I grew up in Monterrey, Mexico, and now live between Mexico City and Barcelona.
MAGAZINE · INTERVIEW
PANORAMMMA
Panorammma is the Mexico City–based design practice of Maika Palazuelos, whose work explores the relationship between functional objects, memory, and material experimentation. Rooted in her background in fine arts, the studio creates collectible furniture and objects that transform everyday use into narrative experiences, blending sculptural forms with conceptual storytelling.
Through an ongoing exploration of diverse materials and artisanal processes, Panorammma reimagines familiar typologies as evocative objects that challenge perceptions of function and domesticity. Balancing historical references with speculative narratives, the studio develops works that blur the boundaries between art and design while inviting new ways of experiencing everyday life.
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Interview
Where were you born and where are you from?
What is your first memory connected to the art world?
I was very fortunate to be brought up by a family that fomented creative expression, with more artists, musicians, writers and thinkers forming part of it. I was influenced early on by my aunt, a painter, as well as by visits to my father’s furniture factory and metals foundry, which produced works for designers and artists.
Have you always worked in the art/design field?
I always have, yes. Since graduating with a bachelor’s in fine arts, I’ve worked as an independent artist, a production manager at an art fair, a production director and researcher at an experimental perfumery, and finally as design director for my own studio: Panorammma.
What led you to design creation?
My background is in art, so I have always been into the creation of objects, but it was only recently, moving cities, that I started designing pieces for my own use. I became interested in these objects of “use” because they competed and challenged the mundane by becoming a hyperbole of it and our behaviors; they were not meant to be parenthesized from the everyday experience. For me, this became a “Trojan horse” for artistic expression.
How would you describe your creative process and its influences?
Panorammma’s inspiration centers around exploring past visions of the future and creating myths of memory. Constructing on our past experiences through new visual narratives. For me, this means remitting to my direct experience living through the spaces of malady, which I see as affecting the psychological sphere of society, epitomized by the increasing loss of immediacy and spread of the aseptic perception of the “other”.
The energy I intend the designs to emit emulates a tension I identify in the devotion to material objects in Mexico. Fetishism in Mexico is deeply rooted in spirituality and religion. Regional syncretism makes objects of devotion idiosyncratic phenomena.
Getting involved with the production of a piece for me has frequently resulted in it fueling the idea for another, leading the way for a very natural, cyclical pattern of conception and creation.
Could you describe a typical day of your work?
During a typical day of work, Renee (Panorammma’s Production Manager) and I will follow up with all suppliers and collaborators working on pieces at the moment, and each will make respective workshop rounds. We will do administrative work like answering emails, accounting, invoicing, etc, and will typically end the day with a creative meeting to review technical drawings and new design ideas. (I like these meetings being last because sometimes, as I am falling asleep and dreaming about what we reviewed, the best ideas come to mind).
Why did you choose the specific materials you work with?
Many of my designs are, in a way, a continuation of my artistic practice, which I consider a yearning to materialize and decipher my experience as a patient, a time in which I became immersed in the aseptic materials of the clinic. I refer to these materials now as a tool to guide a reflection on notions of subjectivity.
Some pieces, however, like my rock work, I think of as freed from this personal intentionality. I like working with rock because it is the material that dictates the object’s final expression. Rock is surprising. Working with it is like an archaeological experience in which one must discover what each piece hides. Paradoxically, sculpting rock can be meticulous, much like a medical procedure; you only get one chance to get things right. I like working with rocks that are endemic to the region; this contextualizes the work at a geological level.
Other materials I encounter by surprise while enjoying travels through the country to get to know different suppliers and their processes. Others I imagine and collaborate with artisans to technically resolve.
What are the technical particularities of your creations?
We have worked hard to source virtuous collaborators with a great disposition to experiment with us and take on difficult and time-consuming tasks. For example, in Chainmail Chair, each ring was hand-linked to form a strong and flexible mesh by a jeweler who specializes in medieval craft. We work with some of the most talented and experienced rock, metal, and moulding workshops in Mexico that have come to position themselves worldwide.
