ArtSpeak: Memory Project 17: Fragments (1991)

ArtSpeak: Memory Project 17: Fragments (1991)

4 March 2024, Monday

2:00 PM - 4:00 PM (Philippine Standard Time)

Ben Chan ArtSuite, 2F Ateneo Art Gallery

Soledad V Pangilinan Arts Wing, Areté, Ateneo de Manila University

This ArtSpeak is FREE and OPEN TO THE PUBLIC

Registration required at https://go.ateneo.net/Fragments2024

The Ateneo Art Gallery, in partnership with the Concerned Artists of the Philippines (CAP), PUP Center for Heritage Studies, and IBON Foundation, presents Memory Project 17: “Fragments” (1991), an audiovisual work on contemporary Philippine realities featuring visual metaphors interwoven with the poetry of Ed Maranan. “Fragments” is part of the AsiaVisions AV Collection and is under the custodianship of IBON Foundation. It was a recipient of the National Commission for Culture and the Arts’ National Committee on Archives 2023 Digitization Grant.

The practice of holding “memory projects” is a response to the state’s malicious red-tagging of schools and film and arts communities, which intensified in late 2018. “Stop the Attacks” and then “Artists Fight Back” became a common call of individuals and organizations such as CAP and Respond and Break the Silence Against the Killings (RESBAK), who all reflected on the power of the arts in the making and unraveling of our country. Through such initiatives, we resolve to continue engaging with archives, objects, narratives, and testimonies of the dark times in our history.

This ArtSpeak will be moderated by Rosemarie O. Roque, Research Chief of the PUP Center for Heritage Studies, and Lisa Ito-Tapang, Secretary General of CAP. Joining them for a talkback discussion after the screening are Nita Gonzaga of Kilusang Mayo Uno, and Abner E. Dormiendo, writer and author of Sa Antipolo pa rin ang Antipolo.

Moderators:

Rosemarie Roque is an associate professor at the Polytechnic University of the Philippines and a research chief of its Center for Heritage Studies. She obtained her MA Araling Pilipino degree from the University of the Philippines’ College of Arts and Letters in 2016 and is currently taking up Master of Library and Information Science at the UP School of Library and Information Studies. She is the Board President of the Society of Filipino Archivists for Film (2022-2024), and is an Executive Council member of the South East Asia Pacific Audio Visual Archive Association (2023-2026).

Lisa Ito-Tapang is a cultural worker, writer, and independent curator. She is the Secretary-General of Concerned Artists of the Philippines (CAP), an organization of progressive artists founded in 1983. She is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Theory, College of Fine Arts at the University of the Philippines Diliman, where she has been teaching art history, theory, and criticism since 2012. She is the Curator of the UP Fine Arts Gallery (Parola), the official exhibition site and creative compound of the UPCFA. She served as the Chairperson of the Young Critics Circle Film Desk in 2017-2018. She received her Bachelor of Fine Arts (major in Art History) from the UPCFA and her Master of Arts in Art Studies (major in Art History) from the UP College of Arts and Letters.

Speakers (talkback discussion):

Nenita Tolentino Gonzaga, or Ka Nitz, is a trade union leader involved in the labor and social movement in the Philippines. A graduate of Accountancy at the Philippine College of Commerce (now the Polytechnic University of the Philippines), she was apprehended in 1972 by the Military Intelligence Group and was detained for six months at Camp Vicente Lim, Throughout the years, Ka Nitz has been involved in and affiliated with various labor and human rights groups, such as the national federation of peasant women or AMIHAN, the National Federation of Labor Union, GABRIELA, and SELDA, among others.

Abner Dormiendo is an educator, writer, and scholar. He is currently a professor of literature at Far Eastern University - Manila. He completed his bachelor’s degree in philosophy at the Ateneo de Manila University and his master in fine arts degree in creative writing at the De La Salle University. A teacher of various subjects since 2014 — from Filipino and English, to social sciences and creative writing — his literary works have been published locally and abroad, and has achieved distinctions from award-giving bodies. He is currently serving as one of the editors of Katitikan: Literary Journal of the Philippine South and the workshop director of Palihang LIRA, and a member of the Concerned Artists of the Philippines.