Colombiage is a London festival that celebrates contemporary Colombian art. 2011 will be its 5th year, and there are plans to make it bigger and better than ever. We spoke to Landa Acevedo-Scott, Founder & Artistic Director of Colombiage about the project.

“The first Colombiage was a one-day festival. It was on a Saturday – I remember it very clearly! It was a real experiment. We did it to see how people would respond. Three strands: music, literature and cinema. There were four events; it started at 2pm, with a literary event with Juan Gabriel Vasques, the writer. We held all the events at the Riverside Studios in Hammersmith, keeping it all under one roof.

“It was packed! There were a lot of Colombian people, of course, but also British people, which was great, because that is what we were hoping to attract. To introduce a different side of Colombian culture to lots of people has always been the hope of Colombiage.

“My favourite moment was working with Manu Chao last year. We had a big benefit concert last October at The Coronet. It was fantastic to work with such a high-profile figure, and one that was so lovely! He brought a lot of people together.

“For 2011, Colombiage will no longer be a one-day festival. We’re quite an established brand now; we want to do things throughout the year, so people can have a chance to come throughout the year.

“This year we will still focus on cinema, literature, music, and we’re branching out into theatre and the visual arts. We’ll use different venues too. There’ll still be things at the Riverside, but also at Rich Mix and at Southbank, and Sabor in Islington (for the literary evenings).

“The team behind Colombiage are mostly Colombians who’ve been working and living here for a long time. But it’s not exclusive! There are Americans, French and English on the team. That way we have interests included from all over the world. They’re people who have extensive experience in their specialised areas.” Landa mentions that Colombiage is currently recruiting, and asks anyone who’s interested in helping out to get in touch via the website.

Landa believes that there are two things that make Colombiage stand out. “Firstly, it’s never been done before. Lots of the Colombian events that come to the UK are sporadic and traditional. This is more about the contemporary: the latest things, the latest releases. For example, we ran the first showcase of experimental Colombian cinema last year.

“Second, there’s the education strand. With any country, people jump to conclusions, and develop perceptions. Our education programme aims to look at the problems in context; looking at Colombia’s many contradictions through its culture.” 

Here’s a video trailer for Colombiage 2009, which gives a great taste of what to expect from Colombiage. Visit www.colombiage.com for more information, including more videos.

Where else can you find Colombian art, music and food in London? Let us know in the comments below.

To find a little piece of Uruguay in London, I spoke to photographer Julio Etchart, who moved from Uruguay to London in the 1970s. Julio has worked all over the world on projects ranging from music commissions, magazines and displays for charitable organisations such as Oxfam. He is currently exhibiting at the Apples and Pears Gallery in East London.

Both Uruguay and London have an influence on Julio’s work:

“All my career has been for NGOs and charities that work in development. I’d like to think the influence is there. Uruguay is a very cultural country. It has a very high literacy rate and good state education. But being [in London] at the centre of the cultural capital of the world has broadened my horizons. I was influenced by many cultures here.”

And what is the Uruguayan community in London like?

“We are a small community of 400 or so.

“There isn’t anything that you could call Uruguayan in London – apart from the expats, of course! There used to be a fine restaurant in Camden, the well-known Camden Brasserie, set up and run by two Uruguayan brothers for almost 25 years. But though they kept the place, they are both retired back home and they just got a (non-Uruguayan) manager to run it. That’s the closest you get to it.”

But even without a physical hub in London, there is one thing that unites the Uruguayan community here: football! Uruguay reached the semi-finals in this year’s World Cup:

“The World Cup was the only opportunity for the expats to get together. It only happened once, at the semifinals: a group of us, invited by the ambassador, got together at an English pub in West London to watch it.

“I watched most of the games at the Rich Mix cultural centre in Bethnal Green, since I was invited to have a slide show of my football photo gallery on the big screen during the intervals.” [You can see the slide show at www.julioetchart.com]

Uruguay has even enjoyed Olympic football success:

“Uruguay won the football World Cup twice (in 1930 and 1950) a long time ago, though, but we also won the Olympics Football cup (before the World Cup was actually instituted) at the Paris and Amsterdam Olympics of 1924 and 1928. So there is a strong, albeit old, Olympic connection there.”

Julio’s current photography exhibition, Katha: In the Footsteps of George Orwell in Burma is showing at the Apples and Pears Gallery, documenting Orwell’s five years in Burma and locations from his novel Burmese Days:

“I read all of his novels in translation as a child. I went to the places where Burmese Days was written and followed the trail. It’s a travelogue.”

