Panama brings together Latin American art in Isthmus Dialogues II

The Espacio Arte Center in Panama City will host the second edition of Diálogos del Istmo (Dialogues of the Isthmus) on September 25 and 26, an international colloquium conceived as a space for encounter and reflection on the present and future of the Latin American art system. Over two days, collectors, artists, curators, critics, institutional representatives, and cultural managers will share experiences and analyze some of the transformations currently taking place in contemporary art, collecting, institutions, and cultural policies.

The program on Thursday the 25th will begin at 9:00 a.m. with welcoming remarks, followed by the lecture "Collecting as a Starting Point ," given by Nivaldo Carbonell, president of the Los Carbonell Foundation. Next, curator and independent art critic Gerardo Mosquera will present " Curating: Seeing, Hearing, Educating, and Communicating ," an exploration of the curatorial role as a tool for constructing narratives, generating knowledge, and establishing new forms of communication between artworks and audiences.

The program will continue with "Ama Amoedo Foundation: Philanthropy from the South ," presented by Verónica Flom, director of the Ama Amoedo Foundation. The afternoon session will focus on the relationship between culture and public policy with "Ministries of Culture as Agents of Artistic Transformation ," presented by Miguel Fábrega of the Ministry of Culture of Panama. The day will conclude with "Purpose, Management, and Adaptation: Twenty Years of Artistic Work and Production ," a presentation by visual artist Benjamín Ossa.

The activities will continue outside the discussion space. At 5 p.m., in the malaYerba space on the second floor of the Espacio Arte Center, the opening of After the Rain II and the malaYerba Panama awards ceremony will take place. Later, between 6 and 8 p.m., NG Art Gallery will host the opening of the solo exhibition Games and Other Constructions by José Patricio, curated by Gerardo Mosquera.

The second day, Friday the 26th, will broaden the discussion to include the relationships between institutions, biennials, criticism, and artistic production. María Regina Paiz, president of the Paiz Foundation, will open the sessions with "The Paiz Art Biennial: Five Decades of Continuity and Transformation ." She will be followed by Gean Moreno, director of the Knight Foundation Art + Research Center at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami (ICA), with "From the Studio to the Museum: The Journey of the Artwork in Institutional Acquisition Processes ," focusing on the mechanisms that allow a work to move from the production space to the museum setting.

After the break, Diana Cuéllar, art critic and independent curator, will address the relationship between generations and institutional structures in "Institutional Critique: Generational Crisis? A Profound Break in the Art System?" The program will continue with a presentation by Hernán Pacurucu, curator and general director of the Cuenca Biennial, titled "Extinct Fauna and the Emergence of the Contemporary Multiverse: Biennials in the Development of Current Art ," before moving on to "Producing the Border: Art, Mediation, and the Public Sphere ," by Alex Brahim, director of the El Pilar Foundation.

Brahim's participation also takes on a special dimension for the Catalan publishing field, since the director of the El Pilar Foundation is the author of an article published in the recent issue 3 of Bonart International , the international edition of Bonart magazine.

The day will also include the presentation of the book *Memoirs of Isthmus Dialogues I* , with the participation of Gerardo Mosquera, Gean Moreno, Diana Cuéllar, and Nivaldo Carbonell, and moderated by Dr. Mónica Kupfer. The program will then move to the Gladys Vidal Theater, where the performance *Dear Old Women *, by Spanish artist María Gimeno, will be presented. This event is organized by the Spanish Cultural Center in Panama / Casa del Soldado and the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID).

The program will culminate with the opening and brunch of Isabel De Obaldía's solo exhibition , Dark Sea, Untamed Jungle , at the Canal Museum. The exhibition will close two days of Isthmus Dialogues II , which presents a broad cartography of contemporary art from Panama, connecting the diverse forms of production, circulation, conservation, criticism, and mediation that shape the Latin American art ecosystem.