:31:05.947
playing, in a certain way,

00:31:06.698 --> 00:31:09.200
as if trying not to disappear
within those ruins.

00:31:12.745 --> 00:31:16.249
It\'s a culture where
the street is a central element.

00:31:16.541 --> 00:31:18.543
Very linked to rap groups.

00:31:18.793 --> 00:31:21.337
To people who started
doing breakdance.

00:31:21.546 --> 00:31:22.547
I think rap…

00:31:23.256 --> 00:31:26.134
talks about the street,
and takes place in the street.

00:31:28.177 --> 00:31:30.263
Well, the ‘writing’
remained

00:31:30.346 --> 00:31:32.348
mainly in the margins
of the city,

00:31:32.473 --> 00:31:36.561
of propaganda, towards
that new hip-hop culture,

00:31:36.769 --> 00:31:40.648
And after that,
after 1995,

00:31:40.899 --> 00:31:45.194
the mayor\'s office started
launching a lot of campaigns,

00:31:45.695 --> 00:31:49.240
from a mayor named Mockus
onwards,

00:31:49.532 --> 00:31:51.075
and the campaigns said
“Own the city”,

00:31:51.576 --> 00:31:52.660
this city belongs to you,

00:31:52.702 --> 00:31:54.120
live it to the fullest.

00:32:04.505 --> 00:32:07.634
The great message of graffiti,
which is always there,

00:32:08.009 --> 00:32:10.345
regardless of how it\'s done,
the scale,

00:32:10.887 --> 00:32:12.221
the technique,

00:32:12.388 --> 00:32:14.057
or the person behind it,

00:32:14.349 --> 00:32:16.392
is the action,
it\'s the moment.

00:32:16.976 --> 00:32:19.187
It\'s why
someone goes outside,

00:32:19.479 --> 00:32:22.106
after… having being told
since they were little:

00:32:22.190 --> 00:32:23.566
\"Don\'t draw on the wall.\"

00:32:24.484 --> 00:32:25.693
\"Draw in the notebook.\"

00:32:25.818 --> 00:32:28.488
\"Don\'t dirty that wall,
that\'s dirty.\"

00:32:28.613 --> 00:32:31.574
After all that process,
why does someone decide to do it.

00:32:31.824 --> 00:32:33.785
What happens in their head,

00:32:33.910 --> 00:32:35.328
for them to say:
\"No, I don\'t care,\"

00:32:35.411 --> 00:32:38.164
\"Everything I supposedly
shouldn’t do,

00:32:38.289 --> 00:32:39.332
I\'m gonna do it.

00:32:39.540 --> 00:32:41.960
I\'m gonna grab a crayon
and scribble up my living room.

00:32:42.043 --> 00:32:44.712
I\'m gonna grab a spray
and scribble in front of my house.

00:32:45.088 --> 00:32:47.131
I\'m gonna grab a roller
make some letters

00:32:47.256 --> 00:32:48.508
in the center of the city\".

00:32:49.467 --> 00:32:50.843
That\'s the message of graffiti.

00:33:02.855 --> 00:33:04.524
Sincerity consists of…

00:33:04.732 --> 00:33:07.485
whatever you want to do,
you put it there.

00:33:07.902 --> 00:33:09.487
Not what
they tell you to do.

00:33:09.737 --> 00:33:12.240
In that sense, graffiti is
the most sincere thing that exists,

00:33:12.448 --> 00:33:13.408
and the most direct.

00:33:31.009 --> 00:33:33.302
I think graffiti,
as I see it,

00:33:33.428 --> 00:33:36.389
is all about understanding
through doing.

00:33:36.472 --> 00:33:38.099
Everything is hits and misses.

00:33:38.474 --> 00:33:40.018
And I begin to realize too

00:33:40.101 --> 00:33:43.354
that I\'m interested in portraying
people in their daily lives.

