CCP exec: 'Poleteismo served as awakening'
CARMELA LAPEÑA, GMA News
08/12/2011 02:07 PM
An official of the Cultural Center of the Philippines on Friday defended the controversial art exhibit Kulô, which the CCP was forced to close, but acknowledged that even other artists found offensive Mideo Cruz's mixed media installation Poleteismo.
"Even among us in the art world, many were offended when we first viewed the artwork," CCP vice president and artistic director Chris Millado said at a press conference Friday morning.
"But it served as an awakening. It roused our senses, challenged us to take a deeper look... Should I judge the artwork for what I see on the surface or should I try to understand why it is affecting me in this way? This is the experience of art."
Reacting to the CCP's decision to prematurely end the exhibit's run last August 9, Millado said, "The mandate of the CCP is to nurture artists, to nurture their works and to nurture this space called artistic freedom."
He said Cruz's work engages the viewer, urging him to look at things that are going on in society. Poleteismo juxtaposed religious images with objects that included representations of genitalia.
Media blamed for confusion
Millado took a dig at the media for framing Cruz's artwork in such a way that people confused it with the entire exhibit.
"It was actually the media that shaped the reactions to this controversy in the popular mind. We felt the media was able to take the frame of those who were offended by it, take the frame of some politicians who reacted or overreacted to it, but were somehow hard-pressed in terms of taking the frame of the artist," said Millado.
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