Art

In 2010 the eyes of the world will once again be on Panama in response to a magnificent work, where science and the arts unite to highlight the richness of the country’s ecosystems. We are talking about the Museum of Biodiversity, which will be located on the Amador Causeway, at the Pacific Ocean entrance to the Panama Canal.

Various different organizations have joined forces to make this museum a reality. These include the not for profit Amador Foundation, which was established with the specific objective of providing for the people of Panama and of the world, a center celebrating the biodiversity of this country that has also made such a contribution to the planet. Other partners in the project include the Autoridad de la Región Interoceánica (Inter-Oceanic Region Authority), Banco Nacional (National Bank), Towerbank, the Sam Kardonski Foundation and two prestigious institutions contributing a scientific perspective: the Universidad Nacional de Panamá (Panama National University) and the Smithsonian Institute.

As a result of this shared resolve, residents of Panama as well as visitors will be able to enjoy a magnificent building, covering an area of 4,000 square meters, within which they will be able to experience exhibits paying tribute to art, science and life itself. The building is designed by architect Frank Gehry, who is also responsible for that other unique architectural wonder, the Guggenheim Museum in the city of Bilbao in Spain.

The exhibition itself is divided into eight galleries, conceived as a sequence by Bruce Mau Design. In each gallery working models will communicate scientific concepts to visitors in ways that are easy to understand.

The first gallery to welcome visitors will be Biodiversity, represented by a ramp leading directly into the country’s natural riches. In the second gallery, Panamarama, 14 giant screens will show audiovisual presentations of these same riches.

Next the visitor will enter an exhibition called Building the Bridge, where they will be encouraged to use their sense of touch to learn about the geological upheaval that lead to the creation of the Panamanian Isthmus, represented by three 14 meter high tectonic sculptures. Animal species have their own featured area in the galleries called The Great Exchange, addressing the species that North and South America have in common because of the formation of the Isthmus, and Divided Ocean where semi cylindrical aquaria will show the evolution of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans up to the stage where they became permanently separated by the emergence of Panama’s land mass.

Mankind also has an important part to play in biodiversity and as such also has his own gallery. This is to be called the Human Footprint and will be located in an open area populated by 16 pillars narrating not only the history of human beings in Panama, but also their interaction with the natural resources that the country has to offer.

The exhibition ends with the galleries to be known as The Living Network and Panama Is the Museum. In the first of these, a sculpture is simultaneously plant, animal, insect and micro organism, showing clearly that no species is more important than any other and how they all interact with each other to make life possible on Planet Earth. The final gallery will be dedicated to the continual relationship between Panama’s biodiversity and the rest of the world, and will make connections between the museum and all corners of the planet through a virtual network.

As well as its permanent exhibits, the Museum of Biodiversity will also provide other services such as an entrance hall open to the public, an area for temporary exhibitions, a shop, cafeteria and botanical park designed by landscape artist Edwina von Gal, which will be the setting for outside exhibitions.

Although the museum’s birth will be the result of cooperation between the organizations mentioned at the beginning of this piece, it will above all be part of Panama’s heritage, and Panamanians themselves are participants in it. The executives, bankers, the man in the street, the housewives, and even the artists, will be the first to be approached so that their work could be part of this ambitious project. And these will be selected through the competition Arte Innova Panamá 2008: Prisma de Vida (Art Changes Panama 2008: Prism of Life), organized by Towerbank in association with the Museum of Biodiversity.

Artists who enter this competition will be able to submit their illustrations of the diversity of species that inhabit this country. The winning work will be displayed as a giant stained glass window that will dominate the Gallery of Biodiversity. This honor is reserved exclusively for Panamanian artists, demonstrating that science and art are not so far apart. On the contrary, they work together and complement each other in paying tribute to mankind’s genius and the richness of the ecosystems that surround him. This reflection will turn out to be the Museum of Biodiversity’s biggest legacy to Panama, and in turn, Panama’s legacy for the whole world.

www.biomuseopanama.org