Semana ARTBO

Semana ARTBO at Museo Parque El Chicó, Galería Santa Fe, and Plaza Distrital de Mercado La Concordia brings Bogota’s arts scene closer to the public.

From September 29 to October 3, Semana ARTBO invites local and international audiences to explore 31 galleries from Colombia, Argentina, Spain, Venezuela and the United States. This citywide event that presents the most representative sections of ARTBO Fair and ARTBO Fin de Semana, in addition to ten of the city’s most important museums and art spaces through in-person visits as well as its virtual platform ARTBO.co. In this new event format, local galleries will present exhibitions and, in turn, some of them will host international galleries and galleries from other cities in Colombia.  

For five days the public will be able to visit Sitio, a section where ARTBO, in partnership with New York’s El Museo del Barrio, presents large-scale and experimental works of Latin American artists such as Beatriz González, Nicolás Paris, Sara Modiano and Raphael Montañez.  

At the same location, the public will be able to attend the series of talks given at Foro, which will be streamed through ARTBO’s Facebook. This year, the section was curated by Alex Gartenfeld, Artistic Director of the ICA - Institute of Contemporary Art of Miami, who proposed a program that reflects on how the art world is thinking and engaging with the political, social and climate crises facing the world today, as well as with the works and creative processes of renowned Latin American indigenous artists. 

Right by the Perez Salon where Foro will be held, the public can tour the exhibition Nuevos Coleccionistas, which showcases works by Latin American artists. None of the artworks here presented—or in the catalogue that compliments it—cost more than USD 1,700. With this section, ARTBO looks to promote collecting, and to break the idea that art is unreachable for the public. 

The Chamber of Commerce of Bogotá organizes ARTBO Fair every year, but in light of challenges posed by the pandemic, it wanted to reconnect the people with Bogota’s booming art scene, and invite them to explore the city’s artistic circuits and see what artists, gallerists and art institutions have been up to.  

Artists have the particular ability of offering perspectives that question mainstream perceptions of reality. That is exactly what this edition of Artecámara does. The latter is a section dedicated to young artists selected through an open call, and under the curatorship of LABOR—a duo composed of Liliana Andrade and Bernando Ortiz—it shows how a group of 41 artists perceived and reflected on what the world is undergoing.  

Artecámara is located at Galería Santa Fe in downtown Bogotá, and close by is a traditional marketplace called Plaza Distrital de Mercado La Concordia. During Semana ARTBO, the latter will turn into a hub of publishers and distributors that explore the book as an artistic medium. This section of ARTBO is called Libro de Artista, and for this edition Relámpago designed a curatorial script that thinks about our relationship with Nature and food. There, guests and can learn about 32 different editorial projects, and partake in workshops on urban agriculture or how to make natural cosmetics. 

The health crisis of 2020 and 2021 made the world stop, and think. Now it’s time to exchange and ideas, and think about the future. Semana ARTBO is the place to start doing just that.