arts

Central American Young Video Contest

Taiwanese film festival at the Cine Universitario

It's hard to miss this place when driving on the Pan-American Highway through Panama Oeste heading west. What's a little harder is to precisely describe what this is.

It's Tratos, an establishment that deals in antiques, collectables and art in iron, wood and stone.

The works welded from recycled metal objects are what will first grab your attention, maybe because somewhere in humanity's biochemical ancestral memories the prospect of being eaten by a dinosaur or a large cat is a sure attention-getter.

Matildo Escudero, who runs the place with his sister, acknowledges the draw. "Our first focus is the re-use of things that are being thrown out, the rescue of things from the country."

However, he noted that "we can't live off of one line. Art alone, you die of hunger. Furniture alone, you also die of hunger."

So Tratos is this amazing place where you can find all manner of antiques; where a cadre of artisans, some of them relatives, work in several different specialties; where a bunch of the military art from the closed US bases ended up; where you can find iron work or other details from demolished buildings in the Casco Viejo; where people affected by various sorts of nostalgia can pick up Noriega memorabilia or items from the Canal Zone; where you can find old books, stamps and license plates. Even if you are wont to dismiss a lot of the stuff here as junk, unless you have no sense of taste at all you're going to find art and history at Tratos.

There are places in the city to get your blonde,  blue-eyed

Christ sculptures, but this place serves another demand

 

Who wants to be Purina Dinosaur Chow? That's why this art is so shocking at first glance

 

Pair of oxen not included

 

From broken drill bits to art

 

 

So what's YOUR pleasure in memorabilia?

 

 

The door prize? You can pick up some beautiful

carved doors, with widely varying themes

 

Or maybe you want to improve your lighting

 

 

Not all of Panama's economy is in the services, farming and fishing sectors

 

 

So where's all that wrought iron that's disappearing from the Casco Viejo going?

 

 

Central American Young Video Contest

Taiwanese film festival at the Cine Universitario