CAF Gallery opens its spaces to the Panamanian art of the Mola

Continuing its work of disseminating the creative activities of Latin American peoples, the Andean Development Corporation (CAF) joins forces with the Panamanian Embassy to offer the Molas Exhibition to the Venezuelan public. The show will open on the 13th of this month in the art gallery of this multilateral financial institution.

CAF Executive President Enrique García said the exhibition was part of the celebrations of the centenary of the foundation of the Republic of Panama. He expressed his satisfaction that the Corporation was opening its gallery to a representative show of the Panamanian indigenous art of the mola, which has great aesthetic value.

The mola is intimately linked to the history of the Kuna Indians, famous as an isolated group which inhabits a special territory known as the San Blas Comarca on El Porvenir island which is part of an archipelago off the Caribbean coast.

The word mola, whose original meaning was dress or suit, relates to the traditional costume of the Kuna which is considered to be the one of the most picturesque in the world. The women wear large red headscarves; a skirt of blue, yellow and green tones; wrist and ankle beads; gold nose rings; necklaces of shells, seeds and coins, with a blouse worked in two rectangular pieces appliqué style and sewn to another piece that forms the neck and the sleeves. Nowadays, the word mola is used for this blouse or its rectangular components.

The textiles, hand-made by Panamanian women, on show in the CAF Gallery come from the collection of the “Dora Pérez de Zárate” Advanced Folklore Studies Center in Panama City.

Now a symbol of Panama, the mola has transcended art exhibition spaces and centers to enter museum collections and specialized markets around the world.