Bogotá, Essays on Happiness

BOG25 Curatorial Axis


Titled Bogotá, Essays on Happiness, the first edition of the International Biennial of Art and City, BOG25, invites reflection on the relationship between urban life and the pursuit of well-being. This theme uncovers latent tensions between the desire for enjoyment and the societal imperative to be happy, approached through a critical lens. When happiness is reduced to a quantifiable goal achieved through pre-established formulas, it risks losing its most profound and subjective essence—becoming yet another product in the self-help marketplace.

Cities continue to expand, and the urban promise attracts migratory flows driven by aspirations that often give rise to complex social hierarchies. In the city’s outskirts, rural and urban dynamics intertwine, while the margins take on growing relevance—especially in a country like Colombia, where identity is deeply rooted in vernacular and popular culture. Bogotá is a constantly evolving and expanding city, where unchecked population growth contributes to a vibrant, multifaceted urban fabric.

The curatorial proposal explores multiple dimensions of the concept of happiness:

  • Pleasure and Leisure centers on collective action, carnival, and play;
  • Ritual and Nature examines artificial paradises, altered states of consciousness, and healing practices;
  • Stratigraphies addresses segregation and endogamy in a city shaped by entrenched socioeconomic stratification;
  • Cold Land reflects on Bogotá as one of the few cold-climate cities in a tropical country, and explores its unique urban ecosystem;
  • The Promise considers this expansive metropolis as a place of arrival, of refuge, and of dreams for a better future;
  • Toxic Positivity critically examines the rise of self-help literature and the commercial narratives surrounding the pursuit of happiness.

BOG25 will revisit two key historical works from the late 1970s and early 1980s by artists Beatriz González (Colombia) and Alfredo Jaar (Chile), who critically examined the notion of happiness by exploring the contextual tensions embedded within it.