Diego Garzón was winner of a Simón Bolívar award in 2013.
Photo: Private Archive
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What can the public expect from this year’s edition?
There are several new features. The first is the location of the fair, since this year it will be at the Chapinero Happiness Center, which has just been inaugurated. We also have the 1K space, which contains works worth around a thousand dollars by artists who started at the fair, but who have increased in value over time. We also have Voltaje, the non-commercial art and technology salon with video art, projections and sound art. We will have musical programming and plans for the whole family.
How have they gone through location changes throughout their history?
For us there is a disadvantage towards organizing the event because every year we have to look for a location and that is difficult, but it is good for visitors to the fair: there is always a different experience. This year we will open a building, but generally it is the other way around. In places like the Plaza de Toros, an abandoned office building in El Nogal or the San Juan de Dios Hospital, we challenge ourselves to adapt these spaces so that the experience is the best possible for everyone.
How does the issue of the places where the fair has been held fit with the objective of democratization of art?
It goes very hand in hand because what we are looking for is that the locations are in different parts of the city, that helps to also decentralize the offer a little, because sometimes certain events always take place in the same parts. The fair requires different routes to locations and that means that nearby neighborhoods can also come closer. The fair, for example, started in Puente Aranda, we were there for six years, and for that town an art exhibition in a winery was very rare. Getting all Bogota residents from different sectors of Bogotá to go to San Juan de Dios, for example, was an interesting challenge and fortunately the fair has worked very well in that sense.
What was the most challenging thing about holding the first Million Fair and what are the challenges you continue to face?
I started this with my architect friend, Juan Ricardo Rincón. At that time we saw it as a “fun” bet to have an art fair with works that had a price cap. We decided to do the experiment and the first challenge was to position the event with a name like “Million Fair.” The first edition was in a winery in Puente Aranda, which was previously a textile factory. We had the challenge of convincing a very large audience to go to Puente Aranda, to a winery, to see an exhibition called the Million Fair. We have continued learning because none of us had done events before and we had to educate ourselves in that sense. The challenge remains very similar, although the fair is already recognized, we must continue to expand the audience, find the place and the resources to hold it.
What is the greatest reflection that creating this event and continuing it has left you?
The idea really arose instinctively, it was not the result of a market study, nor the result of an assessment of the art market moment. We realized that this space was greatly needed in Colombia, because we are not a fair of galleries, but of artists. Every year we ratify it because more than a thousand artists on average apply, I wish the fair could happen more times, not only in Bogotá, but in different parts of the country.
How did you develop your interest in art?
My parents were always very good readers, they liked art and that was my starting point. That sparked my interest in studying journalism at the Javeriana University and there I began to get into cultural issues. Later, as editor of Semana Magazine, I further refined my taste for art and I had the fortune of writing two books: “Other voices, another art,” in 2004, and “Of what we are,” in 2011. I have always focused on Colombian contemporary art and I have managed to meet artists from different generations. My taste has been strengthened more with the Million Fair.
What would you say is the value or importance of having these spaces in a country like ours?
I think they are fundamental and I hope there are many more, because art has the ability to reflect on our time, social and political time, time in general. Art talks about climate change, artificial intelligence, fake news, and the more spaces there are to see how art communicates that, the more valuable it will be. Art is there to communicate things that are much more serious and complex than they are and we have to enjoy it in that sense too, like we enjoy a good song, a good book or a movie.
How do you see Colombia positioned in terms of visual arts on the international scene?
For a few decades now, Colombian artists have been in the main artistic events in the world. An example is Delcy Morelos, whose work is in the Venice Biennale, or Doris Salcedo. There are many. We also stand out in terms of curation. In that sense, I think Colombia is currently very well referenced.
How do you think the perception of the word art and the art world has changed in the communities that the Millón Fair has touched?
I feel that with the fair what we have sought is to democratize access to art and what has slowly changed for the better is that people lose their fear of art. I mean that there is a generalized prevention with art, perhaps because of the spaces where it is exhibited, perhaps because of the way it is exhibited, perhaps in a museum one is forced to speak slowly or one cannot speak or people think that You have to be an expert if you want to go to an exhibition because you feel like you have to know a lot. Maybe this happens worldwide, but here what we have sought is to demonstrate that no, that art continues to be an important topic that makes us think, but that it is within the reach of anyone and in that I believe we have gone further. gaining ground.