Julio’s next project is an exhibition marking the 200th anniversary of the independence of Latin American countries. It takes place in City Hall from 22 November 2010.

Do you know of anything Uruguayan in London? We’d love to know.

“Where are you from?” is a question Philippe Sibelly has pondered a lot. Born in Marseilles, Philippe has travelled widely, living in Sydney and Ireland before settling in London.

It’s London’s multiculturalism that inspired his World in One City challenge. In 2005, in the run-up to the announcement that London would host the 2012 Olympics, Philippe decided to capture that multiculturalism in a photography project.

A year and a half later, Philippe had a set of 202 photographs, representing each of the countries taking part in the Olympic Games at the time. (Now there are 205). The photos are all currently on display in Rich Mix in East London. In each Polaroid portrait, the subject is holding the previous photo, creating a chain, Philippe explains, like the Olympic flame. In view of our own current World in London blog project, I felt I had to go and meet him.

“At the start, it was really easy,” Philippe says. “I thought, ‘I know people from pretty much everywhere.’ I tried doing things to challenge people’s perceptions. Karim from Peru is a refugee from Palestine. So he doesn’t look like he’s from Peru. But he is. And in the next photo, he’s being held by an Israeli, Maya.”

“But it became more and more difficult. It started taking so long. I spent hours on email, organising with friends, travelling around the city to meet people from different places. To New Malden to find someone from South Korea. To Woolwich to meet someone from Africa…”

“Some days, I’d travel around and only take one or two photos. It was really, really frustrating.”

As well as meeting friends of friends and colleagues, Philippe says he also stopped people in the street to ask where they were from. “Very few people got annoyed,” he says. “Really, despite what people say, Londoners are very open. It may be because I’m a foreigner myself, but people were open to taking part.”

Looking through the chain of photos is fascinating. Philippe remembers all of them, and recounts many anecdotes that stand out for him.

About Jonas, a monk from the Solomon Islands; Fredi from Mali, a footballer who played for Tottenham and West Ham; how top London chef Giorgio Locatelli wanted to represent Italy; and about Magdalena from Serbia Montenegro.

Magdalena presents what Philippe finds is an interesting question. In his project, she represents a country that no longer exists. Where does she say she’s “from” now? The slightly artificial construct of nationality fascinates Philippe. The boys he photographed to represent Haiti (Adam) and Pakistan (Zishaan) have never actually been to those countries. “But Adam said it would make his mother, who’s from Haiti, very proud. And Zishaan, well, he thinks of himself as fully English and fully Pakistani. He said to me, ‘How can I be half and half? I’m both.’ I find that strong sense of nationalism, from people who’ve never even been to the country they say they’re from, very strange.”

It’s a testament to London’s unique diversity that of the whole list of Olympic nations (a list he chose because it’s fairly neutral), Philippe only struggled to find people from about five. “For these five nations I chose someone linked in some way to this place: someone who has lived there, has family there, or even, in the case of Nauru, I settled for someone who knew where it was.”

Philippe has mixed views on the complex issue of London’s multiculturalism. “Diversity is great, but you can’t be too romantic about it. It’s not always a positive thing for everyone. When your local shop stops selling your sausages and starts selling samosas, it can be difficult for people to get used to.

“The best people can do is live with it, and get the positives out of it. Take the good.”

You can see Philippe’s World In One City photographs at Rich Mix, or online here.

In some places (Bulgaria, China, Russia, Vietnam) International Women’s Day is a national holiday.

Here in London, there are lots of events to celebrate IWD. We want to know what you’re up to on this special day.

International Women’s Day Events in London:

• Novelists Diana Evans and Benardine Evaristo are at Rich Mix tonight, talking about the theme of migration in their work. This event is also part of the East Festival.  7.30pm.
• Join Me On The Bridge is an international campaign promoting peace and development across the world. In London, a parade is gathering at Victoria Embankment Gardens for 10am, and walking to the Millenium Bridge at 12noon for a photograph. (The same thing is happening on bridges across the world from the Bahamas to Uganda, including the Brooklyn Bridge)
• Tonight at the Haunch of Venison, there’ll be a series of dance performances for International Women’s Day. Contemporary ballet, traditional Balkan and South Asian and Sufi whirlers as well as pieces from top female performance artists Eloise Fornieles and Kirstie Mcleod
• And, with Kathryn Bigelow’s fantastic, ground-breaking success at last night’s Academy Awards, don’t forget the Birds Eye Film Festival starts today: nine days of celebration and support for international women filmmakers.

What are you doing to celebrate International Women’s Day in London? Let us know in the comments below.