From Guns To Brushes
The situation
During the 1990s and early 2000s, Comuna 13 in Medellín was one of the most dangerous neighbourhoods in the world: a battleground marked by drug trafficking, armed conflict, paramilitary violence and social exclusion. Entire generations grew up surrounded by guns, fear and "fronteras invisibles" (invisible borders) — both physical and symbolic — that divided neighbourhoods, armed groups and even families.
One of the most emblematic state-led interventions came years later: the installation of outdoor escalators in 2011, the first of their kind in a Latin American informal settlement. Officially presented as a solution to mobility and exclusion, the project in reality displaced many families who were never re-housed by the state, re-victimising a population already displaced by the armed conflict. Over time they became more a tourist attraction than a dignifying project for residents.
Despite this, residents' resilience and creativity paved the way for transformation. Young people embraced hip-hop, breakdance, poetry and graffiti as alternatives to violence and tools of resistance, reclaiming their streets as spaces of memory, creativity and hope.
Today the walls of Comuna 13 are covered with vibrant graffiti and murals that are testimonies, memorials and acts of resistance. Yet new challenges have appeared, such as gentrification: of the 36 neighbourhoods that make up Comuna 13, fewer than five have benefited from tourism, and these are now overcrowded with visitors, driving up housing costs and causing a silent internal displacement of long-term residents.
What we are doing
Over the past years we have been in close contact with the residents of Comuna 13, working closely with two local initiatives. PH ONG runs a nine-storey gallery-building in the heart of Juan XXIII, promoting art and culture in all its forms — music, painting, tourism, artistic creation — in service of the community. Emmati C13 Gallery, at the entrance of Independencia I, includes a tattoo studio and has become a space documenting and nurturing one of the most powerful social transformations in Latin America.
In November 2025 we began production of the international documentary "From Guns to Brushes: A Revolution in Color", telling this story from the inside out: how urban art saved lives, rebuilt community, and transformed a hotspot of violence into a global cultural destination. We also aim to create the "Route of the Barrios", balancing tourism development between neighbourhoods that have yet to benefit and relieving pressure on those suffering from gentrification.
How can you help? Connect us with artists, institutions or media partners; donate audiovisual gear such as cameras, microphones, lights or drones; provide art supplies; contribute financially to the documentary's production; share Comuna 13's creative revolution on social media; or invite PH ONG or Emmati Gallery to speak at your school, NGO or community event.
When art replaces weapons, walls stop dividing and start telling stories.