MAG:NET GALLERY ANNOUNCES SHOWS FOR NEXT YEAR
Mag:net Gallery is proud to announce its line up of exhibitions for the year 2008:
5-24 Jan Romeo Lee
26 Jan-14 Feb Poklong Anading
16 Feb-6 Mar MM Yu
8-27 Mar Jayson Oliveria
29 Mar- 17Apr Pete Jimenez
19 Apr-8 May Robert Langenegger
10-29 May Yasmin Sison
31 May-19 Jun Pardo de Leon
21 Jun-10 Jul Group Show (Curated by Roberto Chabet)
12-31 Jul Jucar Raquepo / Alvin Villaruel
2-21 Aug Manuel Ocampo
23 Aug-11 Sep Gerardo Tan
13 Sep-2 Oct Bernardo Pacquing
4-23 Oct Juan Alcazaren
25 Oct-13 Nov Ranelle Dial
15 Nov-4 Dec Roberto Chabet
6-18 Dec Sat Lyle Buencamino
20 Dec-8 Jan Nestor Vinluan
May we also announce the remaining shows for this year:
…till 3 Nov Front Room (Curated by Juan Alcazaren)
http://www.magnet.com.ph/exhibition/katip/2007/10-04.htm
6-18 November Bernardo Pacquing
20-29 November Bea Camacho (Artgrill with artist on the 24th of Nov)
1-13 Dec Ronald Achacoco, RM de Leon, Jonathan Olazo, Trek Valdisno
15 Dec-3 Jan The Mag:net Xmas Show
MAG:NET VIRTUAL GALLERY AND NEW BACKROOM TO BE LAUNCHED
Soon to be launched in early November is a separate website for Mag:net Galleries. It will be accessed as www.magnetgalleries.com and will be devoted solely to the Mag:net’s 80 in-house artists, their works and the gallery’s program of exhibitions and its other events. It can be linked from its mother site www.magnet.com.ph which btw currently averages 1,700 hits per day and which has been showcasing in the last 2 years Mag:net broad programming for live performances, film screenings, exhibitions , readings and art talks. It can also be linked from the recently launched High Street @ Multiply http://magnethighstreet.multiply.com/ The Mag:net virtual Gallery is being developed by a group of computer science graduating students from the Ateneo University. Its launch will coincide with the opening of the newly renovated Mag:net Backroom. From its former storage function, Mag:net Backroom (located on the 3rd floor of the same building along Katipunan Avenue where Mag:net Gallery is located) is being modified to become a showroom for the works of 30 artists at one given time and a storage for the works of its other artists. The Mag:net Virtual Gallery and the refurbishing of its backroom is in line with Mag:net Gallery’s consolidation.
MAG:NET CAFÉ NOW ACCEPTING RESERVATIONS FOR CHRISTMAS PARTIES
Mag:net Café’s 2 venues , the intimate 50-sitter venue (can add another fifty-sitter if ground floor space is used) along Katipunan avenue in QC and it’s 100-sitter capacity branch (on record has fit in 300 guests in one party) in Bonifacio High Street in Taguig-Makati are now accepting advance reservations for the exclusive use of its facilities for Christmas and other private parties for the month of December. For inquiries re packages you may call Weng at 9293191/ 39216681279 for Mag:net Katipunan and Jet at 8563400 / 09164585554 for Mag:net High Street or email magnetcafegroup.gmail.com
MISHKA ADAMS IN RARE MAG:NET PERFORMANCES
Mag:net Café is happy to announce the homecoming performances of Mishka Adams on December 12 at Mag:net Katipunan and on December 20 at Mag:net High Street. Advance reservations are also now being accepted . Mishka was at the height of her popularity when she decided to pursue her studies in London more than a year ago. She had been performing regularly in Mag:net Katipunan prior to her departure. She will be in Manila for the holidays. For advance reservations on the Mishka Mag:net December performances pls call Weng at 9293191/ for Mag:net Katipunan and Jet at 8563400 / 09164585554 for Mag:net High Street.
THE RETURN OF THE POETS
Or have they ever really left? Don't they write column after column, or teach in universities and occasionally grace readings? Or get reincarnated in the energies of the young?
We remember the months prior to the EDSA revolution. Those were very intense times. Everybody was a poet. But there was a handful, a rare breed that banded together, known as the PLAC 5 (Gémino H. Abad, Cirilo F. Bautista, Alfrredo Navarro Salanga, Ricardo M. de Ungria and Alfred A. Yuson) and stood out and became some sort of superstars to the envy of some minds in the left who had uncompromisingly paved the way for the coming revolution. Some of these founders of the Philippine Literary Arts Council were moderates or late bloomers, but then because they had the gift of word and wrote and spoke with awakened conscience and with the sharpness and brilliance of our departed heroes, the revolution embraced them. It was they who made us see clearly what was going on and what had to be done. It was they whom we identified with — we, the many who collectively also danced with the dictator, one way or another. We were mesmerized because they spoke in our language and not in dogma, and they did it so beautifully.
Some twenty years later these same poets can think back and smile and enjoy the memory of the heroic times when they once gambled with their lives and reputations. They must have also realized a long time ago that nothing much has changed except that they have gotten old and bulging somewhere.
The moment is just as horrible. People continue to disappear.
