I had a wonderful experience in ArtBo, the International Art Fair of Bogota 2014. I got selected for the show El cambio de todo lo sue permanence curated by Jaime Cerón Silva in the Artecámara section in ArtBo. This is a division of the Chamber of Commerce in Bogotá -Camara de Comercio de Bogotá- that supports emerging artists, in this case by showing their work and give them exposure in this commercial venue. Part of their goal is to “strengthen the bonds between the arts and business scene,” as they say in their website.
Photo by CCB / Julián Tellez
The way that I got selected was by applying to the ArteCámara website’s call for artists. The work that I applied with is called Talk To Me / Háblame, a collections of embroideries that celebrate the diversity of places where my family has migrated, the languages related to these places, and the memory that has been passed from generations. In them the latitude and longitude of different places are used to map the migration. The pieces’s titles are made using a pronunciation guide for English speakers. This guide allows them to pronounce the titles in perfect Spanish. For example:
Ah-moor: represents the word “love / amor”.
Boh-goh-tah ee Chicago: represents the word “home / hogar”.
Fah-mee-li-ah: represents the word “ family / familia”.
The embroideries are made by hand and machine. Every embroidery has lips that correspond to the movement of the mouth saying a word in Spanish and every set of lips represents a syllable or a vowel sound of these words.
It was the 10th year anniversary of ArtBo and Artecámara. I am ecstatic to have had this opportunity. It opened many doors for me that I didn’t expect. I got to meet many talented curators, artists, gallerists, collectors, installation experts and interesting people around the globe. Two italian collectors were very impressed and wanted to buy the entire collection, all three embroideries! My work got outstanding exposure and now my embroideries live in the gorgeous country of Italy.