00:33:44.856 --> 00:33:47.275
So, my photographs
are usually moments

00:33:47.400 --> 00:33:50.862
where someone is
on the street walking,

00:33:51.446 --> 00:33:53.406
in a store buying something…

00:33:53.531 --> 00:33:56.492
Of course, in the final image
the whole context is lost,

00:33:56.576 --> 00:33:59.537
because I erase everything around it,
and it\'s just the portrait.

00:34:10.006 --> 00:34:11.549
My generation…

00:34:12.008 --> 00:34:16.220
grew up next to an important crew,
that of Stinkfish,

00:34:16.262 --> 00:34:18.139
which is \"Excusado.\"

00:34:20.266 --> 00:34:23.686
All that, what began,
was a sort of…

00:34:23.936 --> 00:34:24.979
mix.

00:34:25.188 --> 00:34:29.817
Beyond certain differences,

00:34:29.901 --> 00:34:32.111
or \"No, I do letters,
and I go here,

00:34:32.153 --> 00:34:35.364
and you do stencil
and you go there,” no.

00:34:35.490 --> 00:34:38.785
I think my generation
of graffiti artists…

00:34:39.077 --> 00:34:40.661
was very open-minded.

00:34:40.828 --> 00:34:43.289
Clearly, the information comes…

00:34:43.498 --> 00:34:46.042
more filtered now…

00:34:46.626 --> 00:34:51.297
much more... shared, digested,

00:34:51.881 --> 00:34:53.925
...via internet,

00:34:53.925 --> 00:34:59.639
currently there are people
who only do illegal graffiti,

00:34:59.722 --> 00:35:02.058
with that spirit of
moving completely away

00:35:02.141 --> 00:35:05.186
from any kind of graffiti
close to art.

00:35:08.106 --> 00:35:10.191
They say
\"I keep it real.\"

00:35:10.608 --> 00:35:12.693
This \"real\" for me
is in quotes.

00:35:13.069 --> 00:35:15.238
\"And I only paint illegally,

00:35:15.363 --> 00:35:18.574
and I go out to party,
and go crazy, and destroy things”.

00:35:19.283 --> 00:35:22.620
But they have double lives.

00:35:22.787 --> 00:35:25.498
They have to work
obeying norms,

00:35:25.623 --> 00:35:28.709
with schedules, bosses,
even uniforms,

00:35:28.751 --> 00:35:30.336
they can\'t show themselves
as they are.

00:35:30.586 --> 00:35:33.005
On the other hand, some said:

00:35:33.131 --> 00:35:34.674
“I just want to paint.”

00:35:34.966 --> 00:35:37.927
\"If my illegal graffiti,

00:35:38.094 --> 00:35:41.013
turns into something to please somebody,

00:35:41.305 --> 00:35:45.393
to be able to be
financially stable in my life”,

00:35:45.643 --> 00:35:47.979
that’s legit too, because
ultimately you’re painting.

00:35:49.397 --> 00:35:51.315
Most people
are very smart,

00:35:51.607 --> 00:35:53.276
and say: \"Yes,
I can make money,

00:35:53.317 --> 00:35:54.819
but at the same time
I can keep doing

00:35:54.861 --> 00:35:56.320
what you don\'t
want me to do.\"

00:35:56.362 --> 00:35:58.197
But there are new generations

00:35:58.489 --> 00:36:00.408
who understand it only from that perspective.

00:36:00.783 --> 00:36:02.285
Because they arrived at that moment.

00:36:02.535 --> 00:36:03.619
And it\'s like:

00:36:03.703 --> 00:36:06.998
\"I didn\'t start doing this
to talk about laws,

00:36:07.039 --> 00:36:09.959
quite the opposite,
it\'s to create my own laws,

00:36:10.126 --> 00:36:12.461
to create my own way
to understand the world.\"

00:36:12.879 --> 00:36:14.964
I don\'t know when it was…

00:36:15.089 --> 00:36:19.218
that this dichotomy appeared,
\"You\'re a sellout\",

00:36:19.510 --> 00:36:21.554
Or \"I keep it real,\"
\"You don\'t keep it real.\"

00:36:21.637 --> 00:36:23.764
My personal point
is to paint.

