Rampitas

An appreciation of the sculptural and expressive quality of the small ramps used to wheel bikes inside at night in Medellín, Colombia.

Motorcycles are the mode of choice to get around in Medellín, Colombia. In the working-class districts that climb the steep slopes of the Valle de Aburrá, residents have self-built elaborate neighborhoods outside of formal urban planning. While humans can walk up steps, wheeled vehicles require ramps. From the basic need to wheel your bike inside at night, a vast assortment of small ramps has emerged. These ramps possess a sculptural and expressive quality, and constitute a kind of folk brutalism. Rampitas is a small study of and appreciation for these forms that tell so much about the conditions - social, economic, and topographical - that defined the struggles and lives of the people who built them.