Colombia Digital 2021

The novelist, historian and translator Philipp Blom, educated in Vienna and Oxford, has published nine books in Spanish, the last of which is El gran teatro del mundo (Das grosse welttheater). In this new long essay Blom examines the idea that is so common nowadays of “the crisis of the present”: feelings of discouragement with the idea of progress, the threats of populism and the ecological collapse, a lack of the momentum the brought enlightened ideas, the urgent need to reinvent ourselves and to find new paradigms. This lucid, perceptive text deals with our past, our present and the possibilities that exist in the future. In conversation with Misha Glenny.

Simultaneous translation from English to Spanish available

This event will be part of the South to South series, in which the Hay Festival offers a forum for some of the most innovative voices of the global South, in order to share different ways of seeing the world, as well as non-Western solutions to the problems that beset us. The four guests at this event will talk about post-colonialism and ways of seeing the world that challenge the dominant models. With Tsitsi Dangarembga (Zimbabwe), writer and filmmaker; In Koli Jean Bofane (Congo), writer and author of Mathematiques Congolaises; Pankaj Mishra (India), essayist and novelist; and Erna von der Walde (Colombia), writer and academic. In conversation with Juan Esteban Lewin Pinzón.

Simultaneous translation from English to Spanish available

Over the course of four decades, and with 15 years as a columnist, Margarita Rosa de Francisco has become one of the most entertaining and influential personalities in the Colombian media. Her roles in soap operas such as Gallito Ramírez (1986-87) and Café con aroma de mujer (1994-95) made her a star of national television. She has acted in around 20 film and television productions, has contributed to media outlets such as El Tiempo, SoHo, Ellas and El Espectador, and has won many prizes, including the Simón Bolívar, TV y Novelas, Macondo and the India Catalina awards in Colombia, as well as the recent Horizon Award at the 2023 Venice Film Festival for Best Actress in the film El Paraiso, directed by the Italian Enrico María Artale. She will talk to Vanessa Rosales about her second book, Margarita va sola (2023), a collection of memories and reflections on matters that range from revealing one’s body and erotic initiation, to her thoughts about God and identity.

The writer and cultural manager Cindy Herrera will lead a conversation among four prominent cultural managers who, through different projects, can offer examples of success and models for the industry. With the participation of Daniel Fletcher (Spain), Director of Corporate Innovation and Development at Primavera Sound, a music festival of international renown for its innovative approach and its links with the cities where it runs; Rafael Ramos (Colombia), Director of the Cabildo cultural organisation, which works to train, promote and support the productions of traditional musicians, and of the Mercado Cultural del Caribe; the writer, cultural manager and reading promoter Velia Vidal, named in 2022 as one of the world’s 100 most influential women by the BBC, and founder and Director of the Motete cultural and educational organisation; and Adriana Sandoval, Culture and Press Attacheé at the Embassy of Colombia to the United Kingdom.

The journalism website Los Danieles, founded during the pandemic by Daniel Coronell (who will participate digitally), Daniel Samper Ospina and Daniel Samper Pizano, has become an independent news site with a big following in Colombia. Together with Ana Bejarano, who is also part of the team, the fourth well-known columnists will talk, alongside Enrique Santos, about the Colombian and global current affairs.

Museum director and curator, documentary presenter and Professor of Art and Archaeology, Jago Cooper (UK) will talk about his new and radical vision of art. Drawing on his adventures in Latin America as well as his long standing work with human creativity - from Indigenous Caribbean cave painting to contemporary activist installations tackling issues such as the climate crisis - he will discuss the meaning of art and why the museums that care for it are magical. In conversation with Laura Osorio Sunnucks.

Simultaneous translation from English to Spanish available

The acclaimed author Hisham Matar (Libya/United States), winner of the Pulitzer Prize for The Return, presents his new book, My Friends, a highly moving novel about three friends who experience political exile and about the emotional homeland that close friendships can create, in conversation with Juan Gabriel Vásquez and Philippe Sands.

Simultaneous translation from English to Spanish available

The writer and environmental activist Gabi Martínez (Spain) is the author of sixteen books, including novels and non-fiction, translated into over ten languages. He is also the Director of the Liternatura Festival, won the 2022 Serondaya Prize and is the co-director of the Animales Invisibles project. He will talk to us about Delta, a text written over the course of a year spent in the last house before the sea at the delta of the Ebro river, in which he bears witness to the growing tensions between humans and nature. In conversation with David Lara Ramos.

Jorge Comensal is the author of the novel Las mutaciones (2019) and the essay Yonquis de las letras (2017). He has contributed to media outlets such as Gatopardo, Tierra Adentro, The Literary Review and The Paris Review. He has also edited the Revista de la Universidad de México magazine, been a recipient of the Foundation for Mexican Literature and the National Fund for Culture and the Arts, as well as a resident with the Jan Michalski Foundation. He presents Este vacío que hierve (2023), a novel that explores matters such as the malleable nature of space-time, the environmental crisis, family secrets, addiction and fanaticism. It knits together the stories of Karina, a 25-year old physicist; her alcoholic grandmother Rebeca; the parents of Karina, who died 18 years previously; Silverio, a guard at Mexico City’s biggest cemetery; a cryptic pyromaniac priest; Daenerys, an environmental activist; and the animals at the burning zoo of this story of fauna, mystery and solitude. He will talk to Laura Martínez Salcedo.