Art, to be relevant, must be indigenized as it is globalized. Through a series of online and interactive dynamics, VIVA ExCon keeps to its mission of strengthening art communities throughout the Philippine islands and across the globe.
February 6 Session: Part One
The webinar “Art Market: Prospects for Visayan Artists” with art fair and gallery founders Trickie Colayco-Lopa, Rey Mudjahid “Kublai” Millan, and Cesar “Jun” Villalon Jr. was the first part of the fifth session of V-CON 2. The speakers were joined in by ExCon Director Mariano Montelibano, moderator Gina Jocson, and interpreters Ma. Teresa Buenaventura and Noemi Lacambacal from Benilde School of Deaf Education and Applied Studies.
Art Fair Philippines co-founder Trickie Lopa said that they have participating galleries from the Visayas during the annual Art in the Park, with galleries selected because of great projects and good programming. Through the years, Visayas has been a part of Art Fair Philippines.
Trickie Lopa even referred to Charlie Co’s “Men in Blue” as a milestone in the history of Art in the Park. Art in the Park was founded in 2006 with the mission of making visual arts accessible to everyone, as Lopa believes that art is a social space.
Last year, they had 35,000 visitors, 62 galleries, 10 special exhibits, and a five-level (10,310 sqm) exhibition space. Art in the Park just kept growing. Even amidst the pandemic, she shared how the art market is pivoting and adapting quickly.
In recent studies, Creative Industries account for 3 percent of the world’s GDP and 30 million jobs. In Asia, the Creative Industries account for 743 billion USD of absolute GDP values and 12.7 million jobs. As the regional art market turns, standards cascade to the local art scene.
Trickie Lopa highlighted that the best way to nurture artists of the Visayas is to nurture the culture of the Visayas and to cultivate authenticity and confidence in one’s identity. She featured artists Michael Armitage and Njideka Akunyili Crosby as models of the art deep into one’s roots.
Rey Mudjahid “Kublai” Millan, Mindanao Art founder, emphasized that the dream of a thriving art industry in Mindanao is where Mindanao Art digs its roots.
LawigDiwa Inc. (SEC-registered, nonprofit), the mother organization of the Mindanao Art was organized in 2007 under different informal group names, including Earthnic and Artists Helping Artists.
Curator-moderator Maria Taniguchi and artists Mona Alcudia and Gabi Nazareno 
Retired artist articulation of her process 
Mona Alcudia and her peacock chair 
Solitaryo Cinco art collective composed of Khriss Bajade, Bastinuod, Mark “KDLT” Copino, and John Villoria 
Gabi Nazareno responding to a question 
Moderator Gina Jocson and VIVA ExCon Director Manny Montelibano 
Speakers Jun Villalon, Trickie Lopa, and Kublai Millan with Kalibutan Curator Head Patrick Flores and Moderator Gina Jocson 
Head Curator Patrick Flores explicates Kalibutan curatorial project 
Trickie Lopa begins her talk on the art market for Visayan artists. 
The group during dialogue synthesis. 
The Drawing Room founder Jun Villalon shares how the art space evolves in response to changing art landscapes. Moderator Gina Jocson listens to Mr. Villalon as he relates the history of The Drawing Room. 
Trickie Lopa
They look to create an avenue that gathers Mindanawon artists who are true to their roots and who are proactive in the celebration of their culture in the form of visual art. The organization aims to create a lucrative opportunity for every one so that the message of Mindanao cultural diversity and Mindanawon peace will ring louder in all parts of the globe.
Millan shared that Viva Excon played a major role in moving their vision forward. They organized a mini art residency and exchange program for Mindanawon artists. Hence the creation of the Panag-Abut.
The intention of the Panag-Abut was to create a learning experience and exposure for art students and aspiring artists of Davao, since there were very few avenues available to learn from. The mini art residency named Panag-Abut brought in Charlie Co, Roderick “RA” Tijing, Karina Broce Gonzaga, Alan Denoso Ong, Emilio “Junjun” Montelibano, Frelan Laurel Gonzaga, and Joe Geraldo from the Visayan group of artists; it was a huge success.
The organization recognized that more than the need to build an art residency and learning, Mindanawon artists need to build a self-sustaining industry that is fully immersed in their people and culture.
Kublai Millan was the featured artist in the ManilArt 2017. He saw the need to bring events like Viva Excon and ManilArt to Mindanao. The original theme for Mindanao Art 2020 was “Trekking our Unique Cultural Landscape”.
This is an invitation to go deeper into the art in Mindanao and know from where it emanates from, but this changed to “Living Art in the New Landscape”. From an invitation to trek through and view as an observer, Mindanao Art Fair evolved to advocate living Mindanao Art, dwelling in it, breathing it in. The goal was to produce the next generation of artists who are firmly rooted in their identity but confident in their abilities to create from this collective soul.
Kublai Millan emphasized that if there is anything that Covid-19 continues to teach, it is to be out there for the world to see. This covers everything: from your soul to your art to your network to your market. Mindanao art is rooted within the wellspring of their identity as Mindanawons, the one that defines their collective soul. Millan said that there is no Philippine Art to speak of; there are just very good Filipino artists.
Philippine art has to be defined by the collective soul of the Filipinos; it has to come from the individual communities that will carry with them the colors and rhythm and emotions of the place. From rootedness, an aspirant grows into an artist who is grounded and confident of his identity, and from there he will find his soul from where he will draw inspiration.
According to The Drawing Room founder Cesar “Jun” Villalon Jr., art must be accessible and contextualized. Artists and galleries need to work towards community involvement and contribution. These principles seemed highly ideal, but Villalon was able to put them in play.
