Universalis Canales (Pro Omnipræsentia Individui)
2013·Panama City (Curundú), Panama·? status unknown·3 sources·
Bienal de Panamá: a double mural on the two gable walls of a housing block in Curundú, at a highway interchange, one of his first intercontinental invitations. Painted from a boom lift over three days, with permission negotiated with Marlon and a military and police escort along the way. On the left gable, «UNIVERSALIS CANALES» and «FELIPE PANTONE»; on the right, «OMNIPRAESENTIA INDIVIDUI» and «PANAMÁ 2013»; the project's full phrase, «UNIVERSALIS CANALES PRO OMNIPRÆSENTIA INDIVIDUI», over op-art patterns in red, blue and white and constellations, with the Panama City skyline in the background. The wall predates the Manifiesto Ultradinámico (signed on November 2, 2013) by a few weeks and already lays claim to its omnipresence clause. On the same trip he painted with Cisco Merel, Manuel Choy, Rosendo Merel Choy and Caso3, the contacts that would lead him to Olga Sinclair and, in time, to Carlos Cruz-Díez.
The story
Curundú: the crane, Marlon and Jiban's Mercedes
Bienal de Panamá, 2013: one of the first intercontinental events he was invited to. He had been promised a big mural; when he arrived they offered him something small. He was riding along the highway with someone from the organization, saw an interchange and asked to paint there. They told him that was Curundú and that it was dangerous. They got out anyway, and at the door of the building he talked to Marlon — «I run this shit» — who gave him permission. The next day he showed up with a crane at eight in the morning and painted all day in brutal heat: five liters of water without once going to the bathroom. From up there he saw guns and fights. At five in the afternoon the neighbors started threatening him — they wanted Barça crests, Panama flags — and the military had to get him out. The director of the Bienal fixed it by paying someone from the neighborhood, and on the second day he painted with a police escort. On the third the escort left again, and Jiban got him out in his blacked-out Mercedes, the only fancy car in the neighborhood. The moment he got in, Jiban showed him his gun; along the way he would roll down the window and aim it «as a joke» at the girls at the bus stops. They arrived at the Figalis, the Bienal's headquarters; Jiban drove the car straight in, showed the gun to the artists and played racy videos on his phone. «I got out of there alive and painted my mural.» The mural, a double one, on the two gable walls of the block, bore the inscription — verified in 2026 in the photos and the sketch from the studio's Drive — «UNIVERSALIS CANALES pro OMNIPRÆSENTIA INDIVIDUI»: left wall «UNIVERSALIS CANALES», right wall «OMNIPRAESENTIA INDIVIDUI · PANAMÁ 2013». The universality of the Canal as a bridge between worlds, and a calendar detail that resonates today: the wall was painted in 2013 (October?), and on November 2, 2013, Pantone signed the Manifiesto Ultradinámico, whose central clause claims precisely the omnipresence of the individual. The Curundú wall was already saying it in Latin weeks earlier. In Panama he painted with Cisco Merel, Manuel Choy, Rosendo Merel Choy and Caso3; through those connections he met Olga Sinclair and, at the end of the thread, the person who marked him most: «graffiti led me to meet Cruz Díez».
source: Relato de Felipe Pantone, 4 de julio de 2026
- Relato de Felipe Pantone, 4 de julio de 2026
- https://www.mtn-world.com/en/blog/2013/07/05/three-aces-pantone-ub/
- Drive del estudio: FELIPE PANTONE - OLD/4 - 2013/16 - PANAMA — harvest 2026-07-04 (boceto PROYECTO-UNIVERSALIS, fileId 0BxaDhVP6zu6JWWtJS28xVVVxRW8)