Curatorial Projects

I existed before you came

Permanent Pavilion of Latin American art in the Metaverse – DSLcollection.

The new space for Latin American art – DSLcollection, whose museography and exhibition design has been conceived using AI, is inspired by colonial architecture; promotes not only the career of emerging artists and follow-up the most established ones, but also provides content in an innovative and educational format to art lovers of different cross-global generations.

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Builds a bridge between traditional art and the metaverse, exploring synergies, creativity and research all through one of the first spaces, if not the first one, exclusively developed to permanently exhibit Latin American art. Science and technology collaborate with the goal of achieving a sustainable identity within the international art world.
From the very beginning, the artists embraced the idea of being part of a cutting-edge project, innovating the traditional format in which they usually create and expanding the state-of-the-art experience to new spectators. The physical dimension acquires an inclusive connotation from sensorial enrichment.

The relationship between art and technology has been prioritized, pushing its limits and enhancing its intersections. It is one of the first projects worldwide that has been entirely designed for Latin American art, and, from a curatorial perspective, it offers multiple possibilities and tools to conceptualize, produce and use contemporary languages.

The exhibition spans 29 multidisciplinary works by 7 artists from Cuba, Panama, Colombia, Venezuela and Chile. On this occasion the proposal re-examines the individual within a collective and the dialogue of multi-existence in one big, interconnected territory: Americas. Breaking the traditional canons of an exhibition in the white cube, where each work obeys to dialogue with others and follow a visual logic, the artists are not forced to continue a general conceptual order, but from their own interest and autonomy, the creations stand up within a collaborative environment. The idea is to bring to the table the discussion about belonging to a place and how to survive being different and not following the imposed norm. The visual representation is related to the act of cohabiting and transgressing ideological, religious, political, cultural and environmental barriers.

Roger Ballen at the XIV Havana Biennial – Futuro y Contemporaneidad

Colonization has been studied by different disciplines such as sociology, ethnography, and anthropology; however, from art, the approach to the term has a mostly psychological connotation.

The present selection of photographs by Roger Ballen suggests the inner reality of the human being in connection with nature, especially with animals. From an aesthetic perspective, Ballen’s images achieve great relevance in the current global context of environmental crises. Ballen reveals a universe bounded by sanity and madness, loneliness and false happiness. How do you get to the place where there is no return where an animal is colonized? What is left of nature? At the end of the day life is wound up with wires everywhere and we spend much of it trying to untie the rope.
Roger Ballen – Artist
Maylin Pérez -Curator

Fototeca de Panamá in Partnership with Paris Photo 2021

The Fototeca de Panama honors Carlos Endara for the 1st edition of Paris Photo’s new Online Viewing Room with an online exhibition of the work of Carlos Endara in which he documented the famous construction of the Panama Canal, known locally as the French Canal (1876 - 1904).

The photos were taken from 1887 to 1904, and document not only the progress of the construction, but also the settlement of the French emigration, including in the Caribbean.

 

Museums Through Artists – BIENALSUR 2021

Museums Through Artists emerged in the month of February 2020 from an open call organized by the curator Maylin Pérez addressed to artists in Panama with the aim of discussing the museums in the country and their relationship with the artistic community.

The meeting was attended by approximately thirty artists from different disciplines and nationalities, residing in Panama. Due to the relevance of the topic in the international arena, it was decided to extend the call to artists from other countries.
This project aims to reflect on the role of the museum from the individual experience of each participating artist through the creation of a work of free format, technique or style motivated by the museum as an object of study and the emotional connections that are derived from this relationship. Works were received in different formats such as video art, photography, collage, digital animation and performance, among others.

More info https://www.bienalsursedevirtual.org/

Fototeca de Panamá

Foundation created in 2018 by the photographer Ricardo López Arias, curator Maylin Pérez and architect Erik Wolfschoon.