The Drawing Room’s artist development involved the development of artistic practice and research, community engagement, and artistic production. Furthermore, the gallery’s critical exposure program was aimed at increasing audience engagement and diversity, expanding collector interest, and expanding artist’s and galleries’ networks.
For the first five years, The Drawing Room only sold works on paper. Years later, the gallery housed object-based pieces on the wall.
The space was opened to local, national, and international artists alike. Jun Villalon tried to bring in foreign artists like Rirkrit Tiravanija, Tomas Vu, and Joris Van De Moortel.
Villalon also discussed matching an artist’s practice with the right vision; mutuality and harmony as essential elements of the art market. Artistic practice and works are expected to be in sync with the programming of the gallery. Specific artwork or medium must be compatible with the gallery market and space. The Drawing Room nurtures long-term partnerships as it values the depth of a relationship a gallery offers to the artist.
Towards the end of the dialogue, the speakers proposed site-specific market models for the Visayas.
February 6 Session: Part Two
The webinar “Kalibutan Curators’ Node 1: Curators Converse – What Happens In/To/With/Through the World” with Kalibutan Head Curator Patrick D. Flores was the second part in the fifth session of V-CON 2. The speaker was joined in by moderator Gina Jocson and interpreters Ma. Teresa Buenaventura and Noemi Lacambacal from Benilde School of Deaf Education and Applied Studies.
Head Curator Patrick Flores viewed the Visayas in personal history. He said that VIVA ExCon as a curatorial model and method is sustainable, inter-organizational, extra-institutional, and itinerant. It is likewise collaborative, artist-generated but curatorially mediated, multi-format, and interdisciplinary. According to him, art has no final form, as discourse reshapes practice and practice reshapes discourse. In the context of Visayas, art practice and knowledge may be linked to language, folklore, research, and scholarship. Flores briefly touched on the dawn of contemporary art in the Visayas and mentioned household names like Leandro Locsin and Lino Severino.
In his selection of Kalibutan artists, Head Curator Flores assessed the artist’s ethical ecology: the artist’s attentiveness to the world and relationship with others. He looked for a citizen-artist with broad sympathies, migrant imagination, intellectual curiosity, and patience with process. He put stress on mutual dynamics.
Having spoken to this curatorial vision of Kalibutan, artists Lani Maestro, Leo Abaya, Joar Songcuya, Rhine Bernardino, Josh Serafin, and Charles Buenconsejo were selected by Patrick Flores.
February 13 Session
The webinar “Kalibutan Seminar Node 2: Artists Explore – Intimacies and Communities of Practice” with Region 7 curators and moderators Maria Taniguchi and Jay Nathan Jore, and artists Gabi Nazareno, Retired Artist, Mona Alcudia, and Solitaryo Cinco art collective (Khriss Bajade, Bastinuod, Mark “KDLT” Copino, and John Villoria) was the sixth session of V-CON 2. The speakers were joined in by ExCon Director Mariano Montelibano and interpreters Ma. Teresa Buenaventura and Noemi Lacambacal from Benilde School of Deaf Education and Applied Studies.
The previous Curators’ Node 1 session provided a walk-through of the exhibition proposals from Kalibutan artists. In Seminar Node 2, artists go into detail in terms of their creative method and practice.
Gabi Nazareno’s works are mostly figurative and are products of her involvement in the art and culture scene. She participated in various group shows, the concepts of which are mostly based on experiences in her hometown Bohol.
Nazareno makes large-scale graphite drawings which mimic effects of Alzheimer’s disease in progress as her drawings were erased by exhibition guests throughout the duration of the show. She considered her method performative, additive, and subtractive. According to Gabi Nazareno, structures are built, destroyed, and rebuilt, be it physical, psychological, or anything in between.
Retired Artist shared that home has been 14 different addresses, and for almost all her life, she looked for a place with an original flavor. Retired Artist was born in Antipolo, Rizal, but moved to Dumaguete in 2019. She referred to herself as a spouse, a mother, and a cultural worker.
She produces creative works that allow public engagement as well as private conversations with herself. Her performance “Harana” (1996) was an act of sculpting carrots into flowers while singing. Retired Artist said that this is a result of introspective work. She termed it as “palabas” which means outgoing movement and outward going movement. The main elements of “Harana” are temporary shelter, something to share, and a song.
Mona Alcudia worked with designer Kenneth Cobonpue and later engaged in her independent practice of product design. Alcudia involved herself in organizing community events, and in her creative practice, explored material manipulation. When she took her master’s degree in Netherlands, Alcudia specifically chose Dutch design. She studied the idea of otherness, the structure of creative practice, gentrification of culture, and macro view and distant perspective in relation to the framework and purpose of Filipino design.
Mona Alcudia often finds herself constantly associating with material language. One of her major works, “Peacock Chair”, was designed to reclaim the pop culture icon as a Filipino design. This idea of decolonization was heightened in an immersive experience of imagery and songs in a karaoke machine facing the chair.
Solitaryo Cinco art collective (Khriss Bajade, Bastinuod, Mark “KDLT” Copino, and John Villoria) shared how they flourished in the art scene as they operate a gallery space. The members have their own artist studios, and have been working with different mediums. They were typically into independent practice, but the pandemic somehow shifted their dynamics towards community interaction.
Solitaryo Cinco discussed how COVID-19 became a global collective experience. In their case, the urban space beckoned them out of gallery walls. The members began using street art to give the affected communities a different perspective. They painted QR codes leading to relevant news articles, photo documents, and data on the pandemic.
Limitations propelled the artists to go beyond their bounds. Gabi Nazareno introduced an impersonal element to her work. Retired Artist grew her own art medium. Mona Alcudia reclaimed Filipino design, and Solitaryo Cinco took art to the streets. (Narrated by Vincent Rose Sarnate)*