The Canal Zone and Panama’s 8th Art Biennial

By the time that Panama’s last Art Biennial was held in 2005, the exhibition had managed to establish itself as one of the foremost and most interesting platforms for artists in Central America. After more than ten years in the post, Director of the Foundation for Art and Culture, Mónica Kupfer, stepped aside and handed the reins over to acknowledged cultural promoter Walo Araújo. Araújo was editor and creative director of the Mogo magazine in the years 2000 and 2001. More recently he has helped to produce a number of different artistic and historical exhibitions and is currently working with the team that is preparing the Biodiversity Museum exhibition.

In its early years Panama’s Art Biennial was focused on promoting contemporary painting and sculpture, and sponsored three major prizes which were awarded on the recommendation of a handpicked jury. Starting with the seventh exhibition, Araújo introduced a new concept in his capacity as curator, promoting cutting edge art and providing all the artists invited to participate with financial support to help them with the production of their respective artworks. This change has been extremely positive for the local artistic community producing conceptual, rather than commercial, art.

On this eighth occasion that the Biennial has been held, the exhibition has been delayed by one year. Although the event should have been held in 2007, the organizers took the decision to postpone it for financial and logistical reasons. This has turned out to be a wise decision as this year’s exhibition is without doubt the most ambitious to date.

For the first time the Panama Art Biennial has adopted a theme, that of the old Canal Zone and the stories and legends surrounding it. Never before has there been such an examination of what the Zone meant to Panamanians from an artistic perspective. And not only is this the first time that a theme has been adopted, but also the first time that artists from other countries have been invited to participate.

The Biennial is thus joining the general explosion in “internationalization” that Panama is experiencing. Magali Arriola, the exhibition’s Mexican curator, has chosen the following artists to exhibit: Francis Alÿs (Belgium/Mexico), Abner Benaim (Panama), Enrique Castro Ríos (Panama), Donna Conlon (USA/Panama), Sam Durant (USA), Aurélien Froment (France), Mario García Torres (Mexico/USA), Jonathan Harker (Ecuador/Panama), Jonathan Monk (UK/Germany), Roman Ondak (Slovakia/Germany), Rich Potter (USA/Panama), Sean Snyder (USA/Germany), Michael Stevenson (New Zealand/Germany), Mungo Thomson (USA), Humberto Vélez (Panama/UK), Ramón Zafrani (Panama).

Arriola’s thinking behind the exhibition is that this year’s Biennial will operate on two different, but nevertheless linked, conceptual levels. On the one hand, the exhibition will feature artists who are familiar with the old Canal Zone and will create works in situ that will resonate directly with the Zone’s past and present. The curator has also invited artists who, while not knowledgeable about the Canal Zone per se, have nevertheless created works and installations in their own countries that will either contribute reflections on the vanishing political and cultural significance of a particular place, or stimulate thought about the meaning of this kind of geographical phenomenon.

This year’s event is not just focused on the work of the selected artists, but also on the wide range of associated educational activities. These include a photographic exhibition of work by Kurt Dillon, Roger Trancik and Sam Sweezy showing images of the “Garden City”, its progressive planning and the Panama Canal; a full program of academic work days that examine the Canal area’s importance as part of the global cultural scene; and presentation of the documentary “Canal Zone” by film maker Frederick Weisman and the return of the paintings of Brooke Alfaro.