|
What’s UP?is jointly published by the UP Diliman Information Office (UPDIO) and the Office for Initiatives in Culture and the Arts (OICA) under the Office of the Chancellor, UP Diliman, Quezon City. Its editorial office is located at the Villamor Hall, University Theater, UP Diliman, Quezon City with telephone number 928-1928, 924-1882 telefax 920-5802 and email address <updio@up.edu.ph>. What’s UP accepts announcements of any activity on campus. Copy should not exceed 500 words, and must contain the following: title of event, description, date and time of activity, sponsoring group/organization, contact numbers and ticket prices, if applicable. Photos and images will also be accepted, provided these are in jpeg format, with 300 dpi and not exceeding 5 inches in size. Email copy and images separately to updio@up.edu.ph . Announcements should be forwarded at least one month prior to the activity’s schedule.
|
||
| ||
|
CAMPUS AT A GLANCE EXHIBITS
Diliman: Tracing the Terrain: This exhibition traces the physical genesis of the flagship campus of the University of the Philippines in Diliman, from its inception in 1939 to the present via the original drawings, archival blueprints and other artifacts from the University’s institutional collection. The University of the Philippines in Diliman has proven to be a model of campus architecture and planning. It boasts a stylistically diverse ensemble of buildings and public art set in a landscaped environment – creating a milieu where thought and discourse freely take flight. This diversity is the result of the evolution of its campus plan, in face of changing architectural theories and styles, and as a manifestation of its dynamic and ensconced relationship with the concerns and events of the nation. While the campus now has a number of landmark buildings by name architects and National Artists, its buildings do not operate as individual units, but as an ensemble, collectively creating spaces that are conducive to scholarly pursuit. The name Diliman may have originated from the edible species of fern which once thrived abundantly in the area, but now, the name Diliman is synonymous to architectural integrity and intellectual inspiration, due in large part to the University of the Philippines. A distinct sense of place has been created – a venue that hones convictions, shapes values and nourishes critical minds and creative imaginations. Dr. Gerard Rey A. Lico curates the exhibit.
Monochromed Memories: UP Landmarks: The University of the Philippines (UP) turned a century old in 2008. To mark the milestone, the Philippine Republic gifted the University, by way of an amendment of the very charter that created the institution in 1908, the status of being the national university in the Philippines for its trailblazing role in advancing the cause of higher education through excellent academic program, cutting edge research and exemplary public service. From a small campus with seven colleges in downtown Manila, the University has grown today into a multiversity with seven constituent universities throughout the country, nurturing the intellectual and cultural growth of the Filipino people through the widest and most varied undergraduate and graduate degree offerings, and producing creative and intellectual outputs of the highest and finest calibre in the service of the nation, the region, and the world.
In memorialising this historic appointment, the Office for Initiatives in Culture and the Arts (OICA) presents Monochromed Memories: UP Landmarks consisting of prints, sketches, and drawings of campus landmarks done by alumni and student artists of the College of Fine Arts (CFA)—one of the pioneering units of UP and the oldest school of fine arts in the country. The 35 drawings comprising the collection are handsome portraits of the University that generously depict its vastness and illustrious history. The collection foregrounds the University as a heritage educational site in the Philippines, presenting a rich legacy of buildings and artworks of national import and renown. Wall texts serve as contextual pivots in the continuing narrative of the University and the nation. Prof. Rubén D.F. Defeo curates the exhibit. Bound, Mirror Bomb and Yari: The University of the Philippines Jorge B. Vargas Museum (UPVM) simultaneously mounts three exhibitions. The exhibition Bound presents the works of Roberto Feleo, José Tence Ruiz, and Gaston Damag that explore the feeling of being suspended, or the state of transition between the past and the future, or the thin line that divides the normal and the berserk. Their projects take us to different moments of transcendence and defiance of gravity, free fall and whirling in space, on the one hand, and the inevitability of ground, the attachment to structure, on the other. Kawayan De Guia’s Mirror Bomb at the third floor features rotating disco balls suspended from the museum’s ceiling. Together with reworked jukeboxes at the North wing and a video projection on the third floor landing, the suite of works crafts for the viewers the mirages prompted by the mosaic of light, violence and play. Yari runs at the West wing gallery and features works by the ANINO Shadow play Collective, a group of multimedia artists committed to popularizing the art of shadow play in the Philippines. Yari, a Filipino term for “made”, alludes to artists’ creations using found materials recycled for ANINO’s various productions. Yari in the vernacular loosely means “screwed up” too, a strain found in ANINO’s interpretations of the political landscape and the paradoxes of Philippine society. Through critique, humor and the stealthy presence of shadows, the exhibit unmasks ‘puppetry’ and deception that keep society on a string. The silhouettes of Yari’s projection on the museum’s exterior glass wall magnify themes of transcendence, structure and transition evoked by works in Bound and Mirror Bomb. ARTIST TALK Gaston Damag lectures on July 9 at 10 a.m. at the CFA Auditorium. Other fellow sculptors, Götz Arndt, a professor at the Ecole Nationale Superieure des Beaux-Arts (ENSBA) in Paris, and Filipino artists Jeremy Guiab and Reggie Yuson are also invited in a round table discussion regarding on-site production and the use of contemporary materials and processes, as well as the definition of “public” in art. The lecture follows Damag’s recently concluded artist in residence program at the CFA in cooperation with UPD OICA and the UPVM. Damag is a Filipino artist who has been working in France for the past 20 years. He is distinguished for ethnographic sculptures that incorporate industrial materials to respond to cultural and physical dichotomies.He has participated in international exhibitions at the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco (1998-1999); Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris (2000); 1st Thessaoniki Biennale of Contemporary Art, Greece (2007); and at the other salons and galleries in France, Rotterdam, Italy, Spain and Luxembourg.
|
||
