‘A mano’ is an artistic proposal that allowed five spaces to be intervened in different sectors of Bucaramanga, covering an area that exceeds 250 square meters. The project will be part of the community tourism routes that will help position the municipality as a Cultural Tourist Destination.
The objective of this colorful project is to represent and expose through muralism the different dialogues in a city around its people and their jobs. “We walked through three neighborhoods of Bucaramanga looking for stories and images that would allow us to build an identity story of a diverse and inclusive city,” said Christian Balaguera, designer and one of the members of this group.
The approach to Miraflores, Transition and Cabecera del Llano was made through community links with neighbors and leaders, since for the group it was essential to interact with the people who live in the neighborhoods and learn a little about their processes to work on representations that point out their strengths.
Read also: “My best decision will always be you”: The words of Camila Avella’s husband after her time in Miss Universe
“In the development of this project we meet all jobs and ages, all feelings and desires, recognizing ourselves in more than one. We are all good and bad, we all go above and below others, we are a multitude that is part and build the city,” says Balaguera.
Women workers in Miraflores
In Miraflores, the space to intervene were two joint houses, in one lives a dressmaker and in the other a domestic worker. Both women, hard workers and with rural roots, inspired the ideas embodied in these city works. Another quality that this mural had, according to the artists, was the bonding of the boys and girls who came to paint.
Transition, a neighborhood proud of its identity
In Transition two murals were painted. One sought to portray the people of the neighborhood, to reinforce their identity through graphics, to talk about the people who live there and the importance of the jobs they carry out. “To achieve this, we did an activity that consisted of photographing, portraying, and listening to the people who approached the wall. Children, young people, and adults were photographed. We made visible those who work selling lunches, those who sell fish, the recycler, to the community mother,” explained Balaguera.
Also read: “I don’t understand you at all”: A young Colombian woman was attacked by a Brazilian woman at a Taylor Swift show
The second mural sought to talk about the animals that make up our fauna and that make this a territory full of synchrony and natural diversity. The artists photographed and painted dogs and cats on the block. The figure of the pimp and the fara was also discussed to highlight their importance and reduce their stigmatization.
The artisans of Cabecera
“In Cabecera we had the task of representing the artisans who have made their settlement in the alley between the Almacén Éxito and the Cinemas Cabecera Shopping Center. The designs of these murals made reference to the figure of the manda callar, to the artisans who trade in this space, to the urban landscape and to the fabrics. To compose the scene, photographs were taken of the people who inhabit and transit this place, seeking to generate dialogues and connections between the spectators,” said Manuel García Plata, one of the recognized Bumanguese artists who He was also part of this group.
Socialization
The murals are ready for the eyes of Bumangueses and visitors to the ‘Beautiful City’ to fill their daily lives with colors, animals and people allusive to each setting in which they were painted. The artists invited the population of Bucaramanga next Monday, November 27, at 5:00 in the afternoon, to the socialization and inauguration of their project in the artisans’ alley, in Cabecera.
More about the Buratá Collective
The collective is made up of graphic designers and plastic artists from the city of Bucaramanga. Our graphic search is focused on the dynamics of everyday life, finding the atypical in the common, bursting with symbolic and realistic forms when it comes to representation. We are united by painting, playing and being able to make art a more democratic exercise. Painting together has allowed us to learn and expand the way we interpret the spaces we inhabit, leading us to recognize our identity in diversity.
This project was one of the winners of the Call for Urban Art Stimuli of the Municipal Institute of Culture and Tourism, IMCT. María Tarazona Ayala, Christian Balaguera, Jhon Medina Cruz and Manuel García Plata were the master minds of these murals that today are part of the daily life of Bucaramanga.
