The Centro de Formación de la Cooperación Española will host the exhibition and several debates on contemporary city, from 27 June to 31 August.
After being shown in Medellin and Bogotá, the exhibition “In Favour of Public Space”, which presents and invites reflection on the results of the 2012 edition of the European Prize for Urban Public Space, has now arrived in Cartagena de Indias. The exhibition, which is a co-production of the Centre of Contemporary Culture of Barcelona (CCCB), Kreanta Foundation and the City of Bogotá, will open on Thursday 27 June in the Centro de Formación de la Cooperación Española, and will remain on show, free of charge, until 31 August. The venue is in a beautiful seventeenth-century convent in the plaza de Santo Domingo, one of Latin America’s best conserved historical centres. The institution is one of four such entities that the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation has opened for training purposes in the continent. The Centre, which is committed to working with both sectors of the government and NGOs, is concerned with and operates on the principles of democratic construction, offering spaces for discussion, proposals and plurality. Open to the community, its programme seeks to encourage local creation and also exchanges of knowledge through training and activities to encourage reading.
Once the exhibition has been opened, the Centre will devote a whole month to reflecting on the contemporary city from the social, cultural, environmental and economic perspectives. In particular, it aims to foster awareness of the fact that transformation of urban settlements along Colombia’s Caribbean coast requires inclusive and participative solutions that are adapted to the social context. Furthermore, on 17 and 18 July, the Centre will hold a seminar on public space and the process of gentrification that is presently affecting some neighbourhoods of the old walled city and threatening to displace some of the most economically disadvantaged long-standing inhabitants. Researchers, community leaders, associations and interested residents will take part in the seminar.
