KEEPING THE FAITH

Keeping the Faith: Acts of Mediation explores the notion of access across the registers of time and place. We find in this exhibition pieces from the Lopez Museum collection indicative of junctures of tumult, transition, and stress. Benedicto Cabrera’s Soldiers, Juan Luna’s España y Filipinas, Felix Resurreccion Hidalgo’s La Derrota de Limahong, El Asesinato del Gobernardor Bustamante y Su Hijo, La Barca de Aqueronte, Per Pacem et Libertatem, Ante La Tumba del Jefe, among others, hint at the tenacity and aptitude required to proceed from these volatile planes. Referencing this instability persuades us to look at the negotiations which occur and become manifest in gestures of propitiation, defiance, inveigling, carousing, and so on. The exhibition also allows us to peer into seminal documents conscripted in the long-term project of enabling Filipinos to emerge from the black hole of colonial mis-representation, thus making that which was invisible ultimately present and concrete.

Keeping the Faith further occasions the juxtaposing of its trove alongside the work of the two contemporary sculptors Agnes Arellano and Kiri Dalena, and the documentary filmmakers Egay Navarro and Rica Concepcion. Taken together, the assembly of objects and time-based works attempt to evoke both memory and aspiration for a kinder and possibly more humane existence.

(ELR, Curator’s Note)

PRESS RELEASE
Keeping the Faith: Acts of Mediation
November 14, 2008 – April 4, 2009
Lopez Memorial Museum
Contact Person: Ms Fanny San Pedro/Ms Jane Pagkalinawan
Contact Details: 6312417/admin@lopez-museum.org

Artmaking is a form of mediation if one defines mediation as “an act of crossing the borders of sacrum and profanum,” as Wikipedia does. Apart from possible representations of transcendent spirituality and claims to truth, art may become involved in rituals that allow for such movements from sacred to profane. Artmaking may also strengthen or break taboos, and blur distinctions. The exhibition Keeping the Faith: Acts of Mediation will explore these and other related notions. The exhibition will feature works of 19th century masters Juan Luna and Felix Resurreccion Hidalgo, National Artists Vicente Manansala, J Elizalde Navarro, Benedicto Cabrera, and artists such as Jose Tence Ruiz, Romeo Tabuena, Danilo Dalena, and Juvenal Sanso. Works by contemporary artists Agnes Arellano and Kiri Dalena, and the video-documentary on the late Roberto Villanueva done by Edgardo Navarro and Rica Concepcion are also featured in the exhibition.

The said exhibition is part of Zero In 7: Bridges. Zero In is a consortium of private museums composed of Ateneo Art Gallery, Ayala Museum, Bahay Tsinoy, Lopez Memorial Museum and Museo Pambata.

The Lopez Memorial Museum is at the ground floor, Benpres Building, Exchange Road corner Meralco Avenue, Pasig City. Museum days and hours are Mondays to Saturdays, 8am-5pm, except Sundays and holidays. For more information, call 6312417 or email admin@lopez-museum.org.