Winner of the 13th Most Important Contemporary Art Prize

Angélica Teuta Wins the 13th Luis Caballero Prize with Her Project Emotional Architecture

Bogotá, Colombia — Antioquian artist María Angélica Teuta Echeverri was announced as the winner of the 13th Luis Caballero Prize, the most important contemporary art award in the country. Her award-winning project, Emotional Architecture: Shelters & Dwellings, was described by the jury as “valuable, solid, and robust due to its inter- and transdisciplinary nature.” The prize includes a grant of 81 million pesos and a commission for an original work to be exhibited at the Santa Fe Gallery.

The jury, composed of Ana María Cifuentes Ruiz, Ana María Lozano Rocha, and María Sol Barón Pino, explained their decision, noting that the proposal “articulates knowledge from art, architecture, design, emotions and affections, along with other forms of knowledge and ancestral wisdom.” It was also highlighted that the artist has continued a research process for nearly eleven years. The project was exhibited between August and October 2025 at Galería Santa Fe, transforming the public's experience through a spiral structure that embraced diverse knowledge.

Emotional Architecture: Shelters & Dwellings revisits the concepts of Mathias Goeritz's Manifesto of Emotional Architecture (1953) to create, as described, "a habitable and dreamlike universe that fosters emotional and spiritual connection." The project is organized into four worlds of distinct sounds and materials, housed within a spiral, which relate to the categories of "shelter" (intimate and ephemeral refuges) and "dwelling" (more rigid, habitable structures).

Angélica Teuta, born in Medellín in 1985, is a visual artist with a Master of Fine Arts degree from Columbia University in New York. According to her profile, her multidisciplinary practice, which she has focused on for a decade under the name Emotional Architecture, centers on "collaborative and community contexts" with the aim of "revitalizing spaces and stimulating social cohesion and emotional well-being." She has carried out community projects, collaborated with the Truth Commission, and inaugurated a permanent public sculpture in Medellín.

The director of Idartes, María Claudia Parias Durán, congratulated the artist, stating that her work "represents the sensitivity that characterizes those who have made their artistic practice a constant investigation." As an alternate, the jury recommended the proposal "El Hueco" (The Void), by the artist Santiago Reyes Villaveces. The award consolidates Teuta's career and her methodology, which questions the exhibition space to project it as a political and ethical place of encounter.

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