00:36:23.764 --> 00:36:25.808
And since I was little,
I always wanted to paint.

00:36:26.225 --> 00:36:27.727
If I started doing it illegally,

00:36:28.186 --> 00:36:29.896
that\'s just how
it was shown to me,

00:36:30.146 --> 00:36:33.608
but I could transform that
to take advantage of it.

00:36:33.858 --> 00:36:37.236
And I never want to be
a person with schedules,

00:36:37.612 --> 00:36:40.406
with an office,
with a boss over me.

00:36:40.489 --> 00:36:41.824
From these two paths,

00:36:41.866 --> 00:36:43.075
the “I’m only illegal”,

00:36:43.159 --> 00:36:45.161
or “only street art or muralism”,

00:36:46.037 --> 00:36:47.747
a few of us chose

00:36:47.914 --> 00:36:49.040
\"I can do both.

00:36:49.165 --> 00:36:51.876
I\'m just expressing myself,
and I want to paint.\"

00:37:07.558 --> 00:37:10.102
It\'s as if we were dogs,

00:37:10.186 --> 00:37:12.271
pissing on every corner,
because

00:37:12.313 --> 00:37:15.483
if someone\'s going to pass by,
a friend, a relative,

00:37:15.524 --> 00:37:19.111
and most importantly, my mom, who
already knows who I am in the street,

00:37:19.237 --> 00:37:20.696
they’ll pass by and read it.

00:37:34.460 --> 00:37:37.171
There are periods of time when
I\'m not interested in making a mural,

00:37:37.213 --> 00:37:39.799
and I just want to go out
to walk and walk and walk,

00:37:40.007 --> 00:37:42.260
Or sometimes I say:
”Alright, I had enough,

00:37:42.301 --> 00:37:45.680
These two months I only want
to paint murals, to be active\"…

00:37:46.430 --> 00:37:48.266
Bogotá perhaps
has an identity,

00:37:48.349 --> 00:37:49.767
and I realized
when traveling:

00:37:49.850 --> 00:37:51.894
the vinyl paint,

00:37:51.936 --> 00:37:54.480
is expensive in every country
I\'ve been to.

00:37:54.563 --> 00:37:56.315
But in Bogotá
it\'s very cheap.

00:37:56.524 --> 00:37:58.859
And painting for me is valid

00:37:58.943 --> 00:38:01.195
whether it’s with glitter, vinyl,

00:38:01.237 --> 00:38:03.614
enamel, spray, or snot,

00:38:03.864 --> 00:38:05.616
you’re painting, it’s an expression,

00:38:05.700 --> 00:38:06.826
and someone will see it.

00:38:06.909 --> 00:38:08.536
And all that
triggers a reaction.

00:38:12.373 --> 00:38:14.375
In 2011, in Bogotá,

00:38:14.542 --> 00:38:17.128
we were all crazy,
painting everywhere.

00:38:17.378 --> 00:38:20.298
It was a period where many artists
made a name for themselves,

00:38:20.423 --> 00:38:22.508
after 10 or 15 years painting.

00:38:25.845 --> 00:38:27.680
Other things happened,
such as,

00:38:27.847 --> 00:38:31.142
the murder of a 16-year-old boy,
at the hands of a policeman.

00:38:31.475 --> 00:38:35.062
And all the cover-up by the police institution.

00:38:35.187 --> 00:38:37.857
The headline was like:
”He was killed for graffiti.\"

00:38:38.065 --> 00:38:40.318
A death that
nobody wanted to happen.

00:38:40.484 --> 00:38:41.777
There was a lot of controversy,

00:38:41.861 --> 00:38:44.196
because there were lawsuits
against the police.

00:38:44.363 --> 00:38:47.074
And this caused
many people in Colombia

00:38:47.199 --> 00:38:49.035
to wonder about
the word \"graffiti\".

00:38:49.201 --> 00:38:51.495
Immediately,
that very week,

00:38:51.620 --> 00:38:54.290
graffiti became
two things:

00:38:54.498 --> 00:38:58.085
a crime, and…
free expression.

