The Panama Biennial and its influence on the Isthmus

During the twentieth century, panamanian plastic arts were quite behind with respect to the advanced centers of the Latin American continent, in spite of all institutional efforts initiated in the country to achieve an appropriate and stable environment in terms of national artistic productions.

Nevertheless, the Panamanian Art Institute (PANARTE) –founded in 1962– and the Contemporary Art Museum (MAC) –in 1983– are the main pillars of the institutional system in the country, due to their consistent course. Specifically in the case of the MAC, due to a significant work to save the heritage and to develop an event that has become the main exhibition space of plastic works: The Panama Art Biennial.

With the announcement of the First Edition of the so –called Pictorial Art Biennial (1992)– which tried to encourage the production of this prevailing expression in the country for almost a century, the plastic scene was renovated. (During the Fourth Edition (1998), a Special Prize for Sculpture would be introduced and the restrictive term “pictorial art” is removed from the name of the Event).

The Sponsor Company –Cervecería Nacional– had been linked before to the promotion of Panamanian Art (1984) sponsoring three editions of a Pictorial Art Contest that was very well received by the artists. After the stabilization of the political situation in the country, this company, together with the Foundation of Art and Culture –also a private entity, that was interested in, non profitable artistic promotions, without having bonds with other entities or commercial galleries– assume a bigger commitment, the mentioned Pictorial Art Biennial, to promote the participation of Panamanian artists (residents or not in the country) and foreign artists based in Panama, for a time period of no more than three years.

Since the very beginning, the competition had the support of the Contemporary Art Museum (MAC) as the location for the exhibitions and the theoretical event that each edition includes. The first of these events was coordinated by Mrs. Irene Escoffery and it was advised by Mrs. Mónica Kupfer, both founders of MAC. The latter, as a result of her experience heading the competition, has described the Biennial as follows:

The Panama Art Biennial is the most prestigious event for the advancement of the contemporary visual arts in Panama. It offers creative individuals a non-commercial space within which to produce and exhibit their art, providing contact with the general public and with critics, as well as promoting their work through a bilingual catalogue published after the exhibition, which is distributed nationally and internationally.[i]

The first three exhibitions were not subject to any previous curatorial work other than the acceptance of the works. They received only paintings; museum’s concepts were basically determined by the adjustments of formats and sizes of the pieces to available spaces in MAC.

The people in charge of selecting the works and granting the prizes were, every time, three internationally renowned specialists that were appointed as the Jury of the event. Among them: Edward J. Sullivan, rector of Fine Arts Department at the University of New York; Cristina Gálvez, director of the “Rufino Tamayo” International Contemporary Art Museum, from Mexico; Virginia Pérez-Ratton, director of the Contemporary Art and Design Museum from San José;lvonne Pini, executive editor of Art Nexus, and PhD. Andrea Giunta, professor of Latin American Art, University of Buenos Aires. By inviting these foreign specialists, the organizers of the Biennial were looking for more unbiased selection and award-granting criteria. At the same time, during the contest, these personalities would delivered lectures and would offer the public and the Panamanian Institutions an updated look of the Latin American and international scenario. Their work is hold in high esteem by the host country’s artists and intellectual sector. It has even been stated that “their decisions have undoubtedly contributed to place the Panamanian art exhibited during each Biennial as part of the current international art’s sphere of influence”.[ii]

No doubts that this international contact that presupposes the selection of foreign personalities as part of the Jury of the contest, has open possibilities of new spaces for the prizewinning Panamanian artists to exhibit their works. For example, the traveling exhibition Long Live Panama (Que viva Panamá), organized by the Contemporary Art Museum for their presentation in Ecuador and Peru, was mostly based on the list of prizewinners at 1996 Biennial.

In the 1998 Edition, the value of the awards was increased and, as an additional incentive for the First Prize Winner, a paid trip to the Mexican Capital was included to start contacts with galleries, museums and artists from that Latin American nation.

It is a fact that “Biennials, like it was the case of the Xerox[iii] Contest some years ago, help defining the Panamanian Contemporary Art of their time”.[iv]However, it will not be until the forth edition that the Biennial widens its boundaries by receiving plastic expressions that show that the Panamanian art of the last decade of the 20^th century–and what has passed of the 21^st century– is part of the formal diversity and experimentation of the most recent Central American Art within the history of the plastic arts in our continent.

