Transitions and Continuity: Selections from the Ateneo Art Gallery Video Art Collection

Transitions and Continuity: Selections from the Ateneo Art Gallery Video Art Collection opens this 10 August 2024, Saturday at the third floor galleries. The show features four works by Martha Atienza, Kaloy Olavides, Mark Salvatus, and Gerardo Tan from the museum's permanent collection.

MARTHA ATIENZA, Still from "Gilubong ang Akon Pusod sa Dagat (My Navel is Buried in the Sea)" Ed. 1 of 10, 2011, 3-channel video installation, 31 minutes 48 seconds. Courtesy of Ateneo Art Gallery.KALOY OLAVIDES, Still from "Here and Not Here" Ed. 1 of 5, 2000/2012, Live site-specific performance and 4-channel video installation, Variable dimensions. Courtesy of Ateneo Art Gallery.

In 2012, the Ateneo Art Gallery (AAG) embarked on an important direction in its acquisition program. With the support of Smart Communications, Inc., the university art museum began a core collection of video-based works, a first in this country for an art institution. In the words of then AAG Director, Ramon E.S. Lerma, the intent was “to represent the full diversity of Philippine art and to reflect contemporaneity…”

AAG worked with Clarissa Chikiamco, one of the early graduates of Ateneo’s Art Management program (Batch 2005). She and her peers already had a keen interest in media-based works, which she continues to pursue until today in her capacity as curator for the National Gallery Singapore. For the AAG acquisition, her role was to identify works and discuss with artists on how to assemble or recreate specific projects. The initial acquisition consists of nine (9) video-based works, most of which have been presented in recent AAG exhibitions.

The four featured works, created at least more than a decade ago, represent each artist’s continuing concerns and current practices. After more than a decade, they revisit their respective works with fresh eyes, whether it is in terms of scale, spatial configuration, or transitioning from analog to digital technology.

As an art form, video art emerged more than six decades earlier in the late 1950s to the 1960s, first within the expensive world of corporate broadcasting. Art history credits Sony’s introduction of more economical camera equipment for opening access to video based experimental endeavors. Technology has since transitioned from analog to the now ubiquitous digital modes of recording movement and actions. From a museum’s standpoint, these shifts in technology have given rise to issues of authenticity and materiality. The process of mounting this exhibition has been an opportunity to deliberate and collaborate with artists on defining strategies in managing contemporary art and video installations.

“Transitions and Continuity: Selections from the Ateneo Art Gallery Video Art Collection” is on-view from 10 August – 31 October 2024 at the third floor galleries (Fredesvinda Almeda Consunji Gallery, Ambeth R Ocampo Gallery, Elizabeth Gokongwei Gallery, and Alicia P Lorenzo Gallery). The Ateneo Art Gallery is open from Monday to Saturday, 9:00am – 5:00pm. For more information, visit www.ateneoartgallery.com or email aag@ateneo.edu.