The works of eight contemporary Filipino artists exhibiting at the Gwangju Biennale in September can be viewed at the ongoing Ortigas Art Festival.
For the first time ever, the Philippines is having a pavilion of its own at the 15th edition of the Gwangju Biennale in South Korea, Asia’s oldest biennale of contemporary art. Entitled “Locations of Freedom” and curated by artist Avie Felix, the exhibit aims to explore the various forms of revolution.
“What do we mean by revolution? What is EDSA revolution?” she cites the historical revolution of 1986. She then goes on to mention a different type of revolution that may be happening to all of us right now. “But the strange thing is in my heart, I know there is a revolution happening inside me. There’s anger, a desire to break free from everything. Ang dami kasing kailangan mong paglalabanan araw araw—bilang babae sa isang third world country, sa Manila, single mom din ako. (There are so many things we have to battle every day – as a woman living in a third world country, in Manila, as a single mother.)”
Felix rounded up six contemporary Filipino artists to join her to form the consortium for the exhibit, namely, documentarist Adjani Arumpac, filmmaker Sari Dalena, multi-discipline artist Toym Leon Imao, visual artist Sio Montera, painter and illustrator Paul Eric Roca, and photojournalist Veejay Villafranca.
“The artists that I’m working with are very truthful and authentic and really honest with their work,” Felix adds.
Artist and graphic designer Karl Castro designed the visual identity of the exhibit—its logo of irregular shapes in vibrant neons. “I used the spring-like main image because I wanted to show the continuous quest for freedom. There are starts and stops here and there but the quest is continuous,” Castro adds. “The color gradients are also shifting continuously. I wanted to show that different communities and movements were pushing on with that quest throughout history and that it’s a necessarily messy process.”
The exhibit will be a mix of sculptural installations, paintings, moving image/video art, and photographs. A preview of their work can be viewed currently at the Ortigas Art Fest.
Arumpac has created videos using patterns of Marawi’s topography and turned them into screensavers. Just like screensavers, they will only play when you stop what you’re doing and listen. Roca’s painting entitled “The Paradise of Unfulfilled Promises” is a parodic adaptation of a work of 16th century painter Hieronymous Bosch presenting a “macabre satirical depiction of the political landscape in the Philippines.”
Imao’s sculpture entitled “Debugging” is of six women and a dog on a flight of stairs acting like they’re removing lice from the other’s head. A closer look will reveal that their brains are exposed and what the women are actually doing are examining each other’s heads as if to “tackle false narratives that the nation go by”. Villafranca’s photos, meanwhile, are “visual journals of how the everyday lives of Filipinos pay witness to the everyday revolutions stemming from various challenges in the post-colonial contemporary Philippines.”
As the 15th Gwangju Biennale opens this September 2024, Felix and the artists are currently looking for sponsors and additional partnerships to seek funding for the shipping costs of artworks, production and printing of the Philippine Pavilion catalogue, airfares, accommodations, and local transportation of the artistic team.
In addition, special “Locations of Freedom” merch and prints are for sale at the Fundacion Sanso Museum Shop in the museum and online at www.fundacionsanso.shop which will help with the funding.
Avie Felix, Keep Moving
Also worth noting is that Gwangju, located in the southern part of the Korean peninsula, also experienced a revolution of its own in 1980. Chun Doo-hwan, a military dictator, implemented martial law. Students in Gwangju protested and were violently suppressed by the military with an estimated 2,300 victims. In 2023, Doo-hwan’s grandson bowed to relatives of the victims of the Gwangju uprising, calling his grandfather a “sinner and slaughterer.”
Felix ends with a thought and even more questions of how we can keep the spirit of freedom alive for generations to come. “It really pays to look back on our history to be able to move forward with a stronger spirit of freedom. I was only a child during the EDSA Revolution. How can you keep the spirit of a revolution that you did not experience? How much more for our children? How can we make them understand the EDSA revolution? I guess our generation would like to bridge that gap.”
Locations of Freedom will be exhibited at the Philippine Pavilion at the Asia Culture Centre for the 15th Gwangju Biennale starting September 7 to December 1, 2024.
