“Dwelling” and “11.02-2011: The Video Diaries” showing at the Yuchengco Museum, Manila, Philippines

Two of my video projects Dwelling” (10 minutes, 2010) and “11.02-2011: The Video Diaries” (5 minutes, 2011) have been selected to show at  the Yuchengco Museum, Manila, Philippines as part of the international groups show Nothing to Declare (NTD). NTD is an international art project aiming to contribute to contemporary discussions on migration. It opened at Yuchengco Museum, 16 November and will run till 29 January 2012.

Dwelling (the path of someone who dwelled in the past): 
I originally created this work for the Manifest 8 Biennale in Spain, 2010. It is an experimental video presentation that traces in the docu-fiction genre fragments of the Spanish Arab Andalus and the scholars who originated from its valleys who dwelled through North Africa to their resting places in the East. The figure of Abul Abbas Al Murci is followed from its birth in Murcia’s Ricote Valley to its resting place in Alexandria, Egypt.

11.02-2011: the Video Diaries: This video work was produced for the Mercosul Biennale, Brazil 2011 in a three-channel presentation, and for the Havana Biennale 2012 in a single channel adaptation. The work combines video footage taken with stock footage extracted from social media and from several other sources. These are assembled to create several parallel narratives that intertwine on the three screens as the real footage of collective doing, and sometimes violence. The flux of information disseminated by the media footage, the lack of structured dialogue combined with real sounds from the Tahrir Square, where the 2011 revolution takes place, all are pasted with the sound of solo guitar music. Through this use of music, the idea of “revolution” is romanticized, adding a simulated fictitious atmosphere to the very real footage, to represent intimacy and personal nostalgia” according to the artist.

Nothing to Declare has three constituent exhibitions taking place at three different venues, each with a set of a different curators and artists – in total, 6 curators and 50 artists.

The Yuchengco Museum exhibition is curated by Claro Ramirez, Jr., Sharon Mapa Arriola, Claro Ramirez, Jr is a visual artist and artistic director for Exhibitions and New Media Projects,  Lopez Museum, and faculty, International Baccalaureate Program, Southville International School. Sharon Mapa Arriola is faculty at De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde School of Design and Arts.

About Nothing to Declare:
http://www.yuchengcomuseum.org/index.html
http://nothing2declare2011.wordpress.com/