Spain and Colombia talk about peace with books at the Bogotá Fair

The gigantic letter of presentation impresses, which is both a declaration of intentions. At the entrance of the Spanish Pavilion of the XXXVII International Book Fair of Bogotá (Filbo) we read, about 20 meters of macramé network woven by local artisans: Spain, a culture for peace also written in Catalan, Basque, Galician, Aranés and Asturian. The idea that communicates is clear: we are a country that, like Colombia, is plurinational and has suffered violence. Let’s talk about how literature, comics, arts or cinema have represented it; And how, from dialogue, you can build peace. One of the three most important book fairs in Latin America – along with Guadalajara, Mexico, and Buenos Aires, Argentina – is a privileged space to undertake such a reflection, to try with energy the approach.

“With the motto A culture for peace with the others and with the planet, we wanted to raise the challenges that we share both countries and that are also global, with the book as an agora of public debate, ”says Professor and Writer Antonio Monegal, commissioner of Spanish participation in the event. The winner of the National Prize for Essay 2023 by Like the air we breathe. The meaning of culture (Cliff), he adds: “Pavilion’s architecture is a material demonstration of that will for conversation, based on the idea of ​​weaving territories and inspired by the tradition of street libraries of Spain and Colombia.”

“In Bogotá people are cultured and elegant as in ancient Vienna, but within the framework of the chaos of Latin America”

The journalist Melba Escobar – born in Cali, Bogotana de Corazón, based in Madrid – has been part of the Spanish delegation, along with other Colombians such as the writer Juan Gabriel Vásquez or the bookseller Antonio Ramírez, because they are about 140 guests by the Ministry of Spanish Culture and Cultural Action, and in the agenda 23 are of Colombian origin. He also uses the metaphor of the fabric to talk about this experience: “As a Colombian Spanish mother, with family in Catalonia, I have spent my life trying to weave encounters from the two countries, through the language and the realities they share.” That is why he liked to see dozens of “Spanish authors walking through Bogotá, astonishing with a city 2,600 meters high” and where, as “a Madrid author, people are cultured and elegant as in ancient Vienna, but within the framework of the frantic chaos of Latin America.”

The Filbo was inaugurated last Friday, April 25, with the words of the Minister of Culture Ernest Urtasun and writers Javier Cercas and Piedad Bonnett; And it comes to an end on Sunday, May 11. More than two weeks of exhibitions (comic, photography and visual arts), round tables, tributes (Jorge Semprún, Almudena Grandes, Carmen Balcells …), performances and sale of books in the Spanish pavilion. And of presentations of books, signatures, culinary tastings, immersive experiences, storytelling, books of books of all kinds and mass influx in the 60,000 square meters of corferias.

It is estimated that the public will be more than 600,000 people; that are about 500 guest writers; and that the program adds more than 2,300 activities. Not only in the fairground, because Filbo Ciudad coordinates activities in the libraries and cultural spaces of Bogotá and Filbo Region makes the authors fly from the capital, to make their work known both in other large metropolis (Medellín, Cali) and in emblematic cities throughout the country (Barranquilla, Bucaramanga, Pereira or Manizales).

In front of the Pavilion of Spain, Penguin Random House dedicates to Mario Vargas Llosa the same promotional space that last year treasured In August we see you Gabriel García Márquez’s unpublished novel. It is surprising that, instead, The Eternaluta the graphic novel by Francisco Solano López and Héctor Germán Oesterheld, who has just been adapted by Netflix, does not have the recognition he deserves. Although Planet also imposes a lot of square meters, as in all large Latin American fairs the most interesting is in the area of ​​independent stamps. Almost no Spanish author has been published by them. There is still a lot of bilateral work to do. But this filbo could be a possible turning point.

As Melba Escobar says: “I feel that, after this event, we will be closer than before.” The legacy will not only be immaterial. The elements that make up the Spanish pavilion (whose project was baptized with the name of Textum/Süchi. Weave territories ) They will stay here. All the furniture of the itinerant libraries will be distributed by the Ministry of Cultures, Arts and Knowledge of Colombia by free enclaves of the country; The felt and wool will be recycled by the students of the Boyacá Workshop School; and the University of Los Andes will use the architectural elements that delimit the different spaces of the 3,000 square meters of the enclosure for its classroom universities that develops in the La Modelo de Bogotá prison.