ÇAGLA & VENÜS

TURNED THEIR TOWN INTO A RAINBOW

Kuşadası is a beach resort town on the west coast of Turkey. Perched on the hill is a district called Tepe where a rainbow of houses cascade all the way down the hill to the water’s edge. But it hasn’t always been like this. 

Though situated right on the turquoise Aegean coast, Tepe itself had become a dead-end dump. Many were moving away, and those that remained worried for their neighbourhood’s survival. It was no longer suitable for living, and there were plans for it to get demolished. People had basically said, “Nope. This place isn’t cutting it. Let’s start over.”

A woman from Tepe shook her head at me and said, “Tepe was a dirty, dangerous place.” 

Çalga and Venüs, two young women who were born and raised in Tepe, could see what was happening to the place they grew up in and wanted to do something to bring about change. They thought if they started by adding some colour to the drab concrete walls, they could begin to make the area more fun, more enjoyable, and maybe even more liveable.

“Our aim was for colours to create unity between both people and between structures,” Venüs said. “We wanted to remove this huge invisible wall of prejudices that stopped people from visiting our district.” 

But they couldn’t do it on their own, so they sought help by contacting a number of paint companies. One company responded and was on board with the idea, and they soon rocked up to Tepe with 20 volunteers and 50,000 litres of paint. 

Çalga, Venüs and the volunteers started painting Tepe in pinks, blues, yellows, oranges, greens and purples. When the locals began to see what was happening, they jumped in to help — children and all. Together, they painted over 400 homes, restaurants, apartments, and every alley and street that lay in between. Within a matter of time, dirty, old Tepe had transformed into a colourful paradise.

As one young boy said, “It’s like the rain fell down and I’m running through a fairytale.” 

Local residents started to feel how their lives began to change with the splashes of colour. It didn’t take long for Tepe to become a more social, pleasurable and habitable place. Families who previously had wanted to leave were now inspired to stay and continue to make changes. They were so excited about the influx of tourists that started coming to “Colorful Hill” that many opened their own businesses. One man in the yellow quarter has opened up a tea house on his rooftop. His neighbour, a craftsman, has started selling yellow handiworks. In the orange quarter, a family is now making local cuisine and selling it to tourists who wander up the hill. An old captain from the blue quarter is making a living on his doorstep by selling hand-made jewellery. And the local taxi driver said he’s never received so much business. Not only that, but now he actually enjoys driving up and down the hill because he gets to look at all the bright colours and happy people enjoying their beautiful town. 

Before this, tourists and locals avoided Tepe. Many of the townspeople could not make money doing the things they loved or were skilled at. Now tourists are no longer travelling to Kuşadası just to see the coast but to visit and explore Colorful Hill. The paint company that jumped aboard even decided to make it an ongoing initiative to bring hope to residents in underprivileged areas. They called it “Let’s Color”, and since Tepe, multiple neighbourhoods around the world have been given a fresh start.

I believe it was Oscar Wilde who said that colour can speak to the soul in a thousand different ways, and it was Johannes Itten who said, “colour is life: for a world without colours appears to us as dead.”

So it was for Tepe. A town that was once bleak and bereft found hope from the colours of the rainbow. And so Çalga and Venüs, they get a badge — for seeing what was possible when no one else did.