IN 2025, BOGOTÁ WILL HAVE A INTERNATIONAL ART BIENNALE ON PAR WITH OTHER MAJOR CITIES IN THE WORLD

From September 20 to November 7, 2025, the BOG25 will allow citizens and tourists to engage and reimagine Bogotá’s public space in disruptive and creative ways.

BOGOTA, COLOMBIA, COLOMBIA, December 8, 2024 /EINPresswire.com/ -- The BOG25 International Art and City Biennale, led by the Mayor's Office through the Secretariat of Culture, Recreation, and Sports (SCRD), places Bogotá in the global art circuit, alongside other major capitals like São Paulo, Venice, and Sydney, each with their own art biennales.

The BOG25, a commitment to fostering and strengthening the ecosystem of visual arts, architecture, and design in Bogotá, will bring together national and international artists, curators, independent artists, popular art projects, and neighborhood interventions selected through an open call.

The BOG25 is co-directed by cultural managers Diego Garzón and Juan Ricardo Rincón and has José Ignacio Roca as its curatorial advisor. The Biennale’s Curatorial Committee includes María Wills, Jaime Cerón, and Elkin Becerra. A Pro Bono Committee has been formed with renowned personalities in the art world. Happiness, from an artistic perspective, will be the curatorial theme of the Biennale.

The Biennale is part of Bogotá’s internationalization strategy, promoted by the district administration, and joins world-class events like the International Festival of Live Arts (FIAV Bogotá) and the International Violin Competition, solidifying the city as a global art and culture hub.

Bogotá’s Mayor, Carlos Fernando Galán Pachón, and the Secretary of Culture, Recreation, and Sports, Santiago Trujillo Escobar, launched last night at the Centro Felicidad Chapinero, Bogotá's first International Art and City Biennale, BOG25, to be held from September 20 to November 7, 2025, marking a milestone in the city's cultural history.

As a citywide event, the Biennale aims to position Bogotá as an international reference for events of this nature, like those in São Paulo, Havana, Venice, among others. It will become a powerful social and cultural catalyst, bringing together both emerging and established artists from local, national, and international scenes. Its main goal is to reimagine, through art, the urban imagination of both Bogotá’s residents and its visitors. Additionally, the Biennale will foster spaces for creative exchange, as well as dialogue and critical reflection. By decentralizing its activities, including educational programming and workshops, the BOG25 will promote social inclusion and provide access to art for all audiences, including children, youth, and adults in various neighborhoods and districts.

“The arts and culture can help us transform the city, process situations differently, and understand them better. This city is very diverse, rich, and fertile for art, allowing us to express that diversity, those shared pains as a country. The agenda we’ve created, under Santiago Trujillo’s leadership and the directors of cultural entities, invites us to rethink and find new ways through art and culture to understand things differently,” said Mayor Galán.

Meanwhile, Santiago Trujillo Escobar, Secretary of Culture, Recreation, and Sports, stated: “We are thrilled to offer Bogotá a great conversation about art through this International Art and City Biennale, an event that consolidates us as a home for large world-class cultural and artistic events. In the BOG25, residents and visitors will be able to creatively and poetically reimagine their public and conventional exhibition spaces. As a collective effort from the city's entire cultural sector, this first edition of the Biennale will serve as a grand creative laboratory around the concept of happiness and a space to bring together Bogotá’s diverse, sometimes confusing, and sometimes delirious character to discuss what we are.”

During the event, the Secretary also highlighted that, in line with Bogotá’s internationalization goal and the spirit of cultural exchange that inspires the BOG25, an important announcement will be made in the coming days as a result of his recent visit to Mexico City, where he met with Ana Francis Mor, Secretary of Culture, to sign a Memorandum of Understanding between the two cities.

The Team Behind the BOG25

Led by the Mayor’s Office and the Secretariat of Culture, Recreation, and Sports, the first edition of the Biennale will be co-directed by cultural managers Diego Garzón and Juan Ricardo Rincón, founders of La Feria del Millón, a platform for emerging art held in various spaces throughout Bogotá for the past 12 years.

José Ignacio Roca, the curatorial advisor for the BOG25, who has participated in major international events like the São Paulo, Sydney, and Mercosur Biennales, among many others, emphasized the importance of having an art biennale in a city like Bogotá:

“Biennales are spaces for two-way exchange: they give national and international visibility to local artists and creators, while showcasing what’s happening globally to a local audience. Cities with biennales have great vitality in their artistic scenes, position themselves on the cultural map of their region, and over time create a powerful image bank for their citizens.”

Unlike other biennales, which typically assign a single curator to select participating artists, the BOG25 will feature a tripartite Curatorial Committee composed of María Wills, an art historian and curator specializing in contemporary art; Jaime Cerón, a researcher, art critic, independent curator, and cultural manager; and Elkin Rubiano, a PhD in Art Theory and Architecture.

Another achievement of the BOG25 is the formation of a high-level pro bono committee, including Claudia Hakim, former director of MAMBO; Eugenio Viola, curator at MAMBO; Celia Birbragher, director of Art Nexus; Álvaro Medina, curator and historian; Felipe Arturo, artist and professor; Carlos Jacanamijoy, artist; Jesús Abad Colorado, photographer; Felipe César Londoño, academic vice-rector at Universidad Jorge Tadeo Lozano; Georgina Pounds, director of OMR Gallery in Mexico City; Philipa Adams, former director of Saatchi Gallery in London; Paula Marcela Moreno, former Minister of Culture; Juan de la Rosa, former dean of the Faculty of Arts at Universidad de Colombia and professor of design; Nohra Haime, gallerist; Felipe Londoño, professor; and Winka Dubbeldam, Hernán Díaz Alonso, and Pedro Ferrazini, architects.
Bogotá Pays Tribute to Healthcare Talent

Also within the framework of BOG25, and in partnership with the National Academy of Medicine of Colombia, a special call will open for four renowned artists to submit proposals for a sculpture honoring healthcare professionals who died saving lives during the COVID-19 pandemic in Bogotá, and those who risked their lives working tirelessly with the same altruistic purpose.

Juan Martín Fierro
BOG25
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