Cultural Exhibitions  Bring Invasion History to Life

The commemoration of the thirtieth anniversary of the US invasion of Panama in 1989 is highlighted with photographic exhibitions, videos, interactive material and other activities offered by various cultural institutions in the country.

One of the most outstanding exhibitions “The Invasion in 4 Times”, at the Museum of Contemporary Art. will run until March 1, 2020, It is a tour of the events that occurred before, during and after the armed action of the United States that ended 21 years of military dictatorship.

Using different techniques such as painting and video art, artists such as Isabel de Obaldía and Ana Elena Tejera illustrate the military dictatorship and the invasion from a unique perspective highlighting the wounds opened after the intervention and the forgetfulness of the young of an event in which it is not yet known with certainty how many Panamanians died reports La Prensa.

One of the curators of the exhibition, Monica Kupfer, stressed that the exhibition was, to foster a debate about this event that marked the lives of many Panamanians

Another exhibition intended to create an open dialogue is “The Invasion, a story told in pieces”, available at the Museum of Freedom and curated by Wendy Tribaldos.

It does not imply the rhetoric of victors and vanquished, said the curator. “Each of us who lived through the invasion has a story to tell. For some, the invasion was a sad event and for others, it was a celebration,” she said.

The interactive exhibition, which uses various photographs from the La Prensa archive, also seeks to allow visitors to tell those facts from their own perspective.

The exhibition offers visitors the possibility of writing their anecdotes and experiences on one of the walls of the museum.

Another multimedia show is “Forbidden to Forget”, in the Panamanian Room of the Ernesto J. Castillero National Library. A compilation of journalistic records about the events that occurred during and after the US invasion. It runs until January 31.

Its organizer, the graphic reporter Adriano Duff, from the Circle of Photojournalists of Panama, stressed that the goal of the exhibition is to recover the historical memory that remains absent from the country’s classrooms.