11.20.08 kulturnatib

Being, becoming and remembering
In Raymund Fernandez's last column, 'Guerilla Art,' I learned that, 'Tugpo,' . . . 'seems to have disappeared.'

Reading further, I realized that the hows, whys and wherefores of that seeming disappearance does not interest him. At least not as far as to share them with us. I suspect it is less a matter of reticence as a simple resolve that the intensity of this personal matter be accepted at face value.

While I have my opinion on how art is not just a personal matter, especially one that was very public, even if it did find itself in the no man's land of the public space subject to what amounts to the whim of a private owner – free speech, for example, is not constitutionally guaranteed in malls -- and one that I believed started to show the way towards public art that was neither heroic nor hagiographic, I respect Raymund's reasons for refusing to address this disappearance head-on.

In this light, this will be a remembering of that 'disappeared' sculpture. An epitaph, if you will.

I remember how upon seeing it for the first time I observed to Raymund that it was a fitting sculpture for a private company who has always prided itself in not being simply in the business of business but more so of the championing of local culture as an exemplary way of doing business.

As was and is our habit after more than three decades of continuing friendship and collaboration we immediately got into the thick of discussion. That time about public art in the city, its absence largely, and how the Arts Council of Cebu together with Ayala Center Cebu might finally provide the ground for its robust flowering in a public art garden no less.

We even launched into the stratosphere of artistic fantasy sharing what additional sculptures we would plant in this garden. As fantasies go these were definitely beyond the grip of gravity or what was practically possible in a city whose idea or affinity for the arts were rather basic and the willingness to spend for it was static; at almost zero.

The sculpture, though not in the most prominent area of the mall, was fittingly situated where people could promenade, sit down on the grass and enjoy the little of the clean and green space in the city. It was unobtrusive and one could almost bump into it especially as the day darkened since this was not lit.

Soon, as I would personally observe, it also became a favorite picture taking prop as it did provide for a variety of posing arrangements with the more adventurous photographers having a field day with its many visual and planar dimensions.

At the most immediate dimension, 'Tugpo' resonated with everything that was fun in the summer. It was a celebration of carefree innocence unmediated by technology and its exorbitant costs.

More than that, however, 'Tugpo' was the launching of a public sculpture that was without affectation or pretensions at greatness or holiness or even exemplariness.

Technically, as well, it introduced hammered copper into the vocabulary of the local art scene.

It also launched the pioneering foray of the Arts Council of Cebu into the visual and plastic arts where before they were firmly if exclusively limited to the performing arts. This changed, for the better, regard for it by many artists, myself included, leading to very fruitful collaborations.

So, Tugpo was many launchings. Not the least of which is itself into what I hope will be an even better appreciation of public art. Thus, Tugpo cannot disappear. Tugpo has not disappeared. It has simply and finally flown away. It has become what it was meant to be. A kite turning into one of Elton John's skyline pigeons; at rest in flight.

Like Raymund himself, Tugpo personified. He has launched and is continuing to launch experimental art - these days performance art, where rest and flight are a circular continuum into being, becoming and remembering.