00:38:59.378 --> 00:39:00.755
A decree appeared

00:39:00.838 --> 00:39:03.215
that was in part very beautiful…

00:39:04.633 --> 00:39:07.136
It basically said
”In Bogotá, graffiti is legal.\"

00:39:10.014 --> 00:39:12.475
In Bogotá
there was no graffiti law.

00:39:13.684 --> 00:39:15.770
In Bogotá, in the collective imagination,

00:39:16.270 --> 00:39:17.605
and in the day-to-day life

00:39:17.688 --> 00:39:19.231
of people who paint in the street,

00:39:19.398 --> 00:39:23.319
the idea of creating
a graffiti law didn\'t exist.

00:39:23.736 --> 00:39:27.239
Law and graffiti are two things
that can\'t be combined.

00:39:27.490 --> 00:39:30.242
Because the best way
to end graffiti is to allow it.

00:39:30.951 --> 00:39:32.995
Only what is done

00:39:33.120 --> 00:39:35.539
outside the institutional framework,

00:39:35.623 --> 00:39:39.752
deserves, for me, to be called ‘graffiti’.

00:39:43.547 --> 00:39:44.799
Due to the Transmilenio,

00:39:44.840 --> 00:39:47.635
which was a new public
transportation system,

00:39:48.427 --> 00:39:50.429
many houses were destroyed,

00:39:50.554 --> 00:39:53.432
which left
many large facades.

00:39:53.849 --> 00:39:57.311
I believe that the State,
to avoid painting them gray,

00:39:57.436 --> 00:39:59.063
and since they already had

00:39:59.188 --> 00:40:01.357
the “problem” of graffiti,

00:40:01.565 --> 00:40:03.442
it was like an incentive,

00:40:03.567 --> 00:40:04.902
“Let’s see what they can show,

00:40:04.944 --> 00:40:06.362
beyond doing it illegally.”

00:40:06.487 --> 00:40:10.825
Then they promoted projects
where they gave paint,

00:40:10.908 --> 00:40:14.245
they gave permits, which was
the scarcest thing at the time.

00:40:14.412 --> 00:40:17.331
The few graffiti artists
in Bogotá met,

00:40:17.456 --> 00:40:18.457
to paint everything.

00:40:18.541 --> 00:40:21.502
With permission, but without
being asked “what will you paint”,

00:40:21.585 --> 00:40:23.587
you didn\'t have to show
a previous sketch,

00:40:23.671 --> 00:40:25.089
but rather it was free expression.

00:40:25.172 --> 00:40:26.549
“Free walls”, it was called.

00:40:36.434 --> 00:40:38.727
When we started
we were very careful

00:40:38.811 --> 00:40:41.355
and we always
tried to do it our way.

00:40:41.856 --> 00:40:43.441
And for the people who got involved

00:40:43.524 --> 00:40:44.900
to do it our way,

00:40:44.900 --> 00:40:47.319
and think like we would.

00:40:47.528 --> 00:40:50.531
But we realized that
too many people entered,

00:40:50.573 --> 00:40:52.783
and it simply
got out of control.

00:40:52.992 --> 00:40:55.077
And it wasn’t up to us,
either,

00:40:55.244 --> 00:40:56.912
to become
what we hate so much:

00:40:56.996 --> 00:40:58.247
the authority over something.

00:40:58.497 --> 00:41:00.958
More and more people
are joining, who may not have

00:41:01.125 --> 00:41:02.543
the same intentions,

00:41:02.793 --> 00:41:04.795
influences,
or motivations,

00:41:04.837 --> 00:41:06.380
they see it differently.

00:41:06.505 --> 00:41:09.175
And the worst part is that
it\'s totally respectable, right?

00:41:09.216 --> 00:41:11.427
They can do it
as they please,

00:41:11.469 --> 00:41:13.220
because in the end
that\'s what it\'s about.

00:41:15.681 --> 00:41:19.351
Each person came to this
differently,

00:41:19.393 --> 00:41:21.353
and has been influenced
differently.

