Bogota's Green Men

In my Lonely Planet guidebook I found a little blue block suggesting that travelers to Bogota's Candalerio district should take the time to look up as they carefully step around dog messes and missing pothole covers. Up is where the green men are, or green people, as not all of them are men. So I did just that and found several.

 

The artist to be credited with this project is Jorge Olave whose work is sort of a social commentary. Some of the green people are made of resin, others of recycled materials. I found them in surprising places and for blocks there would be none at all and then I would come to an intersection, look down an insignificant little street and there they were, two or three of them. 

 

So I was curious and went to the internet. The first thing I found was an article stating that Jorge Olave was found dead in his studio of an apparent homicide in October of 2013. What a loss.