Spain is the Guest of Honor at the Bogotá International Book Fair (FILBo) 2025. The guests will participate in various events at the fair, presenting their experiences and key elements of their artistic work.
Spain's program at the Fair is titled "A culture for peace, with others and with the planet." The Spanish Ministry of Culture and Acción Cultural Española (AC/E) organise this proposal.
This is the second time Spain is the guest of honor at the Bogotá literary festival. It was first honored in 1992, coinciding with the 500th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the Americas. Since then, the event has become the epicenter of the Latin American publishing industry and a reference for the sector, being one of the largest fairs in the Spanish-speaking world.
Literary Program
The literary program "A Culture for Peace" is presented as a space for dialogue and encounter that uses books as tools to foster peace, empathy, and mutual understanding. Under the motto "A culture for peace, with others and with the planet," the program seeks to generate meaningful conversations between different cultures, with a special focus on the relationship between Colombia and Spain, but also including all Spanish-speaking countries. The initiative features the participation of 139 Spanish authors, including prominent figures such as Javier Cercas, Rosa Montero, and Fernando Aramburu, as well as 23 Colombian authors. The program will be structured around various thematic axes, addressing relevant topics such as historical memory, gender diversity, displacement and identity, and the challenges of the contemporary world. Furthermore, special emphasis will be placed on linguistic diversity, with the participation of writers in Spanish, Catalan, Basque, Galician, and Asturian, and will reflect the reality of Spain as a host country for groups of diverse national origins.
Bibliodiversity will be a key component, with a prominent presence of independent publishers, which represent 60% of the delegation's publishing houses. All literary genres will be covered, from poetry and essays to narrative, comics, and playwriting. The program will also include "in memoriam" sessions to pay tribute to Almudena Grandes and Jorge Semprún, as well as writers whose centenary falls in 2025, such as Carmen Martín Gaite, Ana María Matute, Josep Maria Llompart, and Ignacio Aldecoa. The relationship between literary agent Carmen Balcells and Gabriel García Márquez will also be commemorated.
The Spain pavilion at the fair, called "Textum / Süchi. Weaving Territories," is a 3,000-square-meter space designed to pay tribute to the tradition of mobile rural libraries, a symbol of peace shared by Colombia and Spain. The pavilion, created by a team of architects and designers, is characterized by its focus on the reuse of materials. Once the fair is over, the pavilion's elements will be given a second life thanks to a collaboration with Colombian institutions. The traveling libraries, along with their benches and chairs, will be donated to the Colombian Ministry of Culture, Arts, and Knowledge for distribution to libraries and cultural centers throughout the country. The wool felt used in the auditoriums will be delivered to the Boyacá Workshop School for craft workshops. Finally, the Universidad de los Andes will receive the elements that delimit the pavilion's spaces for its "University Classroom" project at the "La Modelo" penitentiary in Bogotá.
Cultural Program
FILBo's cultural program extends beyond literature, including film and the visual arts. In the film sector, the film "Journey to the Moon" by Frederic Amat, based on a script by Federico García Lorca, will be screened. Additionally, three audiovisual capsules will be shown exploring poetry, visual poetry, and the connection between Spanish and Colombian bookstores.
Regarding the visual arts, three exhibition projects will be presented:
"Miradas que cruzadas" (Views that Transcend): A photography exhibition that addresses topics such as migration routes, sexual violence, and historical memory.
"Memoria Dibujada" (Drawn Memory): An exhibition that pays tribute to the contribution of comics to the recovery of historical memory in Spain.
"Exhumar la Memoria" (Exhuming Memory): An exhibition at the Center for Memory, Peace, and Reconciliation (CMPR) in Bogotá, which establishes a dialogue between Frances Torres' photographic work on the mass graves of the Spanish Civil War and the forensic documentation of a mass grave in Bogotá.
About FILBo
FILBo 2025 will take place from April 25 to May 11 at Corferias, Bogotá, with the theme "The words of the body". Participation of more than 500 exhibitors and 500 authors from 24 countries is expected, with approximately 2,300 events scheduled.
The Bogotá International Book Fair, FILBo, organized by the Colombian Book Chamber and Corferias, takes place at the fairgrounds and other spaces in the city. FILBo's main ally is the Bogotá Mayor's Office. Check the complete FILBo program at www.feriadellibro.com
