DEC13_SUPERDUPERFINAL

Kalibutan Seminar Node 4:
Exhibitions | Not Exhibitions -
Timing and Placing the Present
Seminar
Region 6, 7 & 8 | June 12, 2021
The V-CON 2 webinar Kalibutan Seminar Node 4: Exhibitions | Not
Exhibitions - Timing and Placing the Present with Kalibutan Head
Curator Patrick Flores and Visayan curators Guenivere Decena and
Liby Limoso of Region 6, Maria Taniguchi and Jay Jore of Region 7,
and Mars Briones and Nomar Miano of Region 8 was the fifteenth
in a series of virtual talks. Patrick Flores remarked that curatorial
work is not confined to exhibition-making. Possibilities are tackled
in anticipating a series or relays of calibrations along the way, in
light of the pandemic and the system put in place.
Curator-artist Guenivere Decena believes that the theme on
world and consciousness is a continuum that directs one towards
the significance and wisdom found in being there for others.
Consequently, her artists Denli Chavez and Perry Argel grew towards
recounting stories and answering global concerns. Chavez discussed
women and gender relations and the weight of confinement and
connections. Argel shared his proximity and intimacy with nature.
Liby Limoso’s devotion to indigenous and cultural heritage was
requited by his line of artists. EyeCan Creatives worked to preserve
and protect language, place, identity, memory and spirituality.
AR Sculptura promoted Visayan culture and ethnic design. Ron
Espinosa, Farida Kabayao and TM Malones focused on the tangible
heritage of Western Visayas. Cebu-based curator Jay Jore said that
curatorial practice is woven into a social fabric that conditions the
quality and kind of output. This social dimension of curatorial
practice became apparent in Solitaryo Cinco’s urban documentation,
street deployment and interviews and Mona Alcudia’s multimedia
installation of a peacock chair and Filipino karaoke. Both projects
permitted creating participatory, experiential activities in digital
and hybrid modes and allowed the exhibition of the process, not
just the product. Maria Taniguchi approached curation with an
open mind. Taniguchi viewed the pandemic as a destabilizing force
that restricted usual movements and usual approaches to being in a
project. Working with Retired Artist and Gabi Nazareno amplified
her concept of bounds and subtractions in the context of the
present. The artists’ techniques involved carving, cutting away or
erasing some parts of existing objects. This is akin to the pandemic
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removing proximity and altering norms. There was restoration of
practice and a cycle of coping; a promise of recovery. Mars Briones
focused on bracing the roles and agencies of artist, curator and
audience in the simultaneous pull of distance and proximity. His
artists Popo Amascual and RV Sanchez proposed interaction and
collaboration in the early and final stages of their projects. Briones
talked about sharing readings with Popo Amascual in the concept
development phase for Hingalo. In Figure Drawings, RV Sanchez
places himself as a dynamic subject and his remote participants a
performing audience. Nomar Miano highlighted how curatorial
work makes one question the default assumptions of art. In his
conversations with Regional Art Forum (RAF) and Soika Vomiter,
Miano observed how collaborations shape mediation and redefine
classic notions of art. Practice starts as an independent set of studies,
and ends in modality of the flesh, of the human body. In this regard,
RAF physically engaged with geographical spaces and Soika shared
his Panic Box with a few locals, all while abiding by health protocols.