EDSA 1 or 2 or both combined have not changed anything. A stark visualization of realities can be clearly seen through three different and separate works based on actual accounts, rendered by Cinekatipunan project director Kiri Dalena, a multi-media artist and sculptor:
1) A short film showing a black and white photo of the late journalist and EDSA hero Joe Burgos, joyful and embracing an 11-year-old son, moments after the EDSA revolution; and in that same photo, the little boy disappears right in front of our very eyes, with minimal text appearing shortly that says: "Do not let their legacy disappear";
2) A series of photographs of a woman activist in the same striped shirt she wore on different occasions: a family birthday celebration, addressing a crowd during a rally, in a restaurant with friends, and in the end, on the grass in some remote place, lifeless, in the same striped shirt but this time soaked in her own blood;
3) A video installation with monitors embedded in heaps of discarded debris, the screens showing running shots of bloody and lifeless hands.
The boy in the picture is now a full-grown man; his name is Jonas Burgos and he has been missing. The woman in the striped shirt is Eden Marcellana, mother of two little girls, abducted in April 21, 2003 and found dead the day after. And the hands in the video installation are those of the hundreds of salvaged victims in the recent past — while the artist took shots of the bodies to accomplish the task as a volunteer in documenting human rights violations specific shots of the lifeless hands were also taken which later ended up in a video installation, each hand telling an even more powerful visual story that the audience could fill in on how the countless murders were carried out. The last time we were stunned this way was in the '80s, prior to EDSA, through the works of Lani Maestro on desaparecidos at the CCP, and when it rained walking fingers while Cirilo Bautista read his poem to a full-packed UP Abelardo Theater.
Dalena's Burgos clip is part of "Rights," a collection of film clips or poetry in film made by several independent filmmakers. “Rights” was initially labeled unfit for public screening by the MTRCB. Once again, short films of protest against the increasing cases of disappearances and summary killings of journalists and activists are considered subversive.
Things are becoming worse today, and that's an understatement. Many of us may fail to see it because we have become numb, or been overwhelmed by the new distractions not there before: the Internet, hyper commercial cable TV, mall culture, and yes, texting.
It's probably this prevailing indifference that has also compelled the return of the poets in the new generation of multi-disciplinary poets that include performance poets and the so called multi-media poets. They are coming around in droves, with varied sensibilities — wired, in blogs, on radio, and yes, in traditional café readings that have become fashionable, based on the crowds these have drawn.
In these readings old-timers read with the young ones, teachers with the students, award-winners with the up-and-coming, book authors with the amateurs. This is a good thing, never mind if a few have become some kind of heartthrobs, or muses, labeled as hot. They are not just reading; they are also incorporating their poems with performance, music and sounds, films and Powerpoint presentations, and sometimes with the use of cellphones.
The latter-day poets are open to experimentation and collaboration with other artists. They have high regard for their seniors whom they look up to with endearing respect and admiration. They expose themselves to the different creative processes and are not intimidated by their fellow artists in the other disciplines, which explains why we also see them and their works in exhibits, musical gigs and film screenings.
Contributory factors to this recent development are varied. Widely acknowledged is the support of enduring institutions like the Palanca awards, the Dumaguete workshop, and the recent Maningning Miclat Awards, among others. There are also new energies that are evolving out of the university-based support systems, particularly strong these days in UST and Miriam College.
"Chromatext" which was a component of Pinaglabanan Galleries' programming in the '80s was recently resurrected at the CCP. PLAC's Caracoa poetry journal is back, and hopefully as a series the way it was. The holding of regular readings in cafes must have also inspired recent interest in poetry - particularly the Writers' Night conducted by Vim Nadera at Conspiracy on Tuesdays, and the Happy Mondays Poetry Nights staged by Joel Toledo at Mag:net Katipunan.
For the month of October alone, Mag:net Katipunan had seven readings, which included a night with visiting British performance poet Francesca Beard. On the 29th of this month, poetry will go to Mag:net Bonifacio High Street for the first time, with Trix Syjuco hosting. The plan is to do it alternately with an open mic night, with Tricia David (of the Intramuros Sanctum fame) hosting.
Whether this is just another craze or the beginning of regularly providing an updated textual articulation so as to wake us up from our indifference remains a question. Many participants and observers may be dwelling mostly on relative indulgences, and may have overlooked that the boy in Joe Burgos' embrace is gone, nowhere to be found.
What is important for now is that they, the poets, have returned, slowly getting through the distractions, connecting with their generation, and interestingly, conducting it in the company of some of the wise old men who once helped articulate that a revolution was in place. (Pedro Dumancas, Katipunan)
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Remaining readings in October (7:30PM) @ Mag:net Katipunan:
15 Oct - Happy Mondays Poetry Night (Hosted by Joel Toledo)
22 Oct - Lunduyan ng Sining Poetry Night
29 Oct - Arrest Poetry Night (to coincide with the launch of the ARREST
artists mural in the CR Gallery)
@Mag:net High Street:
29 Oct - "Cesare and the Electric Underground Collective" (Hosted by Trix Syjuco)
Note: "Rights" CDs (P120) and Caracoa (P100) copies are available for sale at Mag:net Katipunan.
(If you have essays on the current artscene we will be happy to publish them in Mag:net News. So far you’ve been reading Pedro Dumancas’ observations. Dumancas, whose writings have also been published in the major dailies is one of the regulars of Mag:net Cafe, considers himself a ghost of Katipunan.)
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