00:41:26.400 --> 00:41:29.111
A few years ago,
whenever you traveled by road here,

00:41:29.153 --> 00:41:30.988
all you saw
were the tank trucks,

00:41:31.113 --> 00:41:33.365
painted with phrases
from the guerrilla.

00:41:33.824 --> 00:41:37.620
Later, I saw
some album covers.

00:41:37.870 --> 00:41:41.248
Punk albums,
like… stencils.

00:41:43.042 --> 00:41:45.794
And we started working with that,

00:41:46.295 --> 00:41:50.216
and we had that social base that
the guerrilla had somewhat established.

00:41:50.341 --> 00:41:56.096
And we wanted it to have that same
rebellious act in it.

00:41:56.430 --> 00:42:00.476
That was the start of a mix between
the influence we had before,

00:42:01.185 --> 00:42:02.937
with the social, political side,

00:42:03.145 --> 00:42:06.273
and the aesthetics,
and the appropriation of space,

00:42:06.565 --> 00:42:07.858
like the hip-hop people.

00:42:20.037 --> 00:42:22.039
First there was
an explosion of stencils,

00:42:23.707 --> 00:42:27.336
and many students, from different parts,
universities or whatever

00:42:27.670 --> 00:42:29.922
flocked to the streets,
to do it at least once,

00:42:30.005 --> 00:42:32.007
a tiny stencil
somewhere.

00:42:32.800 --> 00:42:34.260
We started to experience the street,

00:42:34.385 --> 00:42:35.803
that was key,
because

00:42:36.011 --> 00:42:38.430
Bogotá was very insecure
some years prior,

00:42:38.806 --> 00:42:40.849
and we barely
ever went out to…

00:42:41.392 --> 00:42:45.437
to paint, or walk
down the street.

00:42:45.729 --> 00:42:48.482
And when we started painting,
well, simply…

00:42:48.607 --> 00:42:50.401
you appropriate
your streets,

00:42:50.442 --> 00:42:52.778
start getting to know them,
learning their dynamics,

00:42:53.195 --> 00:42:56.115
and feel increasingly
safer, calmer.

00:42:56.615 --> 00:42:58.450
Since we work so much
with phrases,

00:42:59.410 --> 00:43:02.079
we use many phrases
from popular wisdom,

00:43:02.162 --> 00:43:04.081
from our grandparents,
or parents.

00:43:04.331 --> 00:43:06.458
So the old people get it,

00:43:06.584 --> 00:43:07.835
and new people ask:

00:43:07.876 --> 00:43:10.045
\"Hey, why do all
the old guys get it.\"

00:43:10.379 --> 00:43:12.423
We\'ve worked with issues
such as displacement,

00:43:12.423 --> 00:43:13.882
READING IS TASTY

00:43:13.882 --> 00:43:15.718
gender violence,
which is a daily thing here,

00:43:15.759 --> 00:43:18.012
and since it\'s such
a Catholic country,

00:43:18.596 --> 00:43:21.515
we\'ve also worked
with the abuse of authority,

00:43:22.266 --> 00:43:23.601
corruption…

00:43:25.019 --> 00:43:27.396
MUCH POLICE,
FEW EDUCATION

00:43:43.954 --> 00:43:46.582
THE EARTH DOES NOT BELONG TO MAN
MAN BELONGS TO THE EARTH

00:43:50.836 --> 00:43:53.088
WHAT I SAY IS A LIE

00:43:58.552 --> 00:44:00.512
HERE I AM,
AND HERE I STAY

00:44:01.055 --> 00:44:03.057
GOD IS MONEY

00:44:08.020 --> 00:44:10.814
I believe that
responsibility exists,

00:44:11.065 --> 00:44:13.400
and everyone must have it
to the extent they want.

00:44:13.484 --> 00:44:16.070
I don\'t have to do
what others want me to.

