ANDANTE

Degree project for a Master in Visual Arts. Teusaquillo, Bogota. The starting point was simple: build an open, editable map of local citizen initiatives. Made with neighbors, not "about" them. The cart that came later was never part of the original plan.

The first step was a small collective workshop where people tested categories, argued, remembered places, and started filling the map together. At the end of that first session someone asked, "what if the map moves?" That question pushed the project outside. We quickly built a simple wheeled structure, updated the map, and rolled it through the neighborhood. On the street, the map worked like an attractor: people stopped, wrote, argued about locations, and told stories while they added new initiatives.

The "mapa andante" evolved into a more robust cart inspired by Bogota's street vendor chazas. We designed it as a flexible skeleton rather than a fixed cabinet. Fold-out wooden panels work as chalkboard displays and tables, transparent wings show the map and open into a small roof. The whole point is that it stays unfinished on purpose: parts can be removed with hand tools so others can adapt it over time.

One of the first real tests was with Buen Provecho, a local initiative that rescues "ugly" fruit and gives it away to raise awareness about food waste. Putting the fruit on wheels changed the interaction: the cart offered fruit or pineapple juice, and in return people shared routes, contacts, knowledge, and stories.

The cart kept evolving and got used more times, including with Buen Provecho and within LAB1. The map grew larger as collectives wanted to be present on it. Turns out visibility helps the neighborhood, and the neighborhood helps back. What started as a thesis became a tool that outlived the academic context it was made for.