It’s just any Wednesday in fast-paced Bogotá. Pedestrians move along Carrera 13, a busy street where merchants sell everything from cell phone accessories to clothing. A sign with the figure of red lips, which is lost in the noisy advertising of the area, shows the entrance to one of those places where many pass by, but few enter; not because they are not interested, but because not everyone knows it exists. “Teatro Cabaret Rosa,” the notice reads. The streets of Bogotá hide surprises.
After passing through the door, a corridor leads to a room with modest chairs and tables in the style of a neighborhood restaurant. It would be just that if it weren’t for the fact that it is adorned by mannequins with colorful wigs and dresses made of bright fabrics. In the background falls a curtain that opened for the first time in the pandemic, when the Colombian actor Ricardo Vesga wanted to make the theater a simple space, where he could be closer to the public.
Interior of the Cabaret Rosa theater in Bogotá.Diego Cuevas
“I embarked on the madness of having a theater as a space for independent creation and training where we could reach people in a city as chaotic as this,” says Vesga, a performing arts teacher. It runs from Thursday to Saturday with seasons of children’s theater and plays for adults, including performances by the LGBTIQ+ community, at an average price of 35,000 pesos (about eight dollars). The cabaret theater is part of the Diverso La Playa creative district, which includes the polygon between streets 53 and 61, and Carreras Séptima and 15, in the town of Chapinero. It is one of the 15 creative districts in the country’s capital.
Ricardo Vesga, actor and director of the Cabaret Rosa restaurant and theater. Diego Cuevas
A few blocks away, graffiti gives life to what was previously a black gate at the end of an alley. If the curious stopped, they would find the store Ledaina, or Diana Ordóñez, a 35-year-old muralist from Bogotá who has left her mark of urban art in cities in America, Asia and Europe. In a cozy house covered in vibrant tones, she displays vintage clothing, rugs and furniture with improvised lines. “There are also collaborations to make other artists or entrepreneurs visible,” explains Valeria Castañeda, promoter of the artist who has represented Colombia in festivals in countries such as Canada and the United States.
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From the colorful urban world to a more abstract one there are a few steps. In Artestudio, another of the places in the diverse creative district, the choreographer and artistic director Ricardo Rozo leads the rehearsal of a group of young people who contort around pieces of wood and other objects distributed in the rooms and hallways of a three-story building .
There are just a few weeks left to open the next choreographic work to the public, in which attendees move with the dancers through an unconventional setting that integrates dance and plastic arts. “The world is made of objects and that is what the body is interacting with all the time: stairs, tables, beds. It is a conflictive relationship because we have to negotiate the space of the object and the body, which is what we try to do in choreography, to create a dramaturgy of the bodies around the shape of the objects,” explains Rozo, with more than three decades of experience. artistic experience between Colombia, Switzerland and France.
Artists rehearse at Artestudio with director Ricardo Rozo, in Bogotá, on September 20, 2023. Diego Cuevas
Creative districts are areas where art, culture and entrepreneurship converge for the social and economic transformation of the city, officially recognized since 2020. Most have emerged spontaneously in sectors such as San Felipe, Teusaquillo and La Candelaria. Santa Fe. Others, such as the Bronx – which was for several years, at the beginning of this century, the largest center for the sale and consumption of drugs in the city – are beginning to consolidate as a result of public policies. Alejandro Franco, director of Creative Economy at the District Secretariat of Culture, maintains that most cities tend to be depressed areas where governments intervene with large urban renewal projects. “In Bogotá we created a category of spontaneous creative districts, where that cultural life already exists, a natural agglomeration. The State comes to ask what they need to enhance what is already happening,” he says.
The strategy includes carrying out public activities and providing incentives in calls aimed at establishments that make up these spaces. Cultural manager Andrés Cárdenas highlights that sustainability is one of the components in which support is most required to preserve processes and knowledge. “Self-managed spaces contribute a lot to the city because, unlike public facilities, they not only allow an exhibition, but also a stage of research, creation, rehearsal and assembly,” he emphasizes.
Exterior view of the Ledania store house in Bogotá.Diego Cuevas
The diverse district is recognized as the most inclusive, where there is also room for safe partying free of discrimination. In the heart of this area of contrasts is located Theatron, an old theater that for a couple of decades has been a nocturnal citadel of 7,500 square meters with 18 different environments where up to 10,000 souls come over the course of a weekend. Attendees immerse themselves in the design and surround sound of rhythms that range from electronic, reggaeton, salsa and even ranchera in cantinas. The massive deployment generates employment for 387 people, including disc jockeys, set designers, choreographers and makeup artists.
Chapinero is a town so heterogeneous that you can perceive different worlds just by crossing a street. The District Secretariat of Culture plans to expand the polygon of the diverse creative district of Carrera Séptima towards the hills, in the easternmost area. On that side of the emblematic road, a group of young people also promotes the neighborhood’s gastronomic and cultural offerings. Sebastián Benítez, one of them, highlights the importance of uniting the efforts of citizens and institutions. “It is necessary to do this articulated work so that the ideas are strengthened, that they are not blocked on the administrative side and obstacles are put in place, but, on the contrary, to be able to get the most out of citizen initiatives to boost the economy, which is what it needs. culture,” says the civil engineer with studies in urban planning and sustainable design.
Photographic exhibition in a hallway of Theatron.Diego Cuevas
The Bogotá Culture and Creative Economy Satellite Account, an annual publication with data from the National Administrative Department of Statistics (DANE), shows that this sector generates more than 168,000 jobs in the capital. The added value of culture and the creative economy in 2021 exceeded $13 billion pesos, 14% more than in 2020. “The cultural economy gives Bogotá almost 6% of GDP, unlike other capitals in the region. “We are the city in Latin America with the most creative districts,” celebrates Franco.
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2023-09-27 10:15:18
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