As is customary, VIVA EXCON CAPIZ 2018 held a multi-site exhibition across the city, activating eight main venues with interventions, exchanges and engagements among local communities, Visayan and Filipino artists, and international cultural practitioners. Guided by the curatorial theme “Don’t even bring water (Bisan tubig di magbalon),” a line from the Visayan folk ballad Dandansoy, the exhibitions centered on the aspiration of returning to one’s roots; where in the face of limited resources and opportunities, it has been common to desire for the global stage, neglecting in the process one’s place of origin. Each work was a consolatory testament to this economy of means as each artist searches for spaces and semblances of home that require no geographical anchoring. Alongside this, a 3-day conference at the Gerry Roxas Training and Convention Center was made to set a mirror on itself through:
1. surveying the various art landscapes in the Visayan region; 2. exploring nuanced histories and relevancies of art festivals in the Philippines; 3. assessing successes, strategies and mistakes of cultural platforms in Southeast Asia; and, 4. discerning concrete prospectives for VIVA EXCON.
This two-pronged program calls for a collective remembering and re-grounding in hopes of finding the path towards a common future.
- Related Countries
- Japan, Philippines
- Co-organizer(s), Cooperator(s)
- City of Roxas and Province of Capiz
From the Organizer
Funding and administrative organization is crucial in hosting a biennial. The Japan Foundation- Asia Center’s support has been significant in making the organizers’ plans for inter-provincial, international and inter-generational interactions and engagements possible, creating a reciprocal expansion of perspectives and possibilities for both visiting collaborators and the communities on the ground.