With the celebration of the Forth Edition of Panama Art Biennial in 1998 –in which Sculpture was included for the first time, and an Award was granted to Mrs. Iraida Icaza with the work “Lightened Box # 1”– it can be verified that the promotional contemporary art circuit is widened in that country. In fact, Icaza’s work consisted of an assembly of objects and images, made with mixed techniques. So, its official recognition represented a qualitative advance in terms of a legitimate position towards the artistic proposals that were starting to stimulate the artistic spheres of Panama. Ever since, the opening process was in crescendo, something made evident by the inclusion of photography (2000) and video (2002). It was precisely in this year when the audiovisual piece titled “What’s the Play’s Name? By the artist Jonathan Harper was granted the First Prize.

In effect, since the latest years of the last century and up to this millennium the Panamanian Art shows an increase of expressive means and a significant quality level that has allowed to some of their representatives to successfully be included in not a few regional contests such as the Biennials of the Central American Isthmus, Emerging Artists Events, Lima’s Biennial and the very Venice’s Biennial.

The technical and morphological expansion that has occurred in such a short period of time among Panamanian artists is outstanding. Many of them appeal to the use installations, photography, video art and even performance, all expressions that have a frequent and significant presence at National Biennials. This expansion has been a favourable element for the artistic scene of basically self- taught creators, beneficiaries of the democratization of tools like the photographic and video camera and coming from different sectors like the scientific and commercial publicity areas.

Conceptually, the Panamanian art is based on the authentic critic reflection about the enormous economic, social and existential problems that impact them in a very particular way. It is a society strongly marked by diversity and contrast. In the same way, the works of plastic arts will also be varied: migration, social marginality, essential contradictions of consumption societies and the crushing world of commercial publicity, gender issues, omnipresence, urban kitsch, among others prove the recurrent presence in different poetics that support our perception that there is a healthy diversity and encouraging signs of maturity in the contemporary Panamanian art.

The year 2005 represented a dramatic change in the concept of the competition. Instead of having a competitive event with monetary prizes, there was a call for the artists to deliver their proposals of artistic projects. The person in charge of selecting the “finalists” was the Guatemalan curator Rosina Cazali, who also headed the exhibition. This was a very enriching element for the artists as it was the first time they worked under the guidance of such a specialist. The budget previously granted to the prize-winners was dedicated to the production of the works of the 15 finalists, out of the 63 that attended the call. Thus, the result was a solid exhibition where the works had an interrelation among themselves following a curatorial criterion and not only due to the fact that they were placed in the same space. Now, the Biennial acquired a different character: from a competitive event it turned into a space to exchange and enrich the country’s creator’s artistic notions.

The eighth edition, held in 2008, was not exempted from modifications, which were the result of the previous experience. This time the Mexican curator Magali Arriola, would organize an exhibition titled: “The Sweet Burnt Smell of History”; a curated exhibition to the most extensive meaning of the word, in which there was a central theme: the former Panama Canal Zone. Undoubtedly; this has been, and still is, a very sensitive matter for the inhabitants of the country and, therefore, for national or foreign artists. 

Panama Art Biennial is not only the exhibition of the works selected by a jury or a curator in the Museum; it has become already an event where the interdisciplinary character is the core of its development. Through guided visits, lectures and talks about different subjects, parallel exhibitions, book presentations, documentaries, and the traditional Bilingual Catalogue that is published every edition, it integrates elements that enrich national artistic production and, at the same time, add new thematic trends and themes to the aesthetic heritage of the audience in order to expand the narrow concepts that prevailed in the country in relation to this subject.

I is not strange that the concept of the Panama Art Biennial was created under the sign of a contest dedicated to pictorial art because, as we have explained, it was the favorite of educational and promotional spaces of the Panamanian scene. Even so, the three first editions marked a favorable and necessary precedent for the subsequent grow of the event. Mostly, it occurred as of the forth edition and the following ones.

This way, there is a direct relation established between the Biennial and the perspective horizon of Panama’s contemporary art. Since late the past century, it can be observed the stimulating development of plastic production and a renovation of both forms and concept. We notice proposals characterized by plurality of themes and deep concepts; at least in those that provide visibility to the recent artistic work in this country through the most important promotional contests of the area.

It should also be recognized the role of the participating critic juries and curators in each edition. They have contributed to the introduction of new languages and themes to deal with the artistic issues of the country.

The organizers have also showed a position that is open to exchange and, thank to their persistency and careful eyes, such an event has become a vital center of attention for the plastic arts in Panama and the region. This is reflected on the promotional web page of the eighth edition: “Over the past 16 years, the event has been renovated, from a painting contest in the beginnings to what it is today: an exhibition of contemporary arts, including all artistic expressions, which does not intend to represent the status quo of contemporary art in the country; but rather to contribute to its renovation”.[v]