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AS the
new Museum of Contemporary Art and Design, or mcad, of
the De La Salle-College of
St. Benilde opens
its inaugural exhibition at 6 pm tomorrow, February 21,
the usual museum and gallery hoppers will be in for many
surprises.
One, as
the invite suggests: there’s no dress code. Rather, you
can choose your own dress code.
Second,
instead of Mozart or, ugh, Sitti, welcoming visitors,
there will be a DJ who will begin the program with rock
music from the last 30 years. So we’re talking about Led
Zeppelin to The Killers. Third, expect no works of
national artists or the masters. Instead, there are 11
highly creative individuals from different disciplines
whose works will be collaboratively installed and
displayed for the next six months.
 They
are agricultural engineer Justino Arboleda, boat
designer and builder Juny Binamira, designer-stylist of
domestic environments Budji Layug, scriptwriter and
filmmaker Clodualdo del Mundo Jr., photographer Neal
Oshima, songwriter-performer-writer Jim Paredes,
playwright-novelist-painter Tony Perez, conceptual
artist Judy Freya Sibayan, couturier Inno Sotto, poet
Ricardo de Ungria and jewelry designer-antique dealer
Ramon Villegas.
Curator
is Marian Pastor-Roces. She is an
independent curator and critic who publishes and works
globally. In the
Philippines,
she is known as the founder of Tao Inc., which remains
the Philippines’ only corporation specializing in museum
and exhibition development and cultural analysis to
assist urban planners.
BusinessMirror sat down with Pastor-Roces about the new
museum that will soon equate that side of
Vito Cruz Street
to the word “cool.”
Give us
some general background on the museum: how big it is,
how’s it going to be called, how many pieces of
artworks....
The new
Museum of Contemporary Art and Design will be known by
its nickname, the lower-case mcad (pronounced em-cad).
It is housed in the 14th-story new building of the
School of Design and Art, De La Salle-College of St.
Benilde. The ground floor main gallery has some 1,500
square meters of exhibition space, with an unusually
high ceiling (nine meters) and provisions to exhibit
anything from parts of buildings and cars to the
smallest pieces of jewelry. [There is] another 1,500
square meters of storage space, which in the next couple
of years will be fitted with state-of-the-art
conservation provisions for the safe upkeep of very new
artwork.
It is
unlikely that one will find paintings and sculptures of
a modernist idiom at mcad, unless the paintings and
sculptures are integral to a conceptual or installation
idea. It is more likely that viewers will encounter
videos and computer-based works; artworks mixing
together architecture, music, fashion, graphic design,
activism, engineering, philosophy, mass media, IT, the
social sciences, photography, animation, urban planning
and so forth. Many of these practices are taught at
mcad’s mother institution, the School of Design and Art
of the De La Salle-College of St. Benilde.
Could
you describe some of the major artworks that are going
to be displayed?
mcad
will take care not to duplicate the work and mandates of
the other Metro Manila museums, which are doing very
well in serving the interests of modernism in the
Philippines
(e.g. National Museum, the Cultural Center of the
Philippines Art Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of
Manila and
Ayala Museum).
Are the
artworks from the collection of the university? Were
there donations from alumni?
mcad
will begin its own collection by actively negotiating
for bequests and long-term loans. The collecting policy
focuses on two areas: first, installation, conceptual,
and multimedia works dated from the year 2000 onward
(with special focus on independent films); and second,
key works in industrial and furniture design, fashion,
graphic design and related fields from the year 1960
onward. In this sense, mcad will have a distinct
collections program from that of other university
museums.
mcad is
offering its forthcoming storage facility to artists and
designers who are needing professional care and a secure
location for their works and related ephemera. In the
area of video and film, the museum storage will provide
the appropriate equipment and computer hardware that not
only secures the material, but also allows researchers
to view the material by appointment.
What
makes the new museum different from others?
mcad
will not exhibit individual artists, young or old. It
will not hold retrospectives. It will not promote
personal ambition. mcad will, on the other hand,
concentrate its institutional energies on creating the
circumstances in which inventive and activist
individuals can work together on a common—or linked set
of—ideas.
After
the first exhibition, all of mcad’s exhibits will
involve participants from other parts of the world.
However, it will not be a venue for traveling
exhibitions from overseas that are already curated and
do not allow for alterations to suit local social
milieux. mcad’s international collaborations will
presume cocuratorship and the wherewithal to work as
equals with all parties from anywhere in the world.
Finally,
mcad will take very seriously the implications of its
location in a poor and unstable country. All of its
exhibitions will seek to respond in organic, systemic
ways to these local conditions. mcad wishes to be an
international center of art and design that addresses
these desperate conditions.
What are
you plans for the museum?
mcad is
planning only two international exhibitions a year. Each
will have a book published, and multilateral links
forged with educational and art institutions outside
Manila. Artists and other participants in mcad events will be
involved with the general public in workshops, lectures
and so forth.
Any
appetizer on the opening tomorrow?
Let’s
just say the mcad is a lot of fun. Sinabayan natin
ang trip ng mga bata. |
