Manila Contemporary is pleased to present in the 2nd Gallery Space Briccio Santos: Numbers Revisited the latest solo exhibition by this multidisciplinary creative practitioner. Known for his work as a filmmaker and as Chairman of the Film Development Council of the Philippines, Santos is also an accomplished visual artist working across painting, photography, assemblage and installation. This background in still and moving images has gifted him with a rich and esoteric treatment of narrative and space. Such visual philosophies are informed by considerable time spent in Germany, Paris and New York and the study of Enlightenment and Phenomenological thinkers such as Immanuel Kant, Edmund Husserl and Merleau Ponty.
Numbers Revisited contributes Santos’s on going photo media and installation practice. Utilising the philosophical concept of ‘being’ that refers to consciousness rather than the individual, he presents complex combinations of photography and painting as well as tunnel installations that distort perception. This need to transform and destabilise is driven by an interest in the shifting meanings of objects and images. By creating a sense of constant flux Santos then implicates his audiences who become part of the work in relation to questions of the gaze and inside/outside dichotomies. This is done by a purposeful concealment of the subject’s head by painted marks or shrouds of newspaper or fabric. At other times individuals turn their backs to the audience, refusing any type of recognition. As a type of suffocation or denial of individuality this creates a sense of human helplessness or alternatively, also shows a type of hidden awareness. Audiences are then left wondering, are these figures oppressed or waging a type of silent protest? Additions such as physical window frames or painted bars prompt more questions on who is looking at whom, who is imprisoned and ultimately who is free.
Although Santos alternates between abstract philosophical musings on reality and illusion the artist anchors his practice through an understanding of human history. In Numbers Revisited he references European atrocities, the numbers Santos quotes are the tattooed markings of victims from Nazi concentration camps. Although geographically far removed from the context of Southeast Asia such histories are universal when human tragedy and cruelty continue to take place in the Philippines and the rest of the world. Ingrained in our collective psyche this creates a sense of shared commonality between both subject and viewer despite differences in time and context. However far from didactic, Santos characteristically chooses an ambiguous set of signs and symbols for viewers to draw their own conclusions. His images therefore act as echoes and whispers, mere fragments of epic but purposefully evasive narratives. Describing this process he states:
“Sometimes thoughts in a visual context bring one to new dimensions often as a result or due to the backdrop of existing universal social, political, historical and even personal enigmas. The artist merely amplifies and compresses it into a zip file. It’s up to the viewer to decide how they want it decompressed”
Throughout the exhibition Briccio Santos presents moments of silence and solitude. This deconstruction and reimagining of time and different spaces creates a body of work that is curious and alluring. As an individual committed to understanding consciousness he uses infinity, repetition, permanence and impermanence to physically create optical illusions of interior spaces or ponder the meaning of object and subject. His tragic elegance reveals a maturity of visual rhythm and paradox, sanctity and oblivion in an ever temporal and complicated world.
ABOUT THE ARTIST:
Born in Manila Briccio Santos spent his early years in Davao and later completed his education in Europe and the US. Santos directed his first feature length film, Manikang Papel in the mid 70’s and along with other projects such as Damortis is counted as one of the country’s first independent film makers. As a contemporary artist during this time he also exhibited works in many galleries in Metro Manila before settling in Baguio City in 1978. During the martial law years he joined various political groups and was involved in protest art happenings at that time. After the fall of the Communist regime in the late 80’s he went back to Europe and directed The Cavaliers of Wind filmed in Russia. After living in Paris for ten years Santos returned to the Philippines. He then ventured into numerous full-length indie films. He was honored by NCCA as outstanding filmmaker in 2003.
He has exhibited his paintings in Manila and New York and also published a book of his own photography. His installation, Heritage Tunnel was shown at the Singapore Art Museum where a similar installation in wood is now a permanent feature of the Museum. He continues to exhibit in other media in various galleries in Manila. Today, Briccio Santos is the Chairman of the Film Development Council of the Philippines.
