Environment Care

Through urban art actions carried out in stations and squares of the Medellin Metro System, with emerging and recognized artists, many of them in alliance with the cultural, public and private sectors of the city, social cohesion is impacted by strengthening relationships, counteracting the possible deterioration of spaces and promoting the care of public spaces and the sense of belonging.

With art as a base, we encourage reflections on the city and our way of inhabiting it.

Some viaducts and the tram corridor have been converted into an open sky gallery. By 2020, about 140 columns, 50 murals in the system and 8 bollards have been intervened.

This publication is the product of the joint and concerted work between Metro de Medellín and the young people who decided to become artists, muralists and graffiti artists of the city, with such overflowing talent and such a broad concept of freedom that their canvases are not only the walls of their neighborhood and their city, but of the whole world.

At Metro, we conceive Metro Culture as a positive way of relating with ourselves, with others and with the environment. And in this relationship with others, there are also young people who most of the time are the ones who encourage us to reflect on the need to recognize the differences because they are different in their way of conceiving life, manifesting themselves, creating and inhabiting the city.

That is why from the Metro we say to you: you count, you are also part of this whole and everything you do, your expressions and your "rebelliousness" also move us.

Since the beginning of the Metro system, young people have contributed their graphic languages on the walls or columns that make up the system, thus enjoying their right to the city, to the public and conceiving art as life itself.

We like the initiatives, love and social commitment of young people, in them we see a great wealth, because in the case of graffiti artists, most of them have not only been responsible for expressing their views, their way of seeing the world, but to contribute their knowledge with others, with their neighbors, with children and with other young people.

We want to continue walking hand in hand with them,  we want to continue building Cultura Metro, understanding and knowing their perspectives, their dreams and enabling them to express themselves and cultivate their creativity.

Thanks to them we understand the importance of urban art, graffiti and its characteristics, in order not to impose or suggest from ignorance but precisely from the understanding of their particularities, needs and expectations.

Today from the Metro we want to continue working with graffiti artists in a concerted manner, generating spaces for dialogue that allow us to get to know each other, recognize each other and build trust, in addition to the permanent search for scenarios of artistic expression. Currently, we have a graffiti articulation table, where 20 people from different urban art collectives of the city and street artists attend to work in an articulated manner and with a non-negotiable premise: to protect life at all times.

This point is very important, because only in this way can we guarantee that they will continue to be heard in the city, because their strokes, their figures communicate and symbolize, are part of the culture and mobilize opinions, reflections and behaviors. Today, graffiti artists mobilize our minds and hearts to continue recognizing them as actors of the city, different, generators of positive and transforming initiatives, creative, sensitive, committed. Neighbors, users and citizens with whom we want to continue walking hand in hand.

Enjoy these stories, let's enjoy and value art and expression.