medellínmedellín
Five documentary and visual arts projects, co-created with children and young people from comuna 8 and comuna 3, from 2024 to 2026.
in medellín, the hillside neighbourhoods tell their own story from the inside. in golondrinas, 13 de noviembre, llanaditas and bello oriente, children and young people photograph, write about, record and film the place where they live, then exhibit it on the walls of their homes, in front of their neighbours.
the projects
five projects, in order
Each project is a route through six spaces: the neighbourhood, the workshop, the images, the voices, the exhibition, the archive. You enter through the videos shot during the residencies and leave through the walls of the neighbourhood.
el parchecito de medellín
In Golondrinas, at the very top of comuna 8, children photographed, drew and recorded their neighbourhood with the JAC Golondrinas. In 2024, their images were pasted up on the houses; in 2025, a second chapter turned the neighbours into giant portraits.
donde el arte une y la cultura vive
In 13 de Noviembre, with the young people of Movimiento Urbano, the night, dance, the metrocable (cable car) and the friendships of the neighbourhood become an exhibition set up at the viewpoint.
favela ocho
In Llanaditas, young people look at photographs from Rocinha and the Maré, comment on them, then answer them with their own images: two peripheries, more than four thousand kilometres apart, begin to talk to each other.
la comunidad preciosa
In Bello Oriente, the highest neighbourhood in comuna 3, with the audiovisual collective Señales de Humo, children walk, photograph and write: friendship, the city seen from above, the slide, the little brother.
la película
With residents and the JAC Golondrinas, young people from the neighbourhood are shooting a film on super 8 and video, camera in hand. It is currently being edited.
the map
the aburrá valley
Medellín lies along the floor of the Aburrá Valley, which the río Medellín crosses from south to north. Our neighbourhoods are on the slopes: where the city climbs, street by street, staircase by staircase. Golondrinas stands at an altitude of almost 1,960 metres, some 500 metres above the river; Bello Oriente, at the very top of comuna 3, rises above 2,000 metres.
key
- 01golondrinasel parchecito de medellín · ≈ 1 963 m
- 0213 de noviembredonde el arte une y la cultura vive · ≈ 1 801 m
- 03llanaditasfavela ocho · ≈ 1 926 m
- 04bello orientela comunidad preciosa · ≈ 2 086 m
- 05golondrinasla película · ≈ 1 963 m
going up to the neighbourhood
A west-east cross-section, from the río Medellín to the ridge, by way of Golondrinas: a climb of almost 500 metres in four kilometres.
the neighbourhood as gallery
public presentations
Every project ends in the neighbourhood. The images are pasted onto house fronts, onto the walls of the football pitch and along the steps, or hung at the viewpoint. There is no trip to the museum: the exhibition comes to people’s doorsteps, and it is the neighbourhood that sees it first.
el parchecito de medellín
on the houses of Golondrinas
see the exhibition →el parchecito de medellín 2
giant portraits, 80 × 120 cm, pasted up around the neighbourhood
see the exhibition →
donde el arte une y la cultura vive
at the 13 de Noviembre viewpoint
see the exhibition →
favela ocho
in the streets of Llanaditas, A0 posters
see the exhibition →
la comunidad preciosa
on the walls of Bello Oriente and in the community hall
see the exhibition →coming soon
la película
In Golondrinas, in 2026, the young people picked up the camera: super 8, camcorder, phone. They film their neighbours, the steps, the corner shop, the football pitch, night over the city. The film is being edited right now with residents and the JAC Golondrinas. The super 8 reel that opens this site comes from that shoot.
how we work
our approach
co-creating
We do not come to ‘give people a voice’. We create the conditions in which residents make their own images, choose what they show and write what they want to say.
02the neighbourhood as gallery
Exhibiting where people live, at eye level, in front of the neighbours: the public presentation is part of the work.
03the living archive
Photos, sounds, texts, maps, films: each project leaves a shared memory, given back to the neighbourhood. In Golondrinas, it will become a community museum-archive.
04the peripheries talk to each other
Medellín, Rio de Janeiro, Valle de Chalco, Seine-Saint-Denis: working-class neighbourhoods that look at each other and answer one another.
the partners
with
None of these projects would exist without the organisations that have been living and working in these neighbourhoods for years. They open doors, know the families and carry the work forward.
JAC Golondrinas
The Junta de Acción Comunal of the Las Golondrinas neighbourhood, elected by residents. It opens up the community hall, acts as the link with families and is taking the film and the neighbourhood’s future museum-archive forward with us.
Movimiento Urbano
Founded in 2005 in Enciso El Pinal, in comuna 8, in the midst of a violent period, this collective supports children and young people through music, dance and the arts. A partner on donde el arte une and favela ocho.
Centro de Desarrollo Social Los Mangos
A public community centre in comuna 8, and a partner on the first parchecito in Golondrinas.
Señales de Humo
An audiovisual collective from comuna 3, and a partner on la comunidad preciosa in Bello Oriente.
Fotogracria · Arteviana
Two artists from Rio de Janeiro, one from Rocinha and the other from the Maré, whose photographs opened the dialogue of favela ocho.
Seine-Saint-Denis Department (France)
With the support of the Seine-Saint-Denis Department.