The Gabo Festival arrives in Uruguay

The Gabo Festival joins Macondo, a cultural event that celebrates the legacy of Gabriel García Márquez and highlights the power and expressive richness of contemporary Latin American art.

For the first time in 11 years, the Gabo Festival is celebrated outside of Colombia and lands in Montevideo, Uruguay.

More than 200 Ibero-American artists join the tribute to the Colombian writer and Nobel Prize winner with activities during next October.

Throughout the month of October, the Solís Theater in Montevideo, Uruguay, will be the stage that will host Macondo, a cultural event in tribute to the Colombian writer and Nobel Prize winner, Gabriel García Márquez.

This event brings together the work of more than 200 national and international artists who join together through the expressive richness of contemporary Latin American art, in a broad agenda around journalism and culture.

Composed of a central show and activities such as workshops, talks, concerts, exhibitions, conferences, poetry and freestyle recitals, performative journalism, among others, it will take place from Tuesday to Sunday throughout the month in all the rooms and spaces of the Teatro Solís.

Within the framework of this event, the Gabo Foundation arrives in Montevideo with a small version of the Gabo Festival, which each year brings together more than 10 thousand people in Bogotá in its talks, workshops and exhibitions. With this participation in Macondo, it will be the first time in its 11 years that the Gabo Festival will be held outside of Colombia. Jaime Abello Banfi, who was a friend of the Colombian author and is the general director and co-founder of the Gabo Foundation, will participate in the programming with a conference.

The realization of the event involved a joint work network with different artistic bodies and local government departments, the Municipality of Montevideo, the Solís Theater, the National Comedy, the Philharmonic Orchestra and the Montevideo Symphonic Band, and support such as that of the Embassy of Colombia in Uruguay and the Gabo Foundation, so it is expected to be an unprecedented experience on a cultural level.

The Director of Culture of the Municipality of Montevideo, María Inés Obaldía, explained that this meeting will consist of “an immersive experience of tribute to García Márquez, but that transcends the author himself, focusing above all on Latin American literature and art.”

For her part, Malena Muyala, director of the Teatro Solís, said that, arising from an idea by the director of the Comedia Nacional - Montevideo's stable theatrical cast -, Gabriel Calderón, the project had the challenge of “reflecting an artist of the size of García Márquez” which, he emphasized, “totally exceeds art” and “transforms.”

The event spaces include a recreation of the La Cueva bar, frequented by the author, and a children's corner named Macondito; in addition to a central show written by authors from Argentina, Spain, Cuba, Colombia and Bolivia, among other countries. Likewise, there will be talks on journalism and culture, workshops, a poetry recital, graphic arts exhibitions and a gastronomic offer, all of this full of the characteristics of the Macondian universe.

During the following weeks we will share details of all the programming on the networks of the Gabo Foundation, Gabo Festival, Teatro Solís and the National Comedy.

Tickets coming soon at the Solís Theater box office and at Tickantel.