La Biennale di Venezia

La 61. Esposizione Internazionale d’Arte  permanecerá abierta al público por ocho meses, durante los cuales más de 800,000 personas visitan los diferentes pabellones.

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Panama vuelve a Venecia

Por segunda vez en la historia se presentará un pabellón de Panamá en la prestigiosa Bienal de Arte de Venecia, con dos artistas panameños destacados y representativos de lo mejor de nuestro arte contemporáneo. 

It is an exceptional opportunity for Panama to present itself on the most famous international renowned at the level of art and culture to showcase the best of our country, opening doors for many talents not only in the arts but in the disciplines that study, teach and promote it. 

Un proyecto país

MARÍA EUGENIA HERRERA
Ministra de Cultura

Participar en la Bienal de Arte de Venecia consolida la presencia de Panamá en la plataforma más relevante del arte contemporáneo del mundo. Nuestro pabellón es un esfuerzo país que une al sector público, instituciones culturales y empresa privada para proyectar el talento panameño y fortalecer nuestro ecosistema artístico, recordando siempre que: el arte nos une y la cultura nos enriquece

Comisionado

Gianni Bianchini
Director Nacional de Las Artes
Ministerio de Cultura de Panamá

Gianni Bianchini es Director Nacional de las Artes del Ministerio de Cultura de Panamá y comisionado del Pabellón de Panamá para la Bienal de Arte de Venecia 2026. Con más de 15 años de trayectoria en el campo creativo como director, productor audiovisual y artista escénico, suma además cinco años de experiencia en gestión cultural pública, impulsando proyectos estratégicos para el fortalecimiento del sector artístico en el país.

Jurado

El jurado Internacional que evaluó las propuestas para la selección del o los artistas que representarán a Panamá en el Pabellón en Venecia estuvo compuesto por seis destacados profesionales de las artes, con una amplia experiencia en la curaduría, la crítica de arte, la gestión cultural y la dirección de instituciones artísticas. Cada miembro del jurado evaluó de manera independiente las propuestas, aplicando una rigurosa rúbrica basada en tres criterios principales: la fuerza y coherencia conceptual, la trayectoria del artista o colectivo, y la viabilidad y capacidad de ejecución.
 
Rosina
Miguel
Jochen
Gladys
Gianni
Carolina

Curadoras

Mónica Kupfer, Ph.D.
Co-Curadora
Ana Elizabeth González
Co-Curadora
Panamá ha sido un territorio marcado por fuerzas imperiales, estratégicas y geográficas que han modelado su identidad. En el corazón del país, una franja administrada durante casi un siglo por una potencia extranjera fracturó el territorio y la noción misma de soberanía, imponiendo límites que aún resuenan en la memoria colectiva. De esa historia de control y vigilancia surgieron lenguajes propios, formas de resistencia y maneras singulares de afirmarse frente a lo ajeno. (En)clave propone un espacio de reflexión sobre esa doble condición: el enclave como encierro y la clave como código. Frente a narrativas hegemónicas y procesos de simplificación cultural, las obras reunidas en este pabellón activan resonancias ocultas, reescriben significados y ensayan nuevas formas de pertenencia. Desde la tensión entre lo impuesto y lo propio, este proyecto invita a pensar la identidad panameña como un territorio en permanente traducción y defensa.

Our Artists

Antonio José Guzmán e Iva Jankovic
Panameño

La propuesta seleccionada fue la presentada por el dúo Mensajeros del Sol, compuesto por Antonio José Guzmán e Iva Jankovic, desarrolla una práctica que combina textile, Sonido, archive y memoria para abordar historias de movimiento, identidad y diaspora. Su investigación incorpora colaboraciones artesanales con el taller de Sufiyan Khatri en Guajarat (India) y referencias visuales afrocaribeñas Adinkra y mesoamericanas.

Su trabajo ha sido presentado en instituciones y bienales internacionales, incluyendo una muestra reciente en el Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Panamá (MAC Panamá), así como en el Stedelijk museum (Ámsterdam), la Bienal de Dakar, la Bienal de Arte Paiz (Guatemala), la Bienal de la Habana, PINTA Lima y la exposición internacional de la Bienal de Arte de Venecia 2024, curada por Adriano Pedrosa. Además, su obra forma parte de
colecciones públicas y privadas en América Latina, Europa y África.

Comité

Luz Bonadies
Comunicación y Mercadeo
Mariana Nuñez Haugland
Dirección Gráfica
Mirielle Robles
Exposición y Montaje
Roman Flórez
Exposición y Montaje

Contact

Contact information

Información

info@panamapavilion.org

Press

Mercadeo | mercadeo@museodelcanal.com
+507 211-1649 ext. 309 | +507 66605816

Donations

Anna Elena González | annagonzalez@museodelcanal.com

Our social networks
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Mónica Kupfer, ph.D.
Curator and Director
Art and Culture Foundation of Panama

Mónica Kupfer is an art historian, exhibition curator and art critic. She holds a Ph.D. in Art History with a focus on Latin American art. She was the first curator of the Museum of Contemporary Art of Panama and founding director of the Panama Art Biennial, an event held from 1992 to 2008. Since 1999, she has directed the Fundación Arte & Cultura, which promotes Panamanian art locally and internationally.

