A Field Guide to ARTBO 2014
ARTBO, the international art fair of Bogotá, enters its tenth year as one of the leading Latin American presentations of contemporary art. Assembling an impressive roster of international exhibitors, with a special focus on Colombian artists, ARTBO provides a platform for Colombian and Latin American art to reach a wider global audience.
1. When? Where? How?
ARTBO 2014 opens to the public on October 24th, and runs through October 27th, in the Gran Salón of Corferias in Bogotá, with daily hours of 12 - 8 pm. Tickets are $22,000 COP (approximately $11 USD) for adults and $8,000 COP ($4 USD) for students; children under ten years of age are admitted for free.
2. What’s in store?
Six diverse sections are united in ARTBO, creating opportunities to explore both new and old works. ARTBO is committed to the propulsion of the Colombian art scene, highlighting local artists and galleries, and placing Bogotá on the map as a destination for contemporary art. Says María Paz Gaviria, the fair’s director, “ARTBO is a flagship program of the Bogotá Chamber of Commerce, which has accomplished the promotion and positioning of Bogotá as a cultural capital.”
3. Main Section
A committee of five international gallery directors—Elba Benítez, María Eugenia Niño, Ignacio Liprandi, Alex Mor, Eduardo Brandao—has selected 66 galleries from 29 international cities, including 14 within Colombia, to participate in the 2014 edition of ARTBO. Expect to see booths from Mexico’s Galería OMR, New York City-based Josée Bienvenu, São Paulo’s Luciana Brito Galeria and Baró Galeria, and Annet Gelink Gallery from Amsterdam, among others.
4. Projects
This year’s Projects section has been curated by José Ignacio Roca, the Estrellita B. Brodsky Adjunct Curator of Latin American Art at the Tate and Artistic Director of FLORA ars+natura. For this section, 14 artists represented by participating galleries were commissioned to create projects for ARTBO within the presentation’s theme “The aesthetic use of the object.” Artists featured in Projects this year include Chilean artist and designer Sebastian Errazuriz (represented by Cristina Grajales Gallery), Cuban duo Los Carpinteros (represented by Galerie Peter Kilchmann), French artist Mathieu Mercier (represented by Ignacio Liprandi Arte Contemporáneo), and Dutch collective Atelier van Lieshout (represented by Galería OMR). Works on display extend across a broad spectrum of media, from painting to functional furniture to textile to ceramics.
5. Reference
Reference, a new addition to the fair for 2014, is a tribute to earlier masters, curated by Carolina Ponce de León and Santiago Rueda. Galleries from the Main exhibition space, including Instituto de Visión, Galería Elba Benítez, Galería La Cometa and Leon Tovar Gallery, have provided works that serve as reference points and lend historical context for the contemporary works seen elsewhere in the fair. Each piece in this special section was created between 1950 - 1980, by artists such as Lucio Fontana (notably, the founder of Spatialism), Bernardo Salcedo, Feliza Bursztyn, David Lamelas, and Imi Knoebel.
6. Artecámara
Founded in 2005, Artecámara functions as a vehicle exclusively for young Colombian artists to exhibit their work in a global arena. Curated by Jaime Cerón, Manager of Arts at the Culture Institute of Bogotá and advisor of Visual Arts of the Ministry of Culture, this year’s edition hosts over 50 artists, including, for the first time, three artist-run spaces: La Agencia, based in Bogotá and founded 2010; La Mutante, based in Bucaramanga and founded 2006; and La Nocturna, based in Santiago de Cali and founded 2013. This year’s grouping has been invited to present works for a show entitled “The change of everything that remains,” exploring themes of deterioration in both urban and natural environments. (Find a complete list of participating spaces and artists here.)
7. Articularte
The educational pavilion of ARTBO, Articularte is aimed at fostering creativity and cultural awareness in children and young adults. The artist collective Manila Santana are set to oversee the space and organize a series of interactive activities throughout the course of the fair within the theme “The Artist’s Workshop.” Six different artists will contribute to the programming, putting together playlists of their ten “essentials,” ranging from their favorite music, books, theories, blogs, recipes, and anything that may inspire them.
8. Forum
Forum invites art world insiders—including curators, museum directors, collectors, artists, and scholars—to share in discussion about contemporary art; this year, in ARTBO’s second presentation of this section, the focus will be on where art is headed, in terms of both production and exhibition.
