Contemporary Art Publics: Mapping Philippine Contemporary, Media, Technology, and Publics

Maria Portia Olenka Cabuyao Placino

doi:10.1344/regac2015.1.10

Abstract

The Cultural Center of the Philippines’ (CCP) closure of the Kulo exhibition last 2011 marked a shift in the public of Philippine art. The exhibition included the contentious Poleteismo , a site-specific installation by Mideo Cruz. The piece, which included religious and political icons first became controversial when it was featured in a criminal investigation show XXX . After which, the issue spilled over into print media and more intensely in social media. The controversy resulted to a pre-emptive closure of the exhibition and a senatorial inquiry. The cases filed against the artist and the CCP Board were eventually dismissed by the Office of the Ombudsman in 2013. The controversy brings forward the question of who the publics of art are and how the engagements with such publics should be. The publics of art expanded from those who are able to see the artworks inside the museum and galleries to those who’ve seen it in television, print media, and social media. New publics also include those who have not necessarily seen the entirety of the reproductions but parts and crops of it or even just the descriptions and articles about it, as interpreted by writers, journalists, and “netizens”. The event revealed how little the artists, curators, art historians, and art writers were able to engage with the new publics of art. Given the contemporary conditions of art publics, it is important to look at who the new publics and potential publics of art are. How should the art world engage with the publics of art? What are the possible strategies in the inclusion of the new publics in art discourse?

Highlights

The Poleteismo installation by Mideo Cruz included in Kulo, the commemorative exhibit for the 150th Anniversary of Philippines’ National Hero Jose Rizal at the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) in 2011 brought forward the question of contemporary art in the country
Some of the superimpositions included an image of Uncle Sam, Mickey Mouse, rosaries, crucifixes, car plates, CDs, foreign and local political posters such as Barack Obama (US President) and Fernando Poe Junior, religious posters and calendars, cursive writing board materials often found in elementary schools, educational posters, prints of artworks with religious themes, calendar posters of sexy stars, posters of Philippine heroes, penis ashtrays which are popular tourist souvenirs, condoms, and twinkle lights
For Smith11, “This is how the contemporary art world—its institutions, its beliefs, the ensemble of cultural practices that go into making it a socius, a “scene”—answers the Contemporary Art question: it is what we say it is, it is what we do, it is the art that we show, that we buy and sell, that we promote and interpret

Summary

Maria Portia Placino

CONTEMPORARY ART PUBLICS: MAPPING PHILIPPINE CONTEMPORARY, MEDIA, TECHNOLOGY, AND PUBLICS. Some of the superimpositions included an image of Uncle Sam, Mickey Mouse, rosaries, crucifixes, car plates, CDs, foreign and local political posters such as Barack Obama (US President) and Fernando Poe Junior (popular Filipino actor and one-time presidential candidate before his death), religious posters and calendars, cursive writing board materials often found in elementary schools, educational posters, prints of artworks with religious themes, calendar posters of sexy stars, posters of Philippine heroes, penis ashtrays which are popular tourist souvenirs, condoms, and twinkle lights. The publics were talking about art and discoursing the qualification and expectations of art

Locating Poleteismo as Contemporary

Philippine Contemporary Publics and Shifting Technologies

Moving Forward