Hyphen Hub and FACT Liverpool bring together a group of 12 artists to develop installations, performances, and workshops as part of the Museum of Contemporary Art’s (MAC) 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 will convene a large national and international student population and offer a series of activities contributing to Science Week of SENACYT and the CILAC Forum (Meeting of Science for Latin America and the Caribbean) in the promotion of science in the nation’s capital.

 

STRATA is a multisensory exhibition with interactive pieces, moving images, and new media that explores the symbiotic relationship between art, science, and technology through the works of a group of acclaimed national and international contemporary artists, suggesting the analysis of topics such as 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. It refers to the 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.

 

Participating artists include: Jorge Barco, Alejandro Villegas, Barbara Santos, Juan Jose Lopez, Atractor Estudio, Álvaro J. Lacouture, Juan Cortés and Clemencia Echeverri from Colombia. Donna Colon and Jonathan Haker from Panama, Janet Biggs from New York, David Jacques from Liverpool and Ryoichi Kurakawa from Berlin/ Japan. Also the participation of  Casa Hoffman ( gallery) in Bogota.

 

CURATORS OF THE EXHIBITION

 

Mike Stubbs

Mike Stubbs is an independent curator and Professor of Art, Media and Healing 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. Encompassing a wide range of artistic and media practices, his artistic and curatorial leadership has been recognized internationally. Stubbs has commissioned and produced about 350 exhibitions.

 

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)

 

 

 

PUBLIC PROGRAM

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STRATA will be 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 will be part of CILAC and the XVII National Congress of Science and Technology.

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STRATA will offer a robust educational program co-designed by the Mayor's Office of Panama and Open Arts. During the two months when it will be open to the public, attendees can participate 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, able to identify problems, find solutions, with a high sense of analysis, critical and flexible mind, willing to communicate to work in a team, between other competences.

 

ABOUT MAC

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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).