A case for alternative spaces Bar-cum-gallery blazes a trail
A case for alternative spaces Bar-cum-gallery blazes a trail
By Cesare A.X. Syjuco
Published in: The Manila Times, May 09, 1987
LAST week marked a truly significant milestone for the local cultural underground. The Penguin Cafe & Gallery in Malate, undoubtedly the longest-running and best-known alternative exhibition space in the country, turned half-a-decade old.
In the five years since it first opened its doors at its original site on the corner of San Andres and Adriatico Streets, the Penguin has become the undisputed hotbed of experimental artistic activity in Manila, surpassing even the larger commercial galleries in terms of audience and creative energy. Despite grossly-inadequate lighting facilities, the general atmosphere of pandemonium, and an exhibition area that has always been far from ideal, this bar-cum-gallery has emerged as a cultural phenomenon of sorts, blazing a trail previously untravelled and never since quite the same. The internationally – acclaimed Filipino artist David Medalla had described the Penguin as "the gravitational center" of the local creative community, even while the late Raymundo Albano sought to enshrine it in our collective consciousness as a major cultural outpost beyond the confines of the artistic mainstream.
Even a partial list of the artists who have exhibited there reads like a virtual "who's who" in local developmental art. In more recent times, that list includes the likes of Virgilio Aviado, Gabriel Barredo, Nap Jamir II, Roy Veneracion, Lee Aguinaldo, Alan Rivera, Ronnie Lazaro, Judy Sibayan, Joey Macalino, Popo San Pascual, Bobby Chabet, Christina Garzon, Manuel Rodriguez Jr., Roy Lachica, Butch Perez, Kai Hilgemann, Chito Valenzuela, Roderico Jose Daroy, Ed Manalo, Dwight Gaston, Agnes Arellano, Rommel Bernardino, Neal Oshima, Gerardo Tan, Feliciano Gallardo, Michael Adams, Paola Luz, Ray Albano, Cristy Yap, Don Escudero, Mark Gary, Jayjay Sevilla, Arnel Agawin, Fergus Martir, Jun Domingo, Wig Tymsans, Ige Ramos, Ami Miciano, Bencab, Soliman Cruz, Santiago Bose, and a host of others.
While it is still very much the renegade showcase of its fabled past, the Penguin's success story is a definite case in point regarding the viability of alternative spaces as exhibitional venues in this country. It should be recalled that in the 1970's, artists in Europe and America began to exhibit their works en masse in converted kitchens, foyers, basements, attics, garages, classrooms, offices, display windows, amusement centers, and other unconventional locations – largely because of the difficulty of gaining access to the established galleries and commercial showrooms.
"The essence of (the) alternative space as a concept in presenting new art can be extracted to rejuvenate . . . our present state-of-affairs in the arts," Albano wrote in 1982 while still Museum Director of the CCP. "It smacks of the Third World, of resourcefulness, of more human activity. It is workable for our purposes." Never more workable than now, it seems apparent in the light of our dwindling exhibitional opportunities.
It has often been said – not entirely in jest – that print media determines the validity of art exhibitions in Manila. In other words, an exhibit covered or reviewed by the press, regardless of venue, becomes a publicly acknowledged activity. If this is indeed so, then critics and cultural writers alike can do a great deal towards "validating" alternative space exhibitions, even while bringing them to the attention of the general public. New art can flourish largely on its own merits, and without the patronage of the local gallery mafia. And that, certainly, is one potent antidote to the creative drought we face together as a nation in crisis.
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Cesare A.X. Syjuco, “A case for alternative spaces Bar-cum-gallery blazes a trail” (page 1 of 1), The Manila Times, May 09, 1987
