Colombia’s ‘Artbo’ showcases contemporary artworks from all around the world

World Today

Colombia’s capital is the host of the Bogotá International Art Fair, known as ‘Artbo’ that celebrates art from around the world.

Artbo is a commercial fair created by the Bogotá Chamber of Commerce. It is a business-to-business platform for both galleries and artists in Latin America. Artists discuss trends and works in all formats during the four-day fair.

CGTN’s Michelle Begue reports.

World politics has always been a prominent fixture of Artbo. This year, 75 galleries showcased the art of 350 artists from around the world. Colombian and international curators carefully selected 3,000 works to be showcased.

Curator Kiki Mazzucchellj looked for artists that could serve as inspiration during this divisive time.

“This section is titled ‘Against Forgetting’ which is a reflection of the recent political events worldwide, with the rise of the far right and the rise of this divisive kind of hate speech that we have been witnessing in the past year.” Mazzucchellj said. “The works in this section deal with different themes that are related to values that should be persevered in the face of these hate speeches.”

One example of this work is the art of Cuban artist Reynier Leyva Novo. He brought a thought provoking piece that cropped out world famous leaders from famous photographs.

“I have taken these images and taken some of its content out to in a way try to perceive the world without them. What would the world be like if they hadn’t existed? That is sort of the question I wanted to bring,” he explained.

This is Artbo’s 13th year, and it is working to show off Bogotá’s resilient art scene.

“I think that Artbo is very clever in the sense that they don’t want to be like Art Basel or Frieze art fair, but they take the Latin American context very seriously, in terms of size it is a kind of a small size fair but the quality is really high,” Mazzucchellj commented.

For the first time ever, the entrance to the forum section of the Artbo was free of charge. The organizers hope to cultivate a following for Colombia’s contemporary art scene.