Panamanian businessman Raul Arango Chiari is a renowned visual artist of floral decoration, whose search for balance between good taste and greater customer satisfaction makes his work a passion that fills his life with happiness and desires for professional improvement.
Another reason that inspires him is his native country Panama. Always trying to allude to a historical and social family legacy, applying it both in his artistic and literary projects and even in altruistic work.
Starting the new year 2022, Raul Arango Chiari agrees to talk with The Visitor/ El Visitante, about his perspectives on how the image of Panama could be best sold through initiatives and visual events in order to capture greater interest from tourists and locals.
Decoration is visual communication. What do you think we need to communicate visually and historically to the world in a more impressive way?
“Our beloved country has had the strength to expose through its history moments of glory and pain. We have attributes that make us unique, perhaps a product of that crossbreeding that intertwined cultures until it became a country that can achieve great goals. If we see Panama under the examining eyes of a visitor, we would be surprised to find within a short distance a modern city, an Old Town in progress, national parks, the Canal – our most effective visual communication – abroad. That visitor would try to dance with our pollera and the montuno, would be surprised by the Congo dance; and enjoy the history of our indigenous people.
The story to tell, is to show ourselves as we are. A country that lives in peace, surrounded by natural and cultural richness”.
Do you feel that our history is well captured in museums and public places? What we need to add to connect even more with visitors?
“It is necessary to have a common agreement on a visual communication project. Where our museums invite visitors, not only because of the content they exhibit, but also because of the capacity for imagination that they must awaken in the visitor. Each museum must be a place to go through the past, but that allows us to imagine a future.
Staying under the concept of a static museum, without taking advantage of new technologies, we will be condemning it to oblivion. Museums require imagination and people who live each art, portrait, or article, they are their first sellers”.
Which Panamanian destinations are the ones that inspire you the most, either to hold an event or extract its visual elements for decoration?
“The entire country of Panama is a painting of many colors, there is no place where with love and imagination you cannot produce a work of art. For example Bocas del Toro, with its beautiful sea, hardworking people, would be ideal to capture it with palm trees, foliage, fruits, shells from the Caribbean Sea and flowers. Each province has its identity and they inspire to work with enthusiasm and creativity”.
If you had to select Panamanian elements to decorate a great wedding in Panama of media interest in the world, what would they be and why?
“Without a doubt our typical dresses in one way or another would be represented. The orchid, our flower of the Holy Spirit, the blue of the sky and the green of our forests, Guna Yala handicrafts that are highly appreciated for their color and clothing. Panamanian art also deserves all the international promotion”.
You have written books that have been awarded and received great reception by the industry and the public. Have you thought about making a book of Panama through decoration?
“I am very pleased to tell you that I have already made “PANAMA CASAS Y DETALLES” I illustrated in its 251 pages, with images of residences representative of the different stages of our republican life. In addition, monuments and sites appear at that time and progress have made them disappear…. It was designed with the purpose of raising funds for the works carried out by Las Damas de Fundacion San Felipe.
The legacy that we can leave to future generations are the records of our history. All the books I have been involved talk about Panama. I grew up in a family where the country was above any other interest”.
What is visually missing in the most important tourist destinations so that the experience is complete and exceeds expectations?
“A coherent plan, that is not changed every five years. In terms of the message with induced images we can be quite good, but that organic image that the visitor can take away is still very weak. We lack tourist culture within society, from the officials who receive tourists, to that Panamanian on the street who offers at least a smile as a sign of welcome. Most people don’t notice that internal work that must be done so that we understand that the tourist chose us to spend a vacation.
Raul, as he likes to be called, expressed to us a personal premise “Art is shared” and for that he alludes and thanks the work together with the creatives of the Arango Floristeria team, led by Manuel Paredes. However, his impetus always keeps him up to date in the design of events with the best artistic quality with a clean, avant-garde and classic style. “I would like to be remembered as a contemporary designer, who may not follow the rules or set trends, but never renounced to elegance. It has always chosen the best quality flowers to transmit feelings of happiness. Definitely, I would like to be remembered as a designer who sought the closest thing to perfection, always under the concept of raising nationality in each job I do”. expressed our special guest.
Photos courtesy: Raul Arango Chiari.