00:44:16.111 --> 00:44:17.738
The responsibility
on the street is given

00:44:17.738 --> 00:44:19.531
because your message
is increasingly valued,

00:44:19.531 --> 00:44:21.575
and obviously has
a significant space in the street,

00:44:21.659 --> 00:44:23.327
that has been earned
after years of work,

00:44:23.369 --> 00:44:25.746
and many people
somehow trust you.

00:44:25.954 --> 00:44:29.375
But those same people who offer
that trust must understand that…

00:44:29.458 --> 00:44:32.044
it can’t be like with politicians,

00:44:32.127 --> 00:44:33.671
blindly believing in someone,

00:44:34.004 --> 00:44:35.214
or adhering despite everything.

00:44:35.422 --> 00:44:37.966
They have to think for themselves,
and create their own stuff.

00:45:33.981 --> 00:45:36.316
It\'s a game between…

00:45:36.775 --> 00:45:40.446
what I\'ve been able to share,
know, learn,

00:45:40.612 --> 00:45:44.742
and it\'s also a game
with introspection, and…

00:45:45.159 --> 00:45:47.661
and the collective imagination,
and dreams…

00:45:47.870 --> 00:45:53.083
with what hurts, what one wants to change…

00:45:54.668 --> 00:45:58.255
A lot comes from
other people\'s stories.

00:45:58.630 --> 00:46:03.802
From different peoples, communities,
ways of expression.

00:46:05.262 --> 00:46:09.349
I don\'t work with photos,
or with a sketch,

00:46:09.683 --> 00:46:11.727
my portraits go directly
onto the wall,

00:46:11.852 --> 00:46:16.648
like going back, digging
in my memory, in stories,

00:46:16.732 --> 00:46:19.234
and giving an order
to those stories.

00:46:19.318 --> 00:46:22.946
And I want them to remain
open to interpretations…

00:46:23.572 --> 00:46:27.451
like life itself, right?
Which is super varied.

00:46:32.039 --> 00:46:34.333
I\'m not interested
in painting pretty things.

00:46:34.583 --> 00:46:38.086
I want…
people to really…

00:46:38.212 --> 00:46:39.963
be shocked by the images.

00:46:43.175 --> 00:46:48.847
But… sometimes I also say
\"There are little boys and girls around\",

00:46:50.516 --> 00:46:53.435
And it\'s a harsh context,

00:46:53.519 --> 00:46:57.022
I\'m not going to give them,
in this harsh context,

00:46:57.397 --> 00:46:59.066
more painful things.

00:47:09.868 --> 00:47:13.372
I\'ve been very exhaustive
in the documentation.

00:47:13.997 --> 00:47:17.626
But in recent years
I\'ve learned…

00:47:18.794 --> 00:47:22.631
to arrive,
very quietly…

00:47:22.881 --> 00:47:26.385
see what the context
offers me,

00:47:27.344 --> 00:47:31.557
and come up with some response
to what the context gives me.

00:47:36.436 --> 00:47:38.397
I question myself,
I say:

00:47:38.480 --> 00:47:40.524
\"Yes, I can paint
against mining\",

00:47:40.566 --> 00:47:43.944
I\'ve been painting
against mining for many years,

00:47:44.152 --> 00:47:47.406
but… I also say:
\"No, how silly, it\'s just an image\",

00:47:47.656 --> 00:47:49.950
But these are our fronts.

00:48:01.044 --> 00:48:04.339
I\'ve never felt
that I\'m an activist.

00:48:04.423 --> 00:48:08.260
But what I really
want to do is:

00:48:08.385 --> 00:48:12.306
what I feed off of,
which is those living people,

00:48:12.347 --> 00:48:15.726
those traditions,
struggles, questions,

00:48:15.809 --> 00:48:18.270
those people who investigate,

00:48:18.312 --> 00:48:20.731
I want to contribute to that too.

00:48:20.898 --> 00:48:24.192
Put some of my work
toward that.

00:48:53.722 --> 00:48:56.475
Images become part
of our education,

00:48:56.642 --> 00:48:59.019
and how we move…

00:48:59.144 --> 00:49:03.315
and respond to problems,

00:49:03.941 --> 00:49:05.567
to our daily life.

