The BAT Hall of Popular Art, ‘Colombia and the Environment’ opens its call for empirical artists from the country

The BAT Foundation in its work to disseminate, promote talent and entrepreneurship in popular artists in Colombia, opened its call for the VII BAT Hall of Popular Art, What does it propose as a topic? Colombia and the Environment.

“The call is addressed to all those creators who do not have a career in plastic arts, but that by investigating, experimenting with techniques and materials, or perfecting particular ways of expression, they create outstanding works due to their execution or content ”, stated the foundation.

The VII BAT Salon of Popular Art, carried out by the BAT Colombia Foundation, is the continuation of a project that began in 2004 and that throughout its six editions has become the only initiative with a national impact on this genre of plastic arts. In our country.

According to the foundation, this call is open and national in nature and among its main objectives is to consolidate a space for self-taught artists to obtain deserved recognition for their work, generate urban audiences interested in acquiring his works, promote entrepreneurship and promote research on Colombian popular art.

The launch of the national call was carried out hand in hand with the Government of Bolívar and the Bolívar Institute of Culture and Tourism ICULTUR, to pay tribute to the artist from Magangueleño Eduardo Butrón Hodwalker and invite artists from all the territories of Colombia to participate.

In its seventh version, the BAT Hall of Popular Art has the support of the Ministry of Culture, the National Program for Cultural Concertation; the Government of Colombia with the Development Programs with a Territorial Approach PDET, the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Tourism, with the National Tourism Fund FONTUR; the National Penitentiary and Prison Institute INPEC, the National Museum of Colombia, the Mayor’s Office of Bogotá with the Secretariat of Culture, Recreation and Sports, the Government of Bolívar, the Institute of Culture and Tourism of Bolívar ICULTUR, the Historical Museum of Cartagena de Indias MUHCA, the Episcopal Conference of Colombia, Fenalco Naranja, Minds a la Carta, El Tiempo Casa Editorial, Servbinetega, RTVC Signal Colombia and RTVC Signal Memory. As well as the secretariats and institutes of Culture and the main museums in the country.

As is tradition, in each version of the BAT Hall of Popular Art, homage is paid to an artist who stands out for his career and creativity. On this occasion, the foundation reported that this recognition corresponds to Eduardo Butrón Hodwalker.

This popular artist from Magangué, Bolívar, was the winner of the first prize at the VI BAT Salon of Popular Art with the work A look from the rural, according to the jury, for the transformation of the urban space of Magangué, a municipality that has been affected by environmental problems, the armed conflict and crime.

Eduardo Butrón to create his works uses waste, like the garbage collected from the Magdalena River, giving life to its creations, with a high ecological and pedagogical content, contributing to social reconstruction. It reflects the problems of its region and seeks to make a call to the authorities and the community about the responsibility that all social actors have in the preservation of the environment. Through the mosaic, the installations, the assemblages and the collage, it reflects the identity of the land where it was born, according to the artist, “The Magdalena River represents a symbolism that the swamp has, which is part of our history, our culture, biodiversity and those trips on the David Arango, which identifies us as riverside beings.”

In an interview with W Radio’s La Hora del Regreso, the artist said that one day he got up earlier than usual, walked the banks of the river that flows into the Caribbean Sea, collected the waste that has been thrown into its flow and “he turned these polluting elements into a unique form of artistic expression in which he reflected the amphibian culture of the region in the public spaces of its population ”.

“I walk by the river and I find plastic bags, colored caps, bottles and I start to collect all of it, that’s where I think the river is telling me its story and I decide to listen to it and start to do something about this problem”, commented.

The VII BAT Salon of Popular Art seeks precisely for all artists to be clear about the importance of preserving the environment, ecosystems and the possibility of finding in this space a platform for growth and visibility for their works.

The call will be open until July 14, 2021, through the website http://www.fundacionbat.com.co. The regional selection exhibitions will take place between 2021 and 2022. The Great Hall and the awards event will take place in 2022 and the national roaming will take place in the main museums and cultural centers of the country from 2022 to 2024. The exhibitions will be accompanied by academic and pedagogical activities, audiovisual and editorial productions.