UNTRUTH

There is really nothing true in this world. Everything is just opinion. Enrico J. L. Manlapaz, curator


This peculiar exhibition was born out of an extremely pretentious proposal which I received sometime June 2010 from some twelve artists. The concept paper carried “Superficial, gloomy, mysterious, grotesque, the unrealities of relentless faith have been incurred in this manner that gothic [sic] is evidently associated.” I had to force myself to continue reading further, and I did anyway. It proceeded with a blatant review of the European eras, ending with “The deployment of Romanticism is greatly accentuated and somehow it manifests a sense of approach most likely to all traditions of our society [sic].” I did not write those. Someone else did and I am not patronizing the write-up by editing it

My only reaction then? I asked if they were talking about a cultural phenomenon currently referred to as “goth.” I googled a bundle of articles ranging from Goths (the Germanic tribe) to Gothic (as in architecture of the Middle Ages) and ending with Goth (a subculture whose main reason for existence is to provide an alternative for mainstream lifestyles). I explained that every period in history has some kind of a subculture: as in Beatnik of the 60s, Hippie of the 70s, Punk of the 80s. I even kidded about our own Jejemon (and I received a violent reaction!).

A month later, I received another proposal, this time reduced to six artists, with a concept that states “…we want to search the truth within the concept of spirituality. To visualize in forms of belief, religion and lifestyle that we think is now being a malpractice and how it manifest in this diverse culture.” [their language, not mine.] It was baptized La Verdad (Spanish for The Truth).

In the meanwhile, I lent dvds of two infamously notorious films Dogma and Religiulous. I proposed a working title of Truth+Dogma. The management of my “landlord” gallery, for reasons of artistic style, trimmed down to five the list of six artists I presented. Another artist begged off as he is busy preparing for a major exhibition in a “prestigious” cultural center.

Four artists remained for the meeting held sometime August 2010: Bernard Del Mundo, Zaldy Garra, Kris Jan Gavino, and Averil Paras. In that meeting, these famous words surfaced: “Wala naman kami talagang gustong mangyari. Gusto lamang naming pag-usapan ang mga ka-untruth-an nila!” (We really do not wish for anything to happen. We just want to talk about all their nonsense.) But the Filipinese is much better. There you have it: UNTRUTH.

Epilogue: I really love the idea of ambush interviews where the mind is free and defenseless to express itself. I have been doing this in all my organization development facilitation. As common as with other humans, artists blurt out what is in their mind, catching them with their pants down, with words emanating from their subconscious mind and slipping uncontrollably out of their tongues. Wisdom is revealed in this fashion. Pretensions are left behind. It is when one has to worry about what people would think or say that all these untruths are revealed. What a contradiction!

Enrico J. L. Manlapaz
Antipolo City, 26 October 2010