DEC13_SUPERDUPERFINAL

VIVA ExCon 2018 Exhibtion - Roxas City, Capiz
VIVA ExCon 2018 Conference - Roxas City, Capiz
how were the original Black Artists responding to the situation when
they previously were in the forefront? Believing he has done his part
by making VIVA not only a national but an international event and
by persevering in his art work, Taking Water at the Dinggoy Roxas
stadium, Charlie tossed the question to the millennials, whose turn
he said it was to respond. This was echoed by Dennis Ascalon whose
entry entitled A New World Order referred to the Sagay killings.
In the case of Peewee Roldan, he contended holding VIVA ExCon
throughout these twenty eight years whether or not it had sufficient
resources was an activist act because it was a commitment to make
their generation remember what they went through. On the other
hand, there were participants who did not want to dwell on the
“nightmare of the past” but wanted to move on prompting the
moderator to comment that the advantage of VIVA is that people
are able to collaborate despite differing perspectives.
Getting back to the present, moderator Diana Campbell Betancourt
started the session on biennales with the rhetorical question: What
kind of biennales do we need? Exploring the consequences and
importance of the biennale phenomenon and its seeming necessity
to persist, Diana called attention to the resilience and durability of
the term, such that no matter how much we bash it in these times
of excess, we cannot seem to let go of it. Noting how artists seem to
get the short end of the stick when it comes to biennales because it
was the curators and the galleries/companies they represent that get
all the attention, she raised the idea of doing something different
- a biennale for emerging talents, considering that talents are not
produced on a two or three year timelines which was why the same
works appear to be circulated in different biennales.
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In introducing the speakers for the biennale session, Diana noted
that they were individuals who had catalyzed biennales or were
dealing with existing ones in the Philippines and the wider region.
These were: Ratia Mufida of Jogja Biennale, Unchalee Anantawat of
Bangkok Biennale and Carlos Celdran of Manila Biennale.