Art Exhibition: Lopez Museum's "Articles of Disagreement" | September 18-December 20, 2014

Dive deep into the treasure trove of Lopez Museum as their new exhibition, "Articles of Disagreements," which opened last September 18 and will run until December 20, 2014.

The exhibition focuses on art forms that will unearth the different forms of art writing and anecdotes of criticism in Philippine art history. Articles of Disagreements was born out of a specific pool of major texts found in the Lopez Library archives and focuses on the reflexive practices of contemporary artists, as diverse occupations in the Arts are explored to unburden itself from established institutional forms.

In this cafe area of the Lopez Museum, you'll see on the tables the decoupage of old published texts and comic strips culled from various newspapers and magazines that talk about art and society.

I wish I could have my own copy of Ctrl+P, a journal of contemporary art. I collect publications that talk about art, especially if it's published in the Philippines. It's difficult to have a copy of old publications though. 

Featured artists include the collective of young filmmakers Tito and Tita, conceptual artist-curator Nilo Ilarde, Germany-based artist Maria Cruz, and 2013 Ateneo Art Awardee Buen Calubayan. The exhibition will revolve around the archives of the library, along with the museum’s collection of works by Raymundo Albano, Fernando Zobel, Nena Saguil, Roberto Chabet and more; including the ever present masters Juan Luna and Felix Resurreccion Hidalgo. The exhibition is curated by Sidd Perez and Lian Ladia of the alternative contemporary art platform ‘Planting Rice.’

Writer Jose F. Lacaba's article, "The Art of Politics, The Politics of Art"

An interesting feature of the exhibition is the reading laboratory, which aims to elicit discussion and written contributions that will zoom in on the generation of narratives that make up the body of texts of Philippine art history, art criticism, and broad art writing.

Artist Buen Calubayan

What caught my attention is the unique exhibition of Buen Calubayan's work entitled "Employee 55" where he traced his route from his home to the National Museum. Here you'll see the volume of many things "listed." His passion and addiction of listing things (in words and numbers) make up this section that practically documents his life, his daily routines and many others that interest his mind.

BUEN CALUBAYAN devises his art projects to understand and organize his life in relation to the context of a larger community. He uses painting, installation, performance, research and documentation as he navigates through mainstream, museum-based and non-traditional modes of art validation. He is an artist/curator with a BFA degree and Masteral units in Cultural Heritage Studies; a five-year teaching experience at the College of Fine Arts and Design at the University of Santo Tomas and has been a Museum worker from 2002-2013 at the UST Museum and National Museum of the Philippines.

Calubayan was a Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) 13 Artist Awardee in 2009. Recently he finished a residency and exhibition at the Visual Art Centre of La Trobe University in Australia, a grant he was selected for after winning the Ateneo Art Awards (AAA) in 2013. This year, he was again shortlisted for the same award.

The Lopez Museum and Library is at the ground floor, Benpres Building, Exchange Road corner Meralco Avenue, Pasig City. Museum days and hours are Mondays to Saturdays, except holidays, 8am to 5pm. For inquiries, call Tina Modrigo at 631-2417.

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