Festival Iberoamericano de Teatro de Bogota: Advocacy and Strategies
I’m an Israeli (born in Israel), and I’m also a Colombian. I grew up in Colombia and my mother is Colombian. Not only am I a Jewish-Israeli woman, not only am I Latin, I’m a Colombian Latin. So I speak from my Colombian perspective. I have given a lot of thought to the subject, and four important things come to mind: The Festival’s history, recent social projects, the general state of culture in Colombia, ans strategies themselves
It’s huge, but it’s all connected. I think I can safely say that Colombians are highly emotional people. We admire, we despise, we love, we hate, we are proud and ashamed, we laugh and we cry, all with the same levels of intensity.
We are like children in a playground; we stumble into each other, we make love and we make war, all with the same levels of intensity. If you ask anybody who has visited Colombia, they will surely tell you the same story. They will also surely tell you this is why we are lovable. People come to Colombia to fall into love and hate, all in one. Ironic to mention this, it’s like a drug, once you get started, there’s no letting go. What a terrible and wonderful addiction, all in one.
As the extremely emotional people we are, we seldom have space to process our emotions. Intellectual, rational, psychological spaces. This is why we are violent.
As artists, Colombian artists seldom have the space to develop our work. Creating theater, music, dance, writing, painting, from a practical point of view is almost impossible; but this is no tragedy, it only means we have to respond with that much more strenght, bravery, with that much more impulse.
The results of this are often deceiving, but on some occasions, we succeed, we respond triumphantly to the violence.
This is what the Festival is, how it was born: an irrefutable, tremendous response, a work of art in itself, a real shove of joy.
In 1988, Fanny Mikey and Ramiro Osorio created what was soon to become one of the largest, most important performing arts festivals in the world. Going from 14 international and 8 national groups on the first edition, the last one, which took place in March, hosted 70 international groups and 188 national ones, and an audience of 3,500,000 people. Simply astounding.
The first edition was created in a largely skeptical environment. Who could possibly think of such a thing in such violent critical times? (for those of you who may not know, Colombia’s entire history is tainted with blood and for more than three decades now, has been fighting against a series of armed conflicts some chose to call war, against critical levels of corruption, drug traffic, guerrilla, paramilitaries, poverty, high levels of violence...anger, anger, anger...)
During this first edition 1988, successfully created, which was allready a miracle, a bomb exploded, during one of the performances in one of the theaters. Funny to say the place was full. Funny to say it was neither the drug cartels, nor the guerilla, nor the paramilitaries or the army that set the bomb; funny to say on this occasion it was a right wing religious group that utterly disagreed with having the Festival during easter. Funny to say, the place was in ruins. Funny to say, not a soul was hurt. Not a single victim, and the theater was full. And the place was in ruins.
The Festival prevailed, protected and loved by the citizens, the theaters remained sold out, every single artist continued performing. Ever since, it has remained a symbol of Colombian vitality. Every artist wants to participate, every spectator wants to go. Every single citizen belongs.
Skipping back to the present, the Festival’s XII edition, this year, was the biggest ever to have taken place. Fanny Mikey, the founder and director passed away two years ago, leaving her successor, Anamarta de Pizarro as the new director, giving it a whole new perspective. One of Anamarta’s main concerns was related to social development, which is why 8 new social projects were incorporated in the agenda.
Working in alliance with all the kinds of social institutions, the Festival organized a very large series of workshops and encounters for people who seldom have the opportunities, but never lack the motivation and talent to learn.
Among these was the project with Jovenes Conviven por Bogota, with almost 300 youngsters living in what we call “high risk situation.” For 3 months, including the Festival’s 17 days that the Festival lasts, these youngsters had the opportunity to work local and international professionals of different artistic disciplines. They were given support for transportation and food, they were closely supervised in their personal and artistic development.
Also, 70 teachers from all over the country came to the capital to learn how to teach art. These are just two very brief, but highly important examples of what was done this year in the Festival. You can imagine we have a great deal to learn, so much work to do...however, the fact, the simple fact that inclusion became a yet more important aspect of the Festival’s policies, is not just a crucial step for the Festival, but for the whole country since the Iberoamericano is known for its pioneering initiatives.
These projects can only awaken, only question people regarding their actions, their objectives, their dreams and their lives. These questions are what I find most compelling.
On a more general scale, as much as I believe contradiction to define us, I also think we are at a turnig point in Colombia and in Latin America. The conflicts and fundamental issues that trouble us are far from being solved, and I would lie to myself and to you if I thought it required few efforts...but more and more Colombians are being acknowledged in the different disciplines and more and more people are recognizing the great importance of art in our society.
I find the word strategy fascinating. It implies that every context needs a different approach. It implies we have to be open and flexible. I like that, so long as it allows us to grow and be more joyfull people.
I think I’m a political baby, just begining to recognize the needs, like many of my artistic peers, and so I’d rather speak of policies, not so much of strategies. It’s simple, these are the aspects that I believe need to be defended in order for art to find a more dignified and truly significant place in the collective thinking:
- the combination between public and private entities (which make the state and the individuals responsable of the artistic development, as much as making art more autonomus as it doesn’t belong to either)
- the collaboration between social and artistic entities
- the empowering of artists
- the freedom to create with no censorship
- the will power and respect for aristic work (meaning the good will and filantropic initiative)
- the faith in people’s ability to share and live in peace, with no distinction of race, gender, social category whatsoever.
I can only be thankful, in the name of all those work in the arts in Colombia, for the vitality and optimism with which so many Colombians face reality. I admire them and only hope one day you get to discover their accomplichments. 2010 Speech given by Ms. Fuksbrauner at the Theatre Without Borders Conference held at La MaMa.
Published with the permission of the author.
ELLA FUKSBRAUNER Former Director of International Communications of the Festival Iberoamericano de Teatro de Bogota. Born in Israel, Ms. Fuksbrauner grew up in Colombia. Singer/songwritert, she has been singing since the age of 13. After winning various prizes, she went to France to study acting. She performed with guitarist Juan Manuel Reyes. Upon her return to Colombia, she began to write her own songs and continued performing. She created an album, INK, with Julian Salazar.
