#Operaciones
#opuscules
Panamá, Panamá, Panamá. Entrevista a Darién Montañez
Operaciones
2020
Editing
Darién Montañez’s Panama City is the culmination of what I was taught to fear: a city where real estate governs not only urban life but also the training of architects. It is, in a way, the “wrong path,” supposedly leading to a generic and frightfully global outcome, yet it could not be more Panamanian. Perhaps it is a sign that buildings are less important than the reasons they are built. Panama is the heightened proof that cities are made by their history, by flows of people, and by the policies implemented by power groups. Particularly in its new extensions and through the speed of its growth, Panama is a kind of market utopia. It is the example of a city made by and for the real estate market. Few cities are so explicit in exposing the forces that construct them. Darién's city celebrates consumption and speculation. Its architecture, rather than being “correct,” is profitable. Panama City is everything I was taught to condemn in university. And yet, it is the city that allows me to understand, more transparently, by whom and how—whether we like it or not— a city in Latin America is built today.
[Translated excerpt] See more↗