Art / Agua de Carnaval
Agua de Carnaval
Two-part collaborative project exploring water, culture, and Panamanian carnival traditions
2017-2019. Participatory Installation & Performance.
Performance Research, Las Tablas, Panama.
This video represents an outcome of performance research exploring water, culture, and memory through Panamanian carnival traditions. Shot during Carnaval in 2018 and co-directed with award-winning documentary filmmaker Delfina Vidal, I presented three on-site performances in the course of an annual carnival in Las Tablas—renowned nationwide for its quintessential celebration of Panamanian carnival.
The work documents my performative investigations of Panamanian identity through ecstatic movement, exploring how water, tradition, and cultural identity interweave in one of Panama's most celebrated carnival contexts. The performance research was informed by audience contributions during an earlier research phase (2017-2018) where I collected oral and written stories from participants about their relationship with water and carnival
Research Phase at Casasola Nono-Conventional Art, Panama City.
About
Agua de Carnaval is a two-part collaborative project exploring water, culture, and memory through the lens of Panamanian carnival traditions. The work brings together artistic performance with documentary filmmaking practices to create a layered exploration of how water functions as both physical presence and cultural metaphor in Panamanian life.
The concept of Agua de Carnaval—bottling Panamanianness as a product—originated in 2010 during the Wonder Woman residency by Gaia Collective in Jersey City, curated by Doris Cacoilo. The project was exhibited as part of Agua Consumo at Casasola Non-Conventional Art in Panama City, curated by Miguel Lombardo, and open to the public from October 2017 through February 2018. The video art piece was shot during Carnaval in 2018, co-directed with award-winning documentary filmmaker Delfina Vidal.