Date: October 2018 – January 2019
Location: Museum of Contemporary Art, Panama City
Hyphen Hub and FACT Liverpool brought together a group of 12 artists to develop installations, performances, and workshops as part of the Museum of Contemporary Art’s exhibition STRATA, ROCKS, DUST, STARS in Panama City.
The exhibition is the result of an alliance between the Mayor’s Office of Panama City, the Museum of Contemporary Art (MAC), and the English art association FACT (Foundation for Art and Creative Technology) located in the sister city of Liverpool. In addition, it convened a large national and international student population and offered a series of activities contributing to Science Week and the CILAC Forum (Meeting of Science for Latin America and the Caribbean) in the promotion of science in the nation’s capital.
STRATA was a multisensory exhibition with interactive pieces, moving images, and new media that explored the symbiotic relationship between art, science, and technology. The exhibition explored the link between our identities and knowledge about the formation of Earth, as well as the impact of humans on the terraforming of our planet. One of the points of departure for this exhibition was an innovative map created by the English geologist William Smith in 1815 who, for the first time, identified and delineated the layers of the earth and transformed the way the world was understood.
Curators of the exhibition
Mike Stubbs
Mike Stubbs is an independent curator and Professor of Art and Media at John Moores University in Liverpool. Previously, he was Director of FACT (Foundation for Creative Arts and Technologies) in Liverpool, the leading organization in the United Kingdom for the commission and presentation of new artistic media, social participation, and programs for the development of talent. He also served as Program Manager for ACMI (Australian Center for the Moving Image), Resident and Senior Researcher in Melbourne, and for the Visual Research Center of Dundee University in Scotland.
Asher Remy-Toledo
Asher Remy-Toledo is a Colombian-American producer of art and cultural events. Based in New York, he directs Hyphen Hub, a non-profit organization that discovers, promotes, and presents new live works and exhibitions of artists that integrate art and technology. Asher is also the co-founder of No Longer Empty, a New York-based nonprofit group that takes over empty spaces and creates site-specific installations and co-founder of Latin American Cultural Week in New York. He founded and directed the Remy Toledo Gallery in New York and has produced numerous exhibitions including for Art Miami, Liverpool Biennial, and FACT Liverpool.
Participating artists
Ryoichi Kurokawa – (Japan)
Janet Biggs (United States)
Leonel Vásquez (Colombia)
David Jacques (England)
Atractor Studio (Colombia)
Donna Conlon & Jonathan Harker (Panama)
Carlos Bonil (Colombia)
Clemencia Echeverri (Colombia)
Jorge Barco (Colombia)
Bárbara Santos (Colombia)
With the participation of Casa Hoffman gallery in Bogota.
Public program
STRATA was visited by students and scientists from Central America and Panama as part of its Science Week activities as well as by regional mayors and designers of scientific policies in Latin America that were part of CILAC and the XVII National Congress of Science and Technology.
STRATA offered a robust educational program co-designed by the Mayor’s Office of Panama and Open Arts. During the two months when it was open to the public, attendees participated in performances, open talks, round tables, workshops, lectures, and practices of scientific laboratories dictated by artists and academics participating in STRATA with the purpose of strengthening the link between science and art, a key element of the STEAM approach. Formed by the initials of Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics, STEAM refers to a group of disciplines considered essential for training in today’s society. This approach is essential to develop the necessary tools for children and young people to become complete citizens, who are able to identify problems, find solutions, develop a high sense of analysis, and foster a critical and flexible mind.
ABOUT MAC
The Panamanian Institute of Art (Panarte) was founded in 1962 as a non-profit institution dedicated to promoting Panamanian art. In 1983 it becomes the Museum of Contemporary Art (MAC).