Muralism, graffiti, photography, theater, open-air museums, cinema, dance, music, oral tradition, performances, meetings, forums, creation spaces... Bogotá will live Desire City, the first International Art and Memory Festival of the Instituto Distrital de las Artes - Idartes, from October 19 to October 23.
What is the memory of a city? What are the first memories each one associates with Bogotá? How to build from the differences? How do the arts become important in this process? How do we imagine tomorrow?
These are some of the questions to be formulated in this space for dialogue and exchange promoting, from art and its multiple voices, artistic and cultural experiences on the traces of memory in the construction of coexistence, reconciliation, peace, resilience and strengthening of communities and citizens in the different territories of Bogotá.
With the support of the Truth Commission, UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, Trust and the presence of more than 40 guests, including artists, groups and social movements, Desire City will bet on the desire to be, remember, connect, feel and transform in Bogotá.
“Desire City will have its first edition at a time when Idartes is paying homage to its past with the celebration of its 10 years, but especially at a time when we are laying the foundations for what will be the cultural conversation in the next decade. This festival dares to ask about the roots of those who inhabit Bogotá to build diverse stories redefining memory from the arts and is also a collective feeling free of prejudices and labels to enjoy everything we can be and in what we can to convert”, says Catalina Valencia Tobón, director of Idartes.
Desire City will be inaugurated with the Forum: Art and Memory with no Borders, on October 19 at 4:00 p.m. in The Castle of the Arts, and during its five days it will have different meeting points in Ciudad Bolívar, Suba, Usme, Kennedy, San Cristobal, Los Martires, Bosa and Usaquen boroughs. In addition, it will include a creative laboratory of intelligent suits in charge of Corazón de Robota and the LGBTIQ+ community of the Santa Fe neighborhood, Los Mártires borough.
Among the international guests who are part of the programming, the Chilean visual artist Constanza Piña Pardo (Corazón de Robota), the Mexican muralist Ariosto Otero Reyes and the interdisciplinary artist living in Germany Christian Díaz Orejarena will be present.
Among the national guests will be the fashion designer María Luisa Ortíz, the actress and activist Cony Camelo, the comedian Alejandro Riaño, the hip hop artist Kei Linch, the plastic artist Gabriel Andrés Posada, the photojournalist Natalia Botero, the MAFAPO foundation of the Mothers of Soacha, the Truth Commission, the Foundation for the Musical Integration of Colombia – Fundimusicol, the Cerro Tour sports and cultural group and the founder of the La Diáspora Foundation José Alexcei Ubaque, among many others.