Documentary photographer and filmmaker Astrid Scheuermann invites audiences to the opening of her latest exhibition “Swimming with Magatdä”.

Swimming with Magatdä presents works from Scheuermann’s ongoing photographic project documenting the Ngäbe, Panama’s largest Indigenous group. At its core, the project explores the deep relationship between land, water, and lived knowledge within the Ngäbe-Buglé Comarca, an autonomous Indigenous territory in western Panama.

In Ngäbe cosmology, Magatdä, the great serpent, is a central figure who shaped the world through rivers and mountains. As both creator and destroyer, Magatdä embodies the essence of water as a life-giving and transformative force that carries memory across generations.

Through encounters with communities and landscapes, Scheuermann’s work traces how cultural identity, spirituality, and ecological knowledge remain deeply interconnected. The series includes moments from Soloy, where cultural organizer Wilfredo Mitre fosters community-led preservation through ethno-tourism initiatives; Peña Blanca, home to the Zurdo family and its close ties to the region’s sacred mountain; and places such as Klosay and Kiki Waterfall, where waterfalls, forests, and mountains continue to hold ancestral and communal meaning.

Rather than focusing solely on hardship, Swimming with Magatdä positions the Ngäbe people as active stewards of cultural and environmental knowledge. The project serves as an evolving visual archive of presence and continuity.

Scheuermann, born in Panama City and based in Berlin, works across photography and film with a focus on cultural diversity, identity, environmental relationships, and collective memory. Her work has been featured in publications including GEO Magazin, Berliner Zeitung, and La Estrella de Panamá. Her short documentary film 1989 has received multiple international awards.

Thursday, May 7, 2026, 6 pm
Opening reception RSVP