Section One: “use your ears”
In the Philippines, when one tells his mother that he can’t find something, mothers scoldingly say “mata kasi ang gamitin, wag bibig!” (use your eyes, not your month to search). This exhibit playfully borrows this very popular utterance, transpose it into “use your ears”, to contextualize that this is primarily a listening exhibit. Works were selected based on the general curatorial framework of The Listening Biennial second edition.
The exhibit features works for listening selected by Brandon LaBelle, Artistic Director of the Biennial, and the 4 curators of The Listening Biennial 2nd edition: Rayya Badran (Lebanon), Guely Morato (Bolivia), Luísa Santos (Portugal), Dayang Yraola (Philippines). Artists as follows: (from Luísa) Tara Fatehi with Pouya Ehsaei, Igor Jesus, Ayo Akinwande, Ayumi Paul, Sara Rodrigues with Rodrigo Camacho (Landra), Rouzbeh Akhbari (Tehran); (from Rayya) Sary Moussa (Lebanon), Yara Asmar (Lebanon), Aya Atoui (Lebanon), Dirar Kalash (Palestine), Abdellah M. Hassak (Morocco); (from Guely) Lucia Herbas Cordero (Bolivia), Alejandra Canelas (Bolivia), Griselda Sánchez (México), Víctor Mazón Gardoqui (Spain); (from Dayang) Teresa Barrozo (Philippines), Arnont Nongyao (Thailand), Hasan Hujairi (Bahrain/Sharjah), mamoru (Osaka/Ixelles), The Observatory (Singapore). (from Brandon) Zorka Wollny (Krakow/Berlin), Nicolas Kisic Aguirre (Peru), Arendse Krabbe (Copenhagen), Jaon Kahn (New York/Zurich), Alexander St-Onge (Montreal), Jimena Croceri and Sara Hamdy (Cairo).Section Two and Three: “there is no sound artists, just sound art”
There are no sound artists, only sound art is an archival exhibit of installative sound works that have previously been exhibited. It attempts to bring to fore materials to examine how the contemporary art scene in Manila caters to sound as an art medium.
The title is an alteration of Gombrich’s claim: “There is no art, only artists”. This famous art historian proposes that what we call art or the artness of art is bestowed by the object’s or idea’s association to the maker. This present exhibit proposes however that in the case of sound art, that sound art or sound artness does not necessarily only come from sound artists. The producer may or may not be a sound artist. This claim is not a paradox but an illustration of the Manila art scene particularly pertaining to its participation in the discourse of sound art.
Where does the sound artness of sound art in Manila come from then? In Manila, sound art has been used in a generic sense— it covers anyone from experimental musicians, electronic musicians, visual artists, filmmakers, media artists, performance artists who work with sound as an art medium.
After a decade of research the curator finds the phrase “sound as art medium” as an appropriate summative description of the usage of the label “sound art”. This phrase aided in sorting out when the artists are doing sound art, and when they are not. Thus, it implies that the medium of the work has to be sound (or about sound— making, listening, altering) and that it has to be intentionally made as art. Films with sound are not sound art except if the film is about “the” or “a” sound (sensorial not narrative). Performance that is sounding or musicking or with sound or music is not necessarily sound art. But a performance exploring the soundness of sound may be considered as sound art. A painting displayed with sound is not sound art, except when the sound becomes as integral as the paints as far as the paintingness of the painting is concerned.
This exhibit is then an illustrative claim of the curator’s findings in trying to understand what sound art is/may be in Manila, through Sonic Manila Research.
Staging of the exhibit coincides with The Listening Biennial 2023, which brings the works into a broader geography of conversations in sound art practice.
Featured artists are: Datu Arellano, Teresa Barrozo, Erick Calilan, Gerecho Iniel Cruz, Tad Ermitaño, Cris Garcimo, Jett Ilagan, Ian Carlo Jaucian, Benj Meamo, Mitch Shivers, Kyle Rubis, Kean Barrameda, Jamel Obnamia, Mark Rambo, Marco Ortiga. Restaged works: “Sandata” (Lirio Salvador); and “Atang, a sound prayer” (Rita Gudiño, Mitch Shivers, Dayang Yraola).There works will be in conversation with works from the following artists from TLB-Asia partners: Anis Haron (Cyberjaya), Dzulhafidz Dzulkifli (Cyberjaya), Takuro Oshima (Kyoto), Suzy Sulaiman (Cyberjaya), Syo Yoshihama (Akita).
Launch: 8 July 2023, Saturday, 11-4PM (lunch, sound bath by Anjeline de Dios, curator/ artists walk through, performance by Elemento)
Portfolio Presentation of Manila Featured Artists: 26 July, 2023, 1-5PM
Coordinator for Parola: (TBC) OIC-Curator; Decca Lumanglas, Gallery Manager
Coordinator for TLB-MCT: Mitch Shivers, Industrial Design Program, College of Fine Arts, and Tad Ermitaño, Department of Studio Arts, College of Fine Arts
