Words and Images Philippine Arts in Venice Biennale
Editing Gabrielle de la Cruz
The Philippines has chosen a representative for the 60th Venice Art Biennale! After careful and thoughtful deliberation, the jurors have officially selected Kabilang-tabing ng panahong ito (Behind the curtain of this age). The proposal, curated by Carlos Quijon Jr. and featuring the work of contemporary artist Mark Salvatus, “revolves around the ethno-ecologies of Mt. Banahaw and Lucban, the artist’s hometown.” It also draws inspiration from how the mountain “shaped the music and faith of the people.”
The exhibition borrowed its title from the words of Apolinario de la Cruz or Hermano Pule, the lonestar of the people of Lucban who resisted the discrimination of the Spanish Catholic church. Concepts that it aims to explore include “currents of mysticism and modernity, the deep past and the looming future, as well as the coincidence of the cosmopolitan and the vernacular.”
A total of 13 entries from Filipino curators, artists, and creatives were qualified and discussed by the jury. Each entry “demonstrated strong material and discursive potential” and touched on “a myriad of concerns and propositions for urgent collective action.” Diverse artistic expressions such as painting, film, sound, performance, and intermedia installations were also explored.
While all proposals were able to discuss the Philippine locality across various contexts, the selection “was guided by criteria that spoke to the attentiveness for material and discourse.” Entries were evaluated according to their ability to contextualize art forms within the landscape of a national pavilion in Venice, along with their sensitivity to local concerns and openness to intercultural dialogues. Each proposal was also assessed for its overall sensibility, formal integrity, thoughtfulness, and feasibility.
The jury comprised Corazón S. Alvin, director of the Museo ng Kaalamáng Katutubò and a seasoned cultural worker and curator from Manila; Biljana Ciric, an interdependent curator based in Shanghai; Alexandra Munroe, Ph.D., director of curatorial affairs for the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi Project and a pioneering authority on modern and contemporary Asian art and transnational art studies; Victorino Mapa Manalo, Chair of the National Commissioner for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) and Commissioner of the Philippine Pavilion; and Senator Loren Legarda, Senate President Pro Tempore and Project principal and visionary of the Philippine participation at the Venice Art and Architecture Biennale since 2015.
The deliberations were held on July 21, 2023, onsite at the National Commission for Culture and the Arts and virtually, via Zoom. The open call for and acceptance of entries began last March 9, 2023.
The Philippine Pavilion at the 60th International Art Exhibition at la Biennale di Venezia will be open to the public from April 20 to November 24, 2024. •
About the Curator
Carlos Quijon Jr.’s recently curated exhibitions include and land erodes into (2023) at Calle Wright (Manila), object orientations at Gravity Art Space (Manila), and Synthetic Condition at the UP Vargas Museum (Manila). He co-curated the traveling exhibition series Afro-Southeast Asia: Pragmatics and Geopoetics of Art during a Cold War in Singapore (2021), Manila (2021-2), and Busan (2022). His essays have recently been published in the Pathways to Performativity in Southeast Asia issue of Southeast of Now: Directions in Contemporary and Modern Art, National University of Singapore, SEA: Contemporary Art in Southeast Asia Weiss Publications (Berlin), and in the exhibition catalog for Allegories and Realities: Ofelia Gelvezon-Tequi in Retrospect at the Cultural Center of the Philippines.
Carlos’s affiliations include Project and Publications Coordinator for the Philippine Contemporary Art Network (PCAN), Art Critic for Artforum, Research Resident for Traveling South, In Theory project CIRCA Art Magazine (Belfast) and The Getty Foundation Connecting Art Histories Project: Modern Art Histories in and across Africa, South and Southeast Asia, Asia Art Archive (Hong Kong) in 2019, Dhaka Art Summit (Bangladesh) in 2020.
About the Artist
Mark Salvatus is a contemporary artist living and working in Quezon City, Philippines. His works have been presented in different exhibitions including the Asian Art Biennale, Taichung (2021), 2nd Lahore Biennale (2020); Sharjah Biennale (2019), 900mdpl, Jogjakarta (2019), PCAN Pavilion, Gwangju Biennale (2018), Thessaloniki Biennale (2017), Philippine Pavilion, Venice Architecture Biennale (2016), SONSBEEK International, Arnhem (2016); Prologue Exhibition: Honolulu Biennale (2014), 3rd Singapore Biennale (2011), 4th Guangzhou Triennale (2011), Jakarta Biennale (2011 & 2015) and Koganecho Bazaar, Yokohama (2011). He exhibited his works in several venues such as Vargas Museum and Filipiniana Research Center, Manila; Museum of Contemporary Art and Design (MCAD), Manila; Ateneo Art Gallery, Manila; Mill6 CHAT, Hong Kong; Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul; Mori Art Museum, Tokyo; Sharjah Art Foundation, UAE; Asia Society, New York; ISCP, New York and Kusntraum Kreuzberg/Bethanien, Berlin. His films and videos were also screened at M+, Hong Kong, MAIIAM, Chiang Mai, Rencontres Internationales Lourve, Paris and Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin, 6th Cairo Video Festival and International Competition at the 68th International Short Film Festival Oberhausen. He is part of the current traveling show Notes for Tomorrow organized by Independent Curators International (ICI) from 2021- 2025.
Salvatus had residencies in Asia Culture Center (ACC) Gwangju, South Korea, Rijksakademie, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, IASPIS Umea, Sweden; Art OMI, New York, Common Room Networks Foundation, Bandung, Indonesia and Goyang Art Studio in South Korea. He co-founded Load na Dito Projects in 2016 with Mayumi Hirano, an artistic and research initiative that explores various modes of producing and presenting contemporary art by organizing and co-organizing a wide range of programs.
