Dear friends and colleagues
The Art Fair Philippines has only been running since 2013. Dissatisfied with other fairs in the country, three young collectors (Trickie Lopa, Dindin Araneta and Lisa Periquet) set out to make something that was both more selective and much cooler. The first thing you would notice when entering their fair is that it is in a multi-story car park, the second that on the public days it is very crowded. It has been enormously successful: the galleries sell well and people enjoy themselves. And it has started to attract international collectors and galleries: whereas in 2014 only one gallery (Equator Art Projects) showed non-Filipino art, this year there were seven galleries from Hong Kong, Jakarta, Singapore and Taiwan.
As so often, the outstanding booth was one given to one artist, in this case Alwin Reamillo who presented his work as in his studio, including a working piano made so it could be rolled along.
2. Alwin Reamillo
In the absence of a biennale or a large scale museum of Contemporary Art in Manila, the artist’s special projects (nine this year) have unusual significance as showing a range of new work.
Poklong Anading reacted to the setting by building a mound of old truck tyres that visitors had to climb over to see the rest, Yasmin Sison and Mariano Ching‘s procession of fourteen minature houses was the most beautiful project and the most vulnerable – three were damaged by the milling crowds and it all had to be dismantled early.
3. Poklong Anading
4. Yasmin Sison and Mariano Ching
5. detail
Geraldine Javier, as I related last week, initiated a collaborative project. The twenty-six dolls of dealers, each with an answer to the question “What is art for you?” on a fabric speech bubble were put up and she waited. She was not sure how it would take off and during the VIP viewing barely a speech bubble was added. A few artist friends were urged to add a drawing but even during the vernisage little happened. But the next day (Thursday) when the general public came in it accelerated rapidly. By mid-afternoon all two hundred and fifty of the speech bubbles she had provided were used up.
6. Thursday at 4.55PM
Sheets of coloured paper, quickly snipped into speech bubble shape, were provided or else people were, if they preferred, allowed to draw directly on the wall.
7. Thursday 6.19PM
8. Thursday7.14PM
Soon people had to lie on the floor to find a spot to write on. A ladder was provided so people could reach higher up.
9. Friday 5.15PM
10. Friday 5.55PM
11. Me
12. Isa Lorenzo
13. Keong Ruoh Ling
14. Geraldine Javier
15. Trickie Lopa
The walls were so filled by Friday evening that Javier announced the project closed, but many people nevertheless brought their own pens so they could carry on writing and drawing. Of course, the original remit of answering the question “what is art for you?” was sometimes forgotten and a lot of people just enjoyed writing or drawing on a wall in an art fair. She was fine with this: participation is participation and you cannot control people.
16. Saturday 1.34PM
17. Sunday 3.06PM
Why did people enjoy this so much? The fact, one assumes, of being able to speak, of joining in. The democracy of it: not everyone can afford to buy an art work here, but everyone can have an opinion. This was not about money, there was a carnival atmosphere. Even those who did not write enjoyed reading the many comments, some serious and some amusing. Many comments were in Tagalog the everyday language of Manila: this was a popular project in all senses of the word. How one wondered, would this work differently in another country or culture?
Wishing you all a good Tuesday
Tony