Art award winners showcase innovation in exhibit as they call out grant delays

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CATALINA AFRICA’S sculptural installation. — BRONTË H. LACSAMANA

DENVER GARZA’S participatory installation. — BRONTË H. LACSAMANA

JEL SUAREZ’S objectmaking shadows — BRONTË H. LACSAMANA

LIV VINLUAN’S watercolor flora. — BRONTË H. LACSAMANA

RUSS LIGTAS’S video installation. — BRONTË H. LACSAMANA

TEKLA TAMORIA’S women tapestry. — BRONTË H. LACSAMANA

ARTWORKS that are “awake and attentive” reflect the strengths of the 2024 batch of recipients of the 13 Artists Awards. The exhibition, emerging from the grants the winners received from the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP), was opened on Oct. 6 at the National Museum of Fine Arts in Manila — where the artists also made a stand regarding the value of their labor.

Awardee Catalina Africa, in her speech on behalf of the 13 recipients, revealed that the full grant for their work on the exhibition had yet to be given to them.

“As artists, we need to be paid for our labor, and it was made clear to us that the only cost that will be reimbursed are materials, transportation and outsourced services — meaning that we, as artists, wouldn’t be able to pay ourselves for our labor, implying too that our labor does not matter,” she said during the awarding ceremony.

Ms. Africa added that “only 50% of their budget was released in the last two weeks,” which made it difficult for them to create the works for the exhibit.

“Making art takes time. It takes money, blood, sweat, tears, and resources. By bringing this up here today, our hope is that the next batch does not experience this difficulty,” she concluded.

The other recipients this year are Denver Garza, Russ Ligtas, Ella Mendoza, Henrielle Baltazar Pagkaliwangan, Issay Rodriguez, Luis Antonio Santos, Joshua Serafin, Jel Suarez, Tekla Tamoria, Derek Tumala, Vien Valencia, and Liv Vinluan.

CCP artistic director Dennis Marasigan, in his closing speech at the ceremony, addressed the call out. “Since the CCP management and board are here, I feel confident enough to say that, beginning this day, we will initiate the process of effecting the change necessary to address your concern,” he said.

On the sidelines of the opening, Ms. Africa told BusinessWorld that hopefully the next batch will receive the budget in full, ahead of the exhibition date, so that they can spend it however they please.

DIVERSE EXPRESSIONS
According to the CCP, the 13 Artists Awards recognizes “individuals whose work has made a significant impact on the country’s artistic and cultural landscape,” with a unique practice that “reflects and responds to the contemporary realities of the human experience.”

Out of 108 nominations this year, the 13 were chosen by a jury of past honorees: Buen Calubayan (2009), Antipas Delotavo (1990), Phyllis Zaballero (1978), and Wawi Navarroza (2012). The resulting exhibit was curated by another past honoree, Mervy C. Pueblo (2015).

“The 2024 13 Artists Awardees reveal a Philippine art that is awake, attentive, and insistently present,” Ms. Pueblo said.

“Across media and methods — video, sculpture, tapestry, watercolor, installation — they dwell in the spaces where memory, care, nature, and material converge, reflecting a generation that listens to the world with curiosity, care, and imagination,” she added.

While this was certainly seen in the stand they made regarding their delayed grant during the awarding, it was also evident in the artworks themselves.

Through a video installation, Russ Ligtas invites viewers to explore the dynamism of memory, challenging normative histories in a record of a dance performance. Meanwhile, Tekla Tamoria weaves history into a tapestry that recounts the story of the Filipino woman.

A personal cosmology comes alive in Catalina Africa’s sculptural installation while Liv Vinluan depicts extinct and endangered flora through watercolor, both calling viewers to take a closer look at the details of slipping memories.

There’s also Denver Garza’s participatory installation, where visitors can write down burdens and hopes on a little paper to be hung onto the work, to make up a monument to attentive care.

“From the beginning, I wanted a form of conversation, because it’s something I haven’t done in a public space. I also wanted to reflect on my past and my practice as a mental health worker before I shifted to art,” Mr. Garza told BusinessWorld.

“The work is an amalgamation of my visual language beyond my usual works in galleries and things I sell in art markets,” he said. “It’s my way of saying how it’s important that we care for each other.”

Jel Suarez also puts value in small fragments through her ink-brush collage art, which depicts found objects like book pages and scraps of various materials assembled together then lit up to cast shadows onto the wall.

As a recipient of both the 13 Artists Awards and an Ateneo Art Award, she said that she now feels the burden of artmaking more than ever, since it involves balancing one’s career and one’s family life.

“Artmaking is mixed with responsibilities,” she told BusinessWorld. “It’s great to have grants and residencies, but there’s a lot to consider, especially because being an artist is a privilege.”

She also reflected on the tensions from the delayed grants, which made them all realize how difficult it is to execute one’s vision on a limited budget. “Art is labor, and it deserves compensation.” — Brontë H. Lacsamana