Two simple yet symbolic events marked the University of the Philippines’ 101st anniversary at Diliman June 18: the traditional flag-raising rites at 8 a.m. and the christening of the newest art space on campus at 4 p.m.
UPD chancellor Dr. Sergio S. Cao led the straightforward affair in the morning, which consisted of raising the Philippine and the UP flags to the singing of the National Anthem and the university hymn UP Naming Mahal, respectively.
Cao noted that while lacking the fanfare and drama that marked UP’s 100th year celebration, the brief ceremony was nonetheless significant since it marks the university’s first year after its centennial. He also noted that he and those in attendance will not be able to witness the university’s next 100th year.
Officials, academic heads and constituents attended the rites held at Quezon Hall, the seat of the UP administration.
An equally brief program and an unorthodox ribbon-untying rites christened Bulwagan ng Dangal, latest exhibition hall on campus. The venue is located at the basement of Gonzalez Hall or the Main Library.
University librarian Dr. Salvacion Arlante welcomed the guests, comprising UP officials, heads of academic units, faculty members and university constituents.
Arlante said through its newest facility, the University Library may further share its art collections, realia and memorabilia not only with the community but also with the whole world. “In the modern concept, we can say that UP has a library, archives and a museum in one place,” she said in Filipino.
Located at the right wing of the Main Library basement, the art space’s impressive design and construction is by Dr. Gerard Rey A. Lico, UPD Campus Architect and professor at the College of Architecture.
Lico describes the art space in the exhibition notes as:
“The architectural narrative begins at the lobby. The former open canopy is now enveloped in cubic volumes. Its exterior is clad in warm red bricks, an allusion to the University’s built heritage constructed along the tenets of the traditional academia. Patterns of sunlight streak upon the beige-tiled floor inside through translucent and yellow glass, illuminating the lobby through the skylights above.
Through wide wooden doors, one is brought into a space which transitions from natural light to darkened interior, from higher level to lower floor. Via stairs or ramp, one is transported from the park-like ambiance of the campus without, to the enveloping space within. The transition space unwittingly provides a taste to whet the visual appetite, for through an obtuse corner, one vertically emerges into the main gallery that is cavernous but not impersonal.”
“The appropriation of the phrase, bulwagan ng dangal, as the name of the newest exhibition space on campus honors the importance the University assigns to the role of the arts and culture in molding the lives and minds in the academe,” Prof. Rubén D. F. Defeo said, speaking briefly on the venue and the inaugural exhibit.
A professor at the Department of Theory, College of Fine Arts, Defeo curates the exhibit with Dr. Patrick D. Flores of the Department of Art Studies, College of Arts and Letters. Defeo is also acting director of UPD’s Office for Initiatives in Culture and the Arts.
With the venue’s inaugural was the unveiling of the exhibit “Pag-asa ng Bayan,” a collection of works by UP alumni-artists and National Artists for the Visual Arts. The exhibit features works by eight National Artists namely: Fernando Amorsolo, Napoleon Abueva, Benedicto Cabrera, Abdulmari Asia Imao, José Joya, Vicente Manansala and Hernando Ocampo. Also on exhibition are works of 31 artists, among them Santiago Bose, Anastacio Caedo, Imelda Cajipe-Endaya, Norberto Carating, Dominador Castañeda, Neil Doloricon, Rock Drilon, Nonoy Marcelo and Nestor Vinluan, to name a few.
The works are pieces from the University Art Collection, which counts more than 1,000 works scattered over the seven constituent campuses of the UP System. The Collection ranges from basic still life to history art—painting, sculpture and mixed media—expressed in either representational or non-representational idiom.
“The current exhibition underscores the rich base where the University Art Collection stands when viewed according to certain determinants, breathing into the collection a sense of the expansive where aesthetic forms and content are brought to fore,” Defeo said.
The exhibition’s title is taken from the University hymn and speaks of the possibility of change that animates a forever expectant nation and people. The exhibition space is also called the University Heritage Museum
“In keeping with this spirit, the exhibition reveals the strength of the UP trove in the realms of commemorative public art, from portraiture to monumental sculpture. As these points try to mark turning points in the triumph of culture and consciousness, so do other expressions to mark watersheds with a more fearless temper; social realism and abstraction offer equally compelling visions of critique and whimsy, further inflecting the legacy of the University with urgency and imagination,” Flores writes in the exhibition’s brochure.
The exhibit is a centennial project of the UPD Office of the Chancellor through the Office for Initiatives in Culture and the Arts. Cooperating units include the Office of the Campus Architect and the Designed Environment Committee of the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Community Affairs, the Executive House, CFA, College of Law and the University Library. Also lending support is the French Chamber of Commerce in the Philippines, which has partnered with UP in the project
Pag-asa ng Bayan runs until December 31.
—Chi A. Ibay