Graffiti boom born in tragedy brightens up Colombia capital

BOGOTA, Colombia -- A vibrant stream of giant murals greets people heading in from Bogota's main airport or walking down the cobblestone streets of colonial downtown.

Stencils of pineapple-shaped grenades and AK-47 rifles arranged in a rainfall formation allude to Colombia's violent politics. Monkeys and butterflies spray-painted in bright colors pay homage to the country's natural beauty and provide a relief amid the Andean capital's gray skies and monochromatic red brick architecture.

The proliferation of murals grew in part out of tragedy, when police shot and killed graffiti artist Diego Felipe Becerra in 2011 as he painted his trademark Felix the Cat. Bogota Mayor Gustavo Petro responded by decriminalizing graffiti painting and offered several public buildings as canvases.

Street art subsequently has exploded across the city of 8 million. By one count, there are more than 5,000 large paintings on walls or the sides of buildings, many well-known to the tourists who sign up for guided graffiti tours on bicycle.

Canadian pop star Justin Bieber even got in on the graffiti action, rushing after a 2013 concert with a police escort's red lights flashing for the chance to scrawl on a wall.

Street artists paint a mural of late writer Gabriel Garcia Marquez on the side of a building in Bogota, Colombia. (Fernando Vergara ~ Associated Press)

Bogota's laissez-faire attitude toward graffiti contrasts with many other Latin American cities. Buenos Aires, Argentina, last year raised penalties for street art, which it considers to be vandalism. In the Peruvian capital of Lima, the mayor this month had city workers cover up several murals by graffiti artists.

Major cultural institutions here are taking notice. The city-run Contemporary Art Museum held an exhibition this year highlighting the work of Bogota street artists who go by aliases such as Joems and the MonsTruacioN collective. The city recently commissioned, at a cost of about $10,000, an eight-story-high depiction of the late Colombian novelist and Nobel laureate Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

"It's a way to socially change the perspective of the city and give a present to people," said Nicolas Castro, an artist working on the Garcia Marquez mural.

But even amid the freedom, some landmarks, including churches, national monuments and traffic signs, are off-limits.

"We hope that the graffiti continues, that it's vibrant," said Clarisa Ruiz, Bogota's secretary of culture. "But we also hope that young people come to recognize that not everything can have graffiti put on it."

A mural blankets a church wall in Bogota, Colombia. By one count, there are more than 5,000 large paintings on walls or the sides of buildings, many now well-known to the tourists who sign up for guided graffiti tours on bicycle. (Fernando Vergara ~ Associated Press)