What advice could you give to beginning artists who would like to create sculptural design works?
It can be exciting to plan, but one could plan forever… I would advise getting started and trying things out. There are a lot of surprises that come with making objects you can’t really plan for. Materiality can be weird in that sense; you have to touch it, see it, smell it to know it works, and when it doesn’t, don’t discard it as a failure; archive this information; it might be a route to another piece later on.
If your works had to belong to a design movement, how would you define it?
I think Panorammma has a retrofuturist quality, but I would relate it principally to systems art.
What designers and artists have influenced you?
Lilly Reich, Tobia Scarpa, Gae Aulenti.
What contemporary designers do you appreciate?
There are sooo many, but some: Soft Baroque, Vidivixi, Selva Raw… all mind-blowing.
What contemporary artists, in any kind of art, have you been inspired by?
Eva Hesse, Isamu Noguchi, Joseph Beuys.
If you had to summarize your creations in one word or sentence, what would it be?
Syncretic.
Is there anything you would like to add?
Thinkers are important for our inspiration as well: Paul Ricoeur, Lacan.
“Try things out. There are a lot of surprises that come with making objects you can’t really plan for.”
The Questionnaire
The Questions
(The Proust Questionnaire is a set of questions answered by the French writer Marcel Proust.
Other historical figures who have answered confession albums are Oscar Wilde,
Karl Marx, Arthur Conan Doyle, Stéphane Mallarmé, Paul Cézanne…)
What is your idea of perfect happiness?
Sun in my skin in winter.
What is your greatest fear?
Feel like I wasted my talents when I am about to die.
What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?
I am very forgetful (scares me sometimes).
What is the trait you most deplore in others?
Inconsiderateness.
Which living person do you most admire?
My grandmother.
What is your greatest extravagance?
My rock collection.
What is your current state of mind?
A good type of confusion.
What do you consider the most overrated virtue?
Cautiousness.
What is the quality you most like in a man?
In any person… kindness, intelligence.
What is the quality you most like in a woman?
In any person… kindness, intelligence.
Which words or phrases do you most overuse?
I overuse this emoticon :O (it makes things dramatic, I love it).
Which talent would you most like to have?
Does flying count?
If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
I find it really hard to say no.
What do you consider your greatest achievement?
I wouldn’t call it an achievement precisely but I am a cancer survivor, so maybe the way I handled things during that time.
If you were to die and come back as a person or a thing, what would it be?
A sea shell or a duck (they are all-terrain).
Where would you most like to live?
I am currently living between Barcelona and Mexico City, and I like it… I could also try San Pancho (a small beach town in Mexico).
What is your most treasured possession?
A letter my grandmother wrote to me.
What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?
Not having anyone.
What is your favorite occupation?
Conceiving new works. I get too excited sometimes.
What is your most marked characteristic?
My hair at the moment.
What do you most value in your friends?
Companionship, fun, kindness, trust. I’m a dog person.
Who are your favorite writers?
Samuel becket.
Who is your hero of fiction?
Dory from nemo.
Which historical figure do you most identify with?
I’m a total cliche but Frida Kahlo and I have a couple of things in common. Both half german half mexican, both artists, both fallen into sickness.
Who are your heroes in real life?
Nurses, teachers, ecologists…people who prioritize the wellbeing of others and our planet.
What are your favorite names?
Scotch (my dog’s name).
What is it that you most dislike?
Injustice.
What is your greatest regret?
Not continuing practicing different languages I was introduced to as a child.
How would you like to die?
I have fantasised over assisted suicide, because I am scared of wearing out to much before I die, but that takes a lot of courage… I could also die in my sleep.
What is your motto?
Try things out (except maybe heroin).
“Thinkers are important for our inspiration as well.”
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