As part of the Madrid ARCO 2026 Contemporary Art Fair, next Wednesday at 7 p.m., the Embassy of Colombia and Casa América present in the Bolívar Salon of the latter a round table entitled El futuro es botánico: ciencia, vivencias y relaciones de lo vivo (The future is botany: science, experiences and relationships of the living). Free admission until full capacity.
This round table is organized around the exhibition El futuro es botánico, which can be seen at the Centro Cultural Gabriel García Márquez of the Embassy of Colombia in Spain (calle Fortuny, 36).
The exhibition aims to explore the complex relationships between humanity and nature from a scientific, cultural and sensory perspective. Starting from the idea that the biological and cultural history of our species has always been intertwined with biodiversity, the exhibition reflects on how our interactions have transformed – and in many cases fragmented – the networks that sustain life.
Through photographic, illustrated, sound and audiovisual material, the exhibition traces a narrative cartography that confronts different forms of knowledge: western science that describes and classifies, and lived science that inhabits and embodies nature in everyday life. This crossroads opens up a space to rethink how we perceive, represent and care for the living, building bridges between scientific research, cultural memory and aesthetic production.
In dialogue with the theme of ARCO, the round table proposes a reflection on the possible futures of art from a critical recognition: the conservation of nature is not only an ecological imperative, but also cultural, ethical and aesthetic. Ultimately, the conversation invites us to reconsider a fundamental question for our modernity: are we part of nature?
Following the welcoming words of León de la Torre Krais, general director of Casa de América, and Eduardo Ávila Navarrete, ambassador of Colombia to Spain, Óscar Alejandro Pérez-Escobar, evolutionary botanist and science communicator, and Carmen Posada Monroy, Biocultural manager and activist of stories of food and ecology. The event will be moderated by María Wills, a Colombian curator.