Kupfer has distinguished herself as an author and editor, as well as speaker and judge in contemporary art events.

Ana Elizabeth González
Executive Director and Chief Curator
Panama Canal Museum

Ana Elizabeth González has been the Executive Director and Chief Curator of the Panama Canal Museum since 2020. She holds bachelor's degrees in Archaeology and Business Administration, as well as master's degrees in International Cultural Relations and Curatorial Studies.

González previously worked as the Cultural Attaché of Panama in the U.K. and as Program Manager of the London Mithraeum Bloomberg SPACE contemporary art gallery and historical museum.She also served as Executive Director of the FAOU Foundation for Japanese artist Mariko Mori.

Luz Bonadies
Communications and Culture Manager
City of Knowledge Foundation Panama

Luz Bonadies is the Communications and Marketing Manager of the City of Knowledge Foundation. From 2017 to 2020, she was the Executive Director of the Museum of Contemporary Art, where she led a radical transformation of the institution. She has studies in Journalism, Social Communication and Marketing, as well as specializations in Project Management and Design Thinking for Innovation.

She was Director of Magazines at Grupo Epasa and National Director of Publications at the National Institute of Culture. She has excelled as a specialist in projects related to sustainable development and cultural management.

Giana De Dier
Panamanian, 1980

Panamanian artist Giana De Dier explores the representation of the Afro-descendant population through drawings and collages that he builds with information and materials from historical archives, oral histories and family memories, as well as with photos she takes and the appropriation of old photographs. She focuses on representations of women of origin caribbean, putting together imaginary scenarios to commemorate the resilience of the West Indian migrants who arrived in the country for the construction of the canal and to bear witness to their contribution to the shaping of identity panameña.

De Dier estudió Artes Visuales en the University of Panama. After his first participation in a group show in 2009, and his first individual exhibition in 2014, he has exhibited on a dozen occasions atPanamá, Italy and the United States. In 2022, she was invited to the prestigious 58ª Carnegie International en Pittsburgh and in 2023, she was the winner of the first artist residency at el Panama Interoceanic Canal Museum.

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Isabel De Obaldía
Panamanian born in Washington, D.C., 1957

Although she was initially trained in graphic design and cinematography, the much-admired Panamanian artist Isabel De Obaldía is known for her drawings, paintings, sculptures, and videos. She has exhibited over four decades in numerous solo exhibitions and group shows in Panama, Europe, and the United States.

In 1989, a time of political turmoil in Panama, she created memorable works of protests against the dictatorship. In the 90s, she discovered the practice of glass sculpture, a medium in which she has achieved recognition for her extraordinary large-scale pieces, usually of male figures, wild animals, torsos, and heads. She has been exhibiting with the Mary-Anne Martin Fine Art Fine Art Gallery in New York since 1997, and recently, in 2022, she was invited to the 58th Carnegie International, the world's second-oldest biennial. In both her two-dimensional and glass works De Obaldía expresses a remarkable concern for the natural world, as well as for human beings and their often-difficult sociopolitical circumstances.

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Brooke Alfaro
Panameño, 1957

Brooke Alfaroo, One of Panama’s most prominent artists, Brooke Alfaro became known initially for his images of lifelike figures painted in a surrealist and irreverent tone, in works created with admirable academic skills

He had his first solo exhibition in 1979, which has been followed by countless exhibitions both in Panama and abroad. By 1990, his paintings --which often mocked religious or political themes-- became populated with agglomerations of human figures, usually in crammed boats, at sea, in jungles or other natural, often threatening, environments.

From the beginning of this century, Alfaro expanded his artistic endeavors to include the production of video works, which earned him multiple awards, including the first prize in the First Latin American Video Art Competition in Washington, D.C. in 2003. In addition to being an artist, Brooke Alfaro is a social and environmental activist, focusing primarily on education and ecology.

Cisco Merel
Panamanian, 1981

Cisco Merel's work reveals an interpretation of themes such as popular art, architecture, and social contrasts, in striking installations and abstract paintings of geometric shapes and intense colors, which he produces with the incorporation of clay, pigments and stainless steel. He studied Fine Arts in Panama and in international workshops and residencies in New York, Paris, and Leipzig. For more than ten years, he collaborated with the Carlos Cruz Diez Workshop in Panama City.

He has presented more than fifteen solo exhibitions in Panama and abroad since 2005. Merel creates paintings and sculptures, both small and large, for both private and public spaces, using a variety of materials ranging from canvas and wood to synthetic polymers. In his works, he manages to reinterpret everyday experiences through colors, shapes and sensations that generate reflections on the systems and social situations of our times.

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