“We are going to have live outside:” A conversation

15 April 2021, Thursday | 3:00-4:00 pm

UP Vargas Museum
Jorge B. Vargas Museum and Filipiniana Research Center, Roxas Avenue, University of the Philippines, Diliman, 1101 Quezon City, Philippines

Join artists Buen Calubayan, Is Jumalon, Emmanuel Santos, Mark Salvatus, and Alvin Zafra in conversation with curator Tessa Maria Guazon about the exhibition “We are going to have live outside,” on view at the UP Vargas Museum. The artists will talk about the exhibition’s idea of exploring the interstitial space between life and death, a state simultaneously signalling crisis and possibility.

Premiering live before the conversation is a virtual video walkthrough of the exhibition “We are going to have to live outside” by the five artists. The virtual events happen on 15 April 2021, Thursday from 3 to 4PM. The video walkthrough and conversation are free and open to all and will be live cast on the UP Vargas Museum’s Facebook page.

“We are going to have to live outside” is supported by Blanc Gallery and Art Porters Gallery, and is part of “Proto/Para: Rethinking Curatorial Work,” the 2020 iteration of the Curatorial Development Workshop Exhibitions supported by the Japan Foundation, Manila (JFM) and the Philippine Contemporary Art Network (PCAN).

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About the artists:

𝐁𝐮𝐞𝐧 𝐂𝐚𝐥𝐮𝐛𝐚𝐲𝐚𝐧 (b. 1980, Lives and work in Manila) has been researching on the construction of world views in reference to one’s own position in it through landscape theory, biography work, museology and Steiner pedagogy among other approaches. His installations of paintings, diagrams, timelines, and archival works are attempts to map out the bigger picture and make sensible of what seems to be a difficult place to navigate—the unstable Philippine landscape.

He has had exhibitions in Mind Set Art Center, Taipei (2020); Arario Gallery Ryse Hotel, South Korea (2019); Blanc Gallery, Quezon City (2018); HKW, Berlin, Germany (2017); Ateneo Art Gallery (2015); and La Trobe Visual Arts Centre, Bendigo, Australia (2014) among others. His recent residencies include Acts of Life organized by MCAD Manila and NTU CCA Singapore, sponsored by Goethe Institute (2018-19); and NTU CCA Singapore (2017).

𝐈𝐬 𝐉𝐮𝐦𝐚𝐥𝐨𝐧 is a graduate of Fine Arts at the University of The Philippines. Hailing from Zamboanga City, she has been based in Manila since starting university in 2012. Throughout her art journey, she dabbled with different media including stop-motion animation as part of the long discovery of her truest creative language. In 2016, she discovered a growing love for drawing using soft pastels and charcoals. She considers drawing to be the only manner, by far, to resonate very deeply with her personality and temperament. Is Jumalon is currently working on another solo exhibition with Blanc Gallery this 2021.

𝐄𝐦𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐮𝐞𝐥 “𝐌𝐚𝐧𝐧𝐢𝐱” 𝐒𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐨𝐬 is a Philippine-born Australia-based documentary and art photographer. His extensive travels allow him to create photo essays on tribal traditions, highlighting the universality of human existence. Most of his work in the past three decades has focused on the Jewish people, the Greek diaspora, international migration, and cultures of antiquity. His portfolios are in the theme of nomadic portraits, visual interpretations of ancient myths and legends, and the ongoing cultural evolution in the independent countries and indigenous communities of the world.

Santos holds regular solo exhibitions and lectures in major cities globally. His photographs are held in permanent collections including The National Gallery of Victoria, The National Library of Australia, The Jewish Museum of Australia, Musée d’Art et Histoire du Judaisme, Paris, The Bibliotheque Nationale, France and the Beth Hatefutsoth Museum, Israel.

𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐤 𝐒𝐚𝐥𝐯𝐚𝐭𝐮𝐬 is a contemporary artist living and working in Manila, Philippines. He studied Advertising at the University of Santo Tomas College of Fine Arts and Design (cum laude). His works have been presented in different exhibitions and venues including the 2nd Lahore Biennale (2020); Kyoto Art Center (2020); Sharjah Biennale (2019), PCAN Pavilion, Gwangju Biennale (2018), How Little You Know About Me, MMCA, Seoul (2018); Sunshower, Art in Southeast Asia from 1980’s-now, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo (2017); Rencontres Internationales Paris/Berlin (2016-2017); Philippine Pavilion, Venice Architecture Biennale (2016); 3rd Singapore Biennale (2011), 4th Guangzhou Triennale (2011), Jakarta Biennale (2011 & 2015), Koganecho Bazaar, Yokohama (2011), Hotel Inmigrantes, Manifesta 9, Hasselt, Belgium (2012), Roponggi Art Night, Tokyo, (2013); Prologue Exhibition: Honolulu Biennale (2014); Sharjah Art Foundation, UAE; Asia Society, New York; Art Center Ongoing Tokyo; Museum Brengasse, Zurich; La Trobe Art Institute, Bendigo, Australia; Cultural Center of the Philippines and Vargas Museum to name a few. Mark is a recipient of the Thirteen Artists grant from the Cultural Center of the Philippines (2012) and Ateneo Art Awards (2010). He had residencies in Asia Culture Center (ACC) Gwangju, South Korea, Rijksakademie, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, IASPIS Umea, Sweden; Art OMI, New York, Common Room Networks Foundation, Bandung, Indonesia and Goyang Art Studio in South Korea.

Together with Mayumi Hirano, they founded Load na Dito Projects in 2016, an artistic and research initiative that explores various modes of producing and presenting contemporary art by organizing and co-organizing a wide range of programs.

𝐀𝐥𝐯𝐢𝐧 𝐙𝐚𝐟𝐫𝐚 (b. 1978) has been making distinctly powerful works by etching and scratching found objects on the surface of sandpaper. The resulting marks or images become the work’s surface information, resonating with the object itself used in production. Throughout the years, he has worked with human and animal bones, steel, bullet, knives, stones and glass.

He has exhibited works in Manila, Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, Poland and Germany. His works were also part of exhibitions at the Yinchuan Biennale in China (2016), the Mediations Biennale in Poznan, Poland (2012), and the Mori Art Museum in Tokyo (2009). He was shortlisted for the BMW Art Prize in 2016 for his show Monopolis at Art Basel Hong Kong 2016. He was the recipient of the Karen Montinola Selection, Art Fair Philippines 2018 and an awardee of the Cultural Center of the Philippines Thirteen Artists grant for 2015.