This article discusses the 37th Salón Nacional de Artistas, an event held from July 16 to August 9, 1998 on the premises of Corferias—Centro Internacional de Negocios y Exposiciones—in Bogotá. The salon was organized by the then recently created Ministerio de Cultura (established in 1997), formerly the Instituto Colombiano de Cultura (Colcultura). This text is significant insofar as it provides a critical assessment of the Salón Nacional de Artistas. In it, José Ignacio Roca (b. 1962) proposes some strategies that might make the salon more dynamic in the future. He specifically discusses improving the call for submissions so that it would reach a greater number of artists throughout the city and the region, and supporting curatorial participation through a fellowship program and interdisciplinary curatorial efforts. He further proposes organizing historical exhibitions that contribute to a broader effort to document the historical development of the Salón Nacional de Artistas and to make known its contributions to Colombian art. All of Roca’s suggestions were later put into practice. Today, they are included in the platform of the Programa Salones de Artistas (www.salonesdeartistas.com).
Roca advocates promoting work by Colombian artists abroad. He initially mentions major figures like Miguel Ángel Rojas (b. 1946), Antonio Caro Lopera (b. 1950), Bernardo Salcedo (1939–2007), El Grupo de Arte Experimental El Sindicato (1976-1978), Carlos Rojas (1933–1997), Doris Salcedo (b. 1958), and Oscar Muñoz (b. 1951). Roca mentions the possibility of publishing a series of monographs that would contribute to research on Colombian art historiography and support the work of regional museums and non-conventional art spaces. He proposes using the model of the Colombian government’s Salas Concertadas program for theater administration.
Only one issue of Revista Post was published. The project was an initiative of the División de Artes Visuales to invite a number of players on the Colombian art scene—curators, artists, directors of university programs, and theorists—to reflect on different issues. The aim was to analyze the last edition of the Salón Nacional de Artistas to take place in the 20th century. Other participants in the publication include Jaime Cerón (b. 1967), Beatriz González (b. 1938), and Andrés Gaitán.
Roca has a degree in architecture from the Universidad Nacional of Colombia. In 1993, he was awarded a master’s degree from the École d’Architecture Paris-Villemin (Paris) in the design and management of cultural buildings. He served as the director of art at the Banco de la República in Bogota (2004-2008). Roca is currently artistic director of Philagrafika, a quadrennial event of contemporary graphic arts that takes place in different venues around the city of Philadelphia (2010).