Art lovers from Dumaguete and Negros Oriental will have the chance of seeing the best art works in the Visayas in the country’s largest biennial exhibition which will be held in Dumaguete City from November 8-11.
The Visayas Islands Visual Arts Exhibit and Conference (VIVA ExCon) is organized under a grant from the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) and will be hosted by Foundation University’s Department of Architecture and Fine Arts in cooperation with Silliman University, Outlooke Point Foundation, Incorporated (OPF), a non-government organization, The City of Dumaguete and the Provincial Government of Negros Oriental.
Now on its 24th year, the VIVA ExCon will be the culminating art festival for the Philippines. “It’s the model festival, being the longest-running art festival in the country,” said Antonio Mario “Babbu” Wenceslao, an art instructor at Foundation University, who is one of the event’s organizers.
The event, to be participated by about 200 artists coming predominantly from the Visayas, other parts of Philippines and abroad, will start with an exhibition, called Handumanan, at the Jorge Vargas Museum at UP Diliman. The Handumanan will feature a historical exhibition of Visayan art — all arts connected with Visayan history.
The Biennial exhibition, or the primary exhibition, is called the Pahiluna. This will be held in Foundation University and will be opened to the public on November 8, 2012 and will run for about a month.
The exhibition will feature 16 Visayan artist. “We initially planned to select only ten artists but when we went around the islands, the head curator Dr. Patrick D. Flores from the Department of Art Studies of the University of Philippines Diliman decided to expand it to 16 artist to reflect the creative energy of the regions. These artists represent the most progressive of Visayan contemporary art for the last two years,” Wenceslao said.
Outside of the biennial exhibit, the VIVA ExCon will also come up with small exhibitions in other parts of Dumaguete like selected restaurants, instead of coming up with one big local show.
“The plan is to also have an art market along the Rizal Bouldevard, which will be participated by artists from other regions,” Wenceslao said.
The third exhibition is Garbo sa Visayas. This will be held at the Hibbard Hall in Silliman University, A total of 8 Visayan artists and cultural workers are scheduled to receive the Garbo sa Visayas award.
All the artists are expected to gather for the conference — a whole day event on November 8– at the Sofia Soller Sinco Hall of Foundation University.