Its mission is to contribute to the development of photography in Panama, promote its collection and disseminating photographic production nationally and internationally, highlighting its values, establishing dialogues and strengthening learning between photographers and the community.

More info www.fototecadepanama.com

B & W photos by Alfredo Martiz

 

Arteconsult Gallery

Maylin Pérez collaborated with the well-known art collector Carmen Alemán, founder of one of the most important art galleries in Panama City: Arteconsult.

Within a professional team, Pérez curated exhibitions, advised private collectors and designed international connection programs in collaboration with art fairs, biennials, museums, auctions and others important events. Among the exhibits she curated are: El Espejo Opaco de Gaugin (Rachel Mozman, New York), Jamboree´s last night (Armando Seijo, Spain), Lo fotográfico: Mutaciones cronotópicas (Viviana Zargón, Argentina and Fernando Otero, Peru) and Apropiaciones (Juan Ricardo Mejía, Colombia).

Fotografía y política: La lucha por la democracia en Panamá

Online virtual exhibition of photography.

The photographs that make up this project correspond, mainly, to the events that occurred after the signing of Torrijos-Carter Trades, the 1984 presidential campaign, the mass demonstrations after the death of Hugo Spadafora in 1985, the civil protests of 1987, 1988 and 1989, the return of the exiles, the repressions by the riot police, the presidential campaign of 1989, and the invasion of December 20 of that same year. In 2013, the photographer Marcos Guerra, in charge of documenting Ricardo Arias Calderón’s political campaigns, donated to Mr. Ricardo and Teresita Yániz de Arias, his wife, approximately seven thousand negatives documenting the first political campaigns after the 1968 Military Coup, occurred in 1984 and 1989. Other photographs that are part of the project come from the personal archives of some photographers of the time such as José Ángel Murillo, Héctor Endara Hill and Alcides Rodríguez; and of various public and private collections whose owners have guarded for several decades, thus preserving the historical memory of the country.

More info www.fotografiaypolitica.com
Design and development by Virtualart Pty

Integridad

Photo exhibition in collaboration with the Ministry of Culture of Panama and Los del Patíbulo group. Gallery Juan Manuel Cedeño, Panama City.

Photos by Fernando Bocanegra

La ciudad que habito

Multidisciplinary project in collaboration with El Ciervo Encantado, 13th Havana Biennial, Cuba. Artists: Inti Hernández, Ricardo López Arias, Lissette Solórzano and Yindra Regueiferos.

How does one interpret and expose the scenario of urbanism of the city through art, individual / collective memory, history and the challenges of human beings ?. The Biennial of Havana 2019 is the ideal event for artists to analyze and show their vision of architecture, urbanism and its traces thus becoming an “artistic laboratory” that explores the concept of the city we inhabit. The proposal redefines and exposes the theme of the city, memory and human relationships through multidisciplinary works: photography, installation, design, performance and audiovisual.

STEAM: Art and Technology

Complicidad Múltiple, a project in collaboration with TECNASA Company, Panama City. Photographer: Carlos Mora.

The project STEAM: Art and Technology. Complicidad Múltiple was born from the combination of technology, mathematics, engineering and art. Through the use of applied creativity, knowledge and the ability to innovate were developed, teamwork and professional empowerment of the 45 collaborators belonging to the technical area of engineering and administration of the TECNASA company were stimulated. This work, entitled “Source of light, knowledge and energy”, is an artistic-technological installation with Wi-Fi generator included supported by quality and experience, planning and design, technological solutions and art, talent and commitment to transformation global. The piece was made using the assembly technique with materials and tools that are used in the different services that usually are offered by TECNASA.
Over a period of 6 weeks the team took on the project in two phases. In the first phase, the selection, definition and design of the object to be elaborated was considered through objective planning based on the study of the image, the function and the social impact of art and technology. The second phase was aimed at distributing teamwork and executing the activities assigned to develop the work. Both phases were documented through photography, as a source of record, analysis and visualization of the process.
The project ended with an exhibition free to the public.

