The Methodical Salvaging of Our Art and Culture
The Methodical Salvaging of Our Art and Culture
By Cesare A.X. Syjuco
Published in: The Manila Times, April 25, 1987
WHATEVER it was we artists had done to call down the wrath of the gods, it must have been unforgivable. Our current crop of artworld administrators seem intent on burying us alive -- not so much in shallow, unmarked graves, as in material, emotional, and spiritual poverty.
Abuse can take many forms. Wilful neglect is but one of them. Harassment in ill-timed doses is till another.
For instance, what have they done to the Museum of Philippine Art that sad, potential showcase of our contemporary artistic heritage? They’ve sent it packing and have relocated it in The Twilight Zone. Magically reduced into a “museum on paper” with a disturbing new name, it has become impossible to pinpoint in space and time. But they haven’t really said they’ve abolished it, mind you. They’ve merely shipped it off into another dimension.
A year ago today, a coalition of concerned artists raised a resounding holler over the precarious fate of this very institution. While there were those in government who felt that the MOPA should be abolished outright as a disgraceful overgrowth of the Marcos regime, popular opinion favored its reorganization along more democratic guidelines -- new curatorial policies that would make it truly responsive to the needs of Philippine Art. Ironically enough, however, the building which housed the museum itself was eventually shut down, and the MOPA’s notoriously-lopsided collection was transferred elsewhere for safekeeping in perpetuity. In effect, our government had sanctioned precisely that which was wrong with this elitist institution in the first place, even while denying further use of its invaluable facilities to the greater community of local artists.
And now they’re eyeing our National Museum for immediate relocation as well. (The Presidential decree allowing the museum to remain in its present site remains unsigned. — Ed.) Given one large exhibitional venue already “lost in space”, the fears expressed by the many concerned sectors of our citizenry are hardly unfounded.
There ought to be a law. And someone with a heart to write it.
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While President Aquino’s recent affirmation of support for the arts comes like the proverbial rope in quicksand, her small corps of cultural enforcers may need more than a gentle rap on the knuckles.
With the former MOPA on ice and the Metropolitan Museum still hosting mostly foreign exhibits, the burden of proof will inevitably fall on the Cultural Center of the Philippines. That could be tearfully tragic.
Closed-door exclusivity once ruled supreme at the CCP. Now it shares equal billing with ineptitude, empty rhetoric, and one-upmanship.
Once upon a time, the CCP was the source of widespread discontent. Now it’s simply disgusting.
New blood at the CCP – scarce enough as it is – has done little to re-direct the institution towards genuine reform. Virtually the same bad habits, the same red tape, the same arrogant posture, the same dogmatic narrowmindedness, the same jockeying for positions of advantage, the same perennial intrigues and political powerplays, the same monopoly of precious airspace, all continue to shut out the vast majority of Filipino artists in favor of a privileged few. That, and the attendant mess arising from the obvious mishandling of this huge concern by a team of tenderfoot administrators and professional sloganeers, has transformed our palace of the arts into a potential disaster area.
Who exhibits at the CCP? Who dances there? Who taps its dwindling financial resources? These are but some of the questions that must be answered with more than a change of heart.
There ought to be a law. And someone with enough sense to implement it.
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In the olden days, sending down the blight was a favorite form of divine retribution. Offering sacrifice to false gods was one sure way of getting yourselves earmarked for bubonic plague.
Truly, Imelda’s insatiable appetite for the arts must have infected us all with some vile form of veneral disease. And to our current crop of artworld administrators, castration must be the only remedy in sight. The years to come may see us paying the price as a nation of cultural eunuchs.
Those in whose hands our fate has been entrusted should look well into the frightening implications of cause and effect. Certainly, to spare the rod is to spoil the child. But to overdo the spanking is to main, him for life.
There ought to be a law. And someone with a conscience to see it through.
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Cesare A.X. Syjuco, “The Methodical Salvaging of Our Art and Culture” (page 1 of 1), The Manila Times, April 25, 1987
