VCon 1 ended successfully. The Visayas Islands Visual Arts Exhibition and Conference (VIVA ExCon) 16 VCon 1 has concluded its virtual conference in the Futures Studies thinking.
The Visayan art community went into five conference days using the lens of the future studies design and perspective to arrive at a possible, probable, and preferable future for the artist.
The artist group found their voices in the virtual platform and created a discourse expressed in images which reassured them that they do have a say in how their future is going to be like.
VIVA ExCon Chairperson Charlie Co envisioned a modern-day ‘dap-ay’ experience for the assembly of artists pre-covid so they can examine their own experiences and answer the question of the way these experiences helped or hindered their career in the arts and what their preferred future is in the context of four sectoral focus. Co wanted to give premium to open conversation and ExCon Director Manny Montelibano with his team did realize this vision online.
The last “futures” focus was on governance which was participated in by resource persons Deputy Speaker Loren Legarda and Representative Francisco “Kiko” Benitez with reactor Br. Tagoy Jakosalem on the theme “The arts, legislation and futurity.”
The final day was a discourse on the role of cultural agencies in developing the Visayan art communities with Rica Estrada of the Cultural Center of the Philippines, Ben Suzuki of The Japan Foundation-Manila, Teresa Rances of Asian Cultural Council and Geraldine Araneta of National Commission for Culture and the Arts NCVS. The synthesis by futures moderator Rhoderick Samonte then featured the creative images that the artists from the different islands came up with to provide a preferred future with shapes and colors.
The Visayas Islands Visual Arts Exhibition & Conference (VIVA ExCon) 16 recalibrated itself for the celebration of its 30th year of unimpeded continuance. Given the reality of the 2020 pandemic, the limitation imposed by necessary precautionary measures and the impact of such to the mindset of artists, VIVA ExCon 2020 has recalibrated the festival design to engage creative spirits in a virtual dynamics that is interactive, online and will bring together the creative community to rise to the challenge of the times.
VIVA ExCon continues with VCon 2 on most Saturdays from December 2020 until June 2021.*