00:49:08.946 --> 00:49:13.659
This agent, that is cultural,
beautiful, for the community,

00:49:14.034 --> 00:49:17.120
it beautifies,
speaks, communicates,

00:49:17.245 --> 00:49:20.874
but also becomes attractive
for certain business.

00:49:21.083 --> 00:49:23.377
The murals that are done

00:49:23.460 --> 00:49:27.714
are favoring markets
that will displace other people,

00:49:27.923 --> 00:49:30.717
that will exclude,
marginalize,

00:49:31.176 --> 00:49:34.721
I feel very sad about that,
very sad.

00:49:35.263 --> 00:49:39.726
Seeing how… Everything that happens
with these issues…

00:49:39.810 --> 00:49:43.647
in terms of popularity,
of showing, not showing,

00:49:44.356 --> 00:49:47.067
selling, creating an offer,
all that is fine,

00:49:47.150 --> 00:49:51.488
I love that self-promotion ability
that some people have,

00:49:51.738 --> 00:49:53.365
but to a certain extent.

00:49:54.574 --> 00:49:59.705
I have very much believed in
not participating…

00:50:00.789 --> 00:50:03.875
where there are brands,
or institutions.

00:50:04.001 --> 00:50:07.254
When you become
a tool

00:50:07.337 --> 00:50:11.216
of something that can become
part of that harmful education,

00:50:11.341 --> 00:50:12.843
it\'s much more delicate.

00:50:32.612 --> 00:50:36.908
The graffiti writer,
increasingly invading more spaces.

00:50:37.159 --> 00:50:40.078
And the most intricate,
the most difficult spaces.

00:50:40.454 --> 00:50:42.080
I\'d also think about…

00:50:42.497 --> 00:50:46.043
the issue of
our ancestral roots.

00:50:46.501 --> 00:50:48.837
And I think, meanwhile,
the third one is

00:50:48.920 --> 00:50:51.840
inevitably
the use of language too.

00:50:52.966 --> 00:50:55.052
People are interested
in sending a message,

00:50:55.218 --> 00:50:56.511
in stating a position.

00:50:56.595 --> 00:50:58.764
Not just sharing
a pretty image.

00:50:58.930 --> 00:51:00.849
But saying:
\"This is what I think,

00:51:01.475 --> 00:51:03.018
and I want it to be clear.\"

00:51:04.436 --> 00:51:06.354
Today I consider it the fifth…

00:51:06.605 --> 00:51:08.440
the fifth element
of mass communication.

00:51:08.523 --> 00:51:10.901
Radio, press, television,
internet, and…

00:51:11.443 --> 00:51:12.319
…and murals.

00:51:13.278 --> 00:51:15.489
Muralism, and
visual art in general,

00:51:15.697 --> 00:51:17.157
create our collective imagination.

00:51:17.616 --> 00:51:20.952
And that collective imagination
grows and becomes reality.

00:51:21.161 --> 00:51:22.788
Because when we’re painting,

00:51:22.829 --> 00:51:24.206
we’re creating new realities.

00:51:24.414 --> 00:51:26.416
And not just creating them,
but living them.

00:51:27.042 --> 00:51:28.376
And making them possible,

00:51:28.627 --> 00:51:30.712
for them to transform into energy

00:51:30.796 --> 00:51:32.380
that in turn transforms other things.

00:51:34.674 --> 00:51:36.134
What happens in Colombia,

00:51:36.259 --> 00:51:38.053
happens in all of our countries.

00:51:38.220 --> 00:51:39.513
It\'s not an isolated case.

00:51:39.846 --> 00:51:41.848
Colombia is an imaginary border,

00:51:42.766 --> 00:51:44.226
that can be blurred,

00:51:44.810 --> 00:51:47.145
which is the cheerful resistance.

00:51:47.437 --> 00:51:51.441
We can have
an insurgency of images,

00:51:51.566 --> 00:51:53.944
and use it in our favor

00:51:54.111 --> 00:51:56.279
to dream of ourselves
in a different way.