Las Fábulas de Esopo

Itinerant exhibition of 73 engraving made by the well-known Mexican artist Francisco Toledo (1940-2019), organized by Toledo Foundation, the National Institute of Fine Art from Mexico and the Embassy of Mexico in Panama.

Empowered: Cuban and Dutch women in no traditional Jobs

A project organized by the Embassy of the Netherland in Cuba with the collaboration of UNDP, Commissioned by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (BUZA), Havana, Cuba. Photographers: Jitske Nap (The Netherlands) and Juan Cruz (Cuba/Spain).

These photos are a selection of a work made up of 150 photos taken of 70 women between the period from July 2014 to February 2015 in Cuba and from December 2017 to February 2018 in the Netherlands. For the first time, the Dutch photographer has been invited Jitske Nap to collaborate with the Cuban visual artist and creator of the project Juan Cruz Rodríguez.
The stories of these women expose a problem that we face every day in every countries: labor segregation and discrimination on the grounds of gender. The intention is to use art as a discourse to make visible and raise awareness, taking in order to involve more people in thinking about change. It has been an effort of years of research and production. The series consists of photographs, testimonies and sounds (of work environments) of women who perform non-traditional jobs or traditionally assigned to men. Portraits of transgressive women who have jumped the patriarchal conventions established in pursuit of your professional goals or simply to live.

Sex and Revolution in Cuba

Exhibition organized by the Embassy of the Netherlands in Cuba, Havana, Cuba, Commissioned by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (BUZA). Photographer: Nuria López Torres.

A visual approach to the photography of Nuria López Torres can emancipate various interpretations of her work. With a documentary accent and a subtle anthropological approach, twenty pieces are exhibited in medium format. The theme of homosexuality in Cuba has been disarticulated by different artistic manifestations: from cinema to literature, theater and the visual arts in general; however, it continues to be a sociocultural theme that enriches other views from art as discourse.
The characters have not been found by the camera, but they waited, from their surroundings, for the appearance of the curious stranger, the stranger who questions himself and asks himself questions, the artist who becomes an accomplice of another reality. The family, the friends, the sexual, the sensual, the others who come and join the party, the body language and the reflection, are (un) covered in their naked reality. There is an intention to say without the need to speak.
The story is portrayed in a harmonious balance of planes, lights and shadows. An homosexual community in Cuba indicates permanence: They all exist! It is as simple as it is complicated at the same time, because the conceptual argument is not afraid to disobey the “normal”: I am what you see.

Sea of Cultures: Spain, Panama and Cuba

Collective exhibition with the outstanding Spanish artists Rafael Canogar, Gordillo and Feito, including the painters Olga Sincair (Panama) and Esteban Leyva (Cuba). Project in collaboration with curator Antonio Bernal and the Spanish Cultural Center – Casa del Soldado, Panama City.  

Variation and autonomy: Contemporary Japanese prints

Maylin Pérez designed the museography of this extraordinary exhibition that included works from Yayoi Kusama, Masanari Murai, Toshinobu Onosato; among others. In collaboration with Japan Foundation, the Embassy of Japan in Panama and the Museum of Contemporary Art (MAC).

The Cuban Art Factory

The Cuban Art Factory is a multidisciplinary center that combines various creative areas from art to gastronomy and fashion.

This project was inaugurated in 2013 with the general direction of the prominent Cuban musician X Alfonso. For a year Pérez worked as curator and sales manager of the FotoFac gallery together with the photographer Enrique Rottenberg, Cristina Erofeeva and Nelson Ramírez de Arellano. It was an amazing experience holding exhibitions, developing projects, organising events for collectors and participating in different educational activities.
Photos by Nelson Ramírez de Arellano

Fototeca de Cuba

Curator of the Fototeca de Cuba and member of the Promotion Department, Pérez established international connections with other institutions. She also was in charge of the colloquium of November Photographic event, organized every year to brings together critics, photographers and the public with interest on photography.