Note: This is an article contributed to the arts page of the Cebu Daily News, which the editor, my editor tries to come up with regularly every Tuesday.
To gather again
Despite the continuing currency of the myth of the solitary struggler, artists take to gatherings, like fish to water. Especially, with their own kind. Unlike fish, however, who group into amorphous schools, artists do get together in definite organizations, even if, with many of these, the amorphous label can stick quite handily and the only definite thing about them is that they're definitely here today and, as definitely, gone tomorrow.
But what of those who are definitely serious with their organizations and who have the staying power of the Energizer bunny? What are they up to? How are their organizations encouraging the production and appreciation of art? Do they have concerns beyond the frames of their canvasses or the particular confines of their media? Are they moving or leading the broadening of field of art into other non-traditional media and attitudes towards art? Who are they?
At first glance, these questions seem to be the perfect list of topics for a conference, a convention or a cultural gab fest. But they can also be thought balloons for a daring – and, in retrospect, daunting – exhibit that puts the spotlights as much on the artists and their groups as their respective collective works.
The organizer of this show is the Metropolitan Museum of Manila, or the Met as it is more fondly called. They have the space, the staff, the respect of the artists and their audience, especially those with deeper, corporate pockets, and the history of artistic chutzpah to earn them the reputation of being the leading space for national and international contemporary arts in the country.
Supported by a grant from the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) the Met set about getting together a curatorial team that would put together the design, determinants, directives and the debutantes – for indeed, while some of the participants are grizzled, experienced artists, in an exhibit of this kind and with this scope, they are nearly all virginal debutantes – for this exhibit that opened last October 19 and will run till February 2007.
Composed of Inno Manalo, Chris Rollo, both of the Met – though Rollo has since resigned to join the United Nations Habitat Programme -- Brenda Fajardo and Bobi Valenzuela, both respected independent curators, this team set about organizing this show. The concept was discussed and agreed upon, the exhibit dates calendared, and, most importantly, the participants chosen, informed and contracted for the show.
Of the original seven designated groups, six finally cemented their commitment. These are the Anting-anting of Cavite, the Ang INK (Ilustrador Ng Kabataan) of Metro Manila, the Pampanga Arts Guild (PAG) of Pampanga, the Produksiyon Tramontina of Bacolod, the Davao Arts Foundation (DAF) of Davao and, our group, the Lunâ Art Collective of Cebu City.
The geographic spread of the groups was one of the more important parameters for the exhibit. It was an important recognition that groups with a more contemporary bent, who were going beyond the post even pre-war models for such groups, were not just confined to the capital but have been and are trying to play their often self-determined roles of catalysts in their respective communities for a more dynamically engaged art practice.
The exhibit is spread out on the second level of the Met. This level has two small exhibit rooms along the north end and exhibit walls on the west and south ends. Floor works can be placed on connecting walkways on the west and east, though the latter does not abut to the wall as it does at the opposite end.
Through the northwest stairs, the works are laid out thus: Immediately to the left, at the top of the stairs, facing south, is the work of the PAG (Lugud Qng Indung Gabun – Love For Our Earth Mother), then in the Anita Magsaysay Ho Gallery is the work of Produksiyon Tramontina (Reaction Shots), in the next room is the work of Anting-anting (Nagkalat Na Naman Si Lolo Sa Lungga ni Apo – Once Again, Lolo Is Making A Mess In The Studio Of Apo), across is the panel board and the space around it for the works of Ang INK (Play!), next to it, towards and occupying a space the length of the wall was the work of the DAF (Chasing Our Dreams). Rounding out the exhibit, on the south wall and occupying half of the walkway that leads back onto the PAG area is the work of the Lunâ Art Collective (Halad Alang Kang Arbet Sta. Ana-Yongco – Offering For Arbet Sta. Ana-Yongco).
Here, installations are, expectedly, the favored structure of all the works, though with Ang INK it is simply functional. Together with contextual narrative, it serves as the formal organizing plan that brings different elements together in various degrees of cohesion. Of the elements, paint is, not surprisingly, the most commonly used, with DAF's and Ang INK's works showing the most painted images on one hand and Produksiyon Tramontina, whose video installation uses no painted image on the other.
Picture prints, mostly digitally generated and printed comes in next as the favored image source for the works, with both PAG and Lunâ having large scale digital prints as dominant images though much more with Lunâ's work as an anchoring, context setting element. Also, both works rely on a photo narrative to establish historicity though for a much longer time scale in PAG's work and much more focus in Lunâ's.
Found objects, sculptures and mix-media make up the contents of the floor space. In Anting-anting's, PAG's and Lunâ's works they are the central objects determinative of context but much looser, more open-ended with Anting-anting, while more symbolic in both PAG's and Lunâ's.
Of the works, Anting-anting appears to have the loosest structure and most neutral, symbolically diffused content; Ang INK's, the most utilitarian; Produksiyon Tramontina's, the most technologically savvy; DAF's, the most personal; Lunâ's, the most socio-political; and PAG's the most biographical.
While it may be too early to pass judgment on Rollo's claim during the opening that, “This exhibit is a landmark in Philippine art,” it is clear that contemporary art and expressions are taking root all over the country nurtured by different and difficult environments that these groups have taken on as a challenge.
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