Although to many people the closing of the Galería Santa Fe—the original headquarters located in the Planetario Distrital building in Bogota—represented the end of the Luis Caballero Award—given that the event was born in the semicircular space of that gallery precisely to house site-specific projects—the Award survived the loss of its space, identity, and purpose, and reemerged from the ashes, like a phoenix, transformed into a completely different event that bears no resemblance to its former self.
The former Insituto Distrital de Cultura y Turismo (IDCT) created the Luis Caballero Award in 1996, with the purpose of assessing the quality of the artistic proposals of the time, and to generate an award designed, to a certain extent, to evaluate the career of a given artist. It was an event that challenged artists to tailor their creative proposals according to the characteristics of a specific space and the architectural conditions of the gallery, in order to alter the artist's normal approach. Since then, six editions of the Award were organized. Because of the works that were already created in the former space, the event is preserved as well as transformed. Several sectors from the artistic community have been summoned to participate in advisory committees that work to ensure the continuity to the Award. Their considerations were taken into account for the launching of this new call that represents the 7th version of the event.
The Award kept its original name and some of the conditions it needed to continue to exist. The Gerencia de Artes Plásticas of the Instituto Distrital de las Artes (IDARTES) invites visual artists over the age of 35 to submit site-specific (in situ) installation or intervention projects. The call remains very much like the original version, except for the participation of IDARTES. There are however some changes that have been implemented for this new edition of the event: all projects must be conceived for one of the specific spaces—and no longer exclusively for the specific characteristics of the Planetario Distrital located on the second floor of the Galería Santa Fe—proposed either by the venue or by the artist. Eight artists will be selected to simultaneously exhibit their projects during the months of September and October of 2013.
IDARTES will award each winner a purse of $15,000,000.00 Colombian pesos to help them develop their works. Likewise, the Award also covers the costs associated with producing, assembling, maintaining, and disassembling the exhibitions; an individual catalog about the project; a general bilingual catalog that includes all eight exhibitions and that is accompanied by videos that record the creative processes; the Luis Caballero Award Seminar, which will allow artists to interact with the public, curators, and other professionals in the art field.
Applications will be received on September 27 and 28, and on October 1 of 2012, at the headquarters of the Instituto Distrital de las Artes, located at Calle 8 No. 8-52 Bogota-Colombia; during the following hours: from 9:00 am to 12:30 pm, and from 2:00 pm to 5:00 pm.
For more information about rules, rights, requirements, and important dates, visit: www.idartes.gov.co