E-CORAL is a collaborative project by mother-daughter artist and designer duo Beatriz Cecilia Paredes and María Alejandra Icaza Paredes, created specifically for 4 Días de Diseño (Panama Design Week). The project repurposes electronic waste through art and design, transforming discarded cables from obsolete technologies into coral-inspired forms. The installation brings together three mixed-media sculptures and a collection of table lamps that explore the relationship between human intervention, consumption, technology, and the natural world. While the sculptural pieces evoke coral formations and underwater landscapes, the lamps translate the same materials and woven techniques into functional lighting objects, giving discarded technology a new purpose through design.

Made with plastic-coated wire and concrete, the works invite reflection on the fragility of coral reefs, the phenomenon of coral bleaching, and the delicate balance that sustains marine ecosystems. The installation also incorporates concrete sandcastles as a symbol of human intervention in natural landscapes and an ambition for growth that can overlook nature’s interdependence. The open, ethereal structures allow light and shadows to pass through, recalling the vulnerability of coral reefs, while the act of weaving becomes a metaphor for the connections between all forms of life and the care required to repair what has been damaged. Rooted in Panama’s profound relationship with water, E-CORAL encourages us to reconsider the materials we discard and our responsibility toward the ecosystems that sustain us.