COLOMBIAN BOOKS
Bogotá, April 19 (EFE).- Readers and Colombians met again this Tuesday in a special reunion during the opening of the Bogotá International Book Fair (FILBo), which has South Korea as guest of honor and awaits the return to the presence of the most important cultural event of the country.
After two years in which the fair mutated into virtual reality and the Corferias pavilions stood empty due to the pandemic, Colombian booksellers filled every corner of the fairgrounds with life again, where tens of thousands are expected to come by May 2nd.
“This FILBo 2022 is the reunification fair and we are excited to return to face-to-face meetings,” said Andrés López, Executive President of Corferias, which organizes the event together with the Colombian Book Chamber, during the inauguration.
The motto of this edition of the fair is “Come back so you can come back”, in reference to the virtual format that the book festival has had to adopt during the health crisis of the last two years.
Around 500 guests from 30 countries will gather at FILBo, which will include more than 1,600 in-person events at the Corferias venue and a hundred activities in other spaces of the Colombian capital, in addition to the editorial and commercial exhibition.
REUNION
At the inauguration, Colombian President Iván Duque stressed that “this meeting” is again taking place in Bogotá, “the epicenter of our country’s cultural GDP, creative and cultural industries”.
“It also happens on the premise that today more than ever after so many difficult moments that the pandemic has brought us, we are seeing a greening,” said the President.
Similarly, the executive president of the Colombian Book Chamber, Emiro Aristizábal, appreciated “turning the page of mankind’s nightmare” and recalled what the organization has done to keep the spirit of the fair alive.
“During these two years, in which we were not able to carry out the FILBo in person, we did not stand idly by. In 2020 and 2021 we are organizing virtual trade fairs with international conferences and guests and a large audience. Approximately 1.5 million people were linked to these events,” he pointed out.
A RELATIONSHIP OF SIX DECADES
South Korea’s participation as a guest of honor of FilBo is also a reflection of the friendship between the two countries and commemorates 60 years of building strong political and economic ties.
“Colombia was the only country in Latin America to take part in the Korean War. It is a sister nation to which we are deeply grateful. This valuable relationship has led to wonderful coexistence in various fields such as politics, economy and social affairs,” said the Asian country’s Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Hwang Hee.
The senior official recalled that a lot of Colombian literature had arrived in his country, including authors such as “the great teacher Gabriel García Márquez, who represents Latin American literature, and the renowned novelist Rafael Humberto Moreno Durán”.
South Korea will be represented by a delegation of more than a hundred writers, editors, artists and academics, and their participation is based on a call for coexistence.
“We see Colombian literature being admired and recognized, and today Korea bursts into this fair as a special guest so that these ties, which are growing stronger today, will have a new stage next June when Colombia will be the host country of the fair. of the Book of Seoul,” Herzog replied in turn.
Among other South Korean writers attending the fair are: Eun Heekyung, author of The Gift of the Bird; You-Jeong Jeong (“The Good Son”); Kim Kyung-uk (“The Hour Between Dog and Wolf”); Suzy Lee (“The Wave, My Painting Workshop”); Kim Hyoeun (“On the Subway”) and Han Kang (“The Vegetarian”).
A DIVERSE FAIR
Among the international guests, the Romanian writer Mircea Cartarescu stands out, who will talk about writing, dreams and reality with the Colombian writer Santiago Gamboa in the series “Conversations that will change his life”.
In the same dialogue series, Colombian writer Piedad Bonnett and Brazilian Tiago Ferro discuss the pain of loss in literature; while Spaniard JJ Benítez, author of the Trojan Horse saga, will speak to his biographer Antonio Erazo.
The Argentine actress and writer Camila Sosa and the Peruvian author Gabriela Wiener will also be guests in a colloquium on literature and theatre.
The Chilean writer Isabel Allende is also represented virtually in the Latin American scene. She will be taking part in the Bogotá Book Festival for the first time with a conversation with the journalist Claudia Morales.
