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| Photo by Mark Salvatus |
I visited artist, Jaime Pacena at his home in UP Bliss, where he organized an art project, “Bliss Market: Exchange in Time | Space of Transience” in 2012. The conversation was centered on the effort of community rehabilitation through art. (Interviewed on October 28, 2013, in Quezon City, Philippines, Interviewer: Mayumi Hirano)
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Your art practice crosses various media, such as
painting, printmaking, video, curation etc. I am curious to know how you
developed your interdisciplinary practice, especially because I know you
studied in a rather conservative Fine Arts program at University of Santo
Thomas (UST).
The fine arts program at
UST taught us to draw, paint, to design and to basically improve our skills and
technical know how in using technology in our time, which is nothing compared
to what technology is when I was already teaching in the same University in
2003. Fine Arts encouraged us to be competitive art directors and made us
passionate artists by encouraging us to join in various art competitions. This
practice helped us understand the importance of knowing the basics first before
totally breaking it or deconstructing it. When I was studying in UST, I was
very much into painting, and at that time, I mostly dealt with emotional and
personal things in my works, but during my thesis time I kind of geared towards
a much socio-political theme and focused my topic in the Filipino Psyche that
also lead to the exploration of using the digital medium, the process of
scanning different objects, textures and compositing in different layers with
the use of different computer programs at that time which is year 2000-2001.
After
graduating college, I enrolled in University of the Philippines Graduate
Program in College of Fine Arts and this was actually the starting point of my
serious undertakings and exploration to different media that I constantly use
now. My mentor in U.P. that really is a big influence to how I initially think
in my process is Mr. Nestor Vinluan who held classes during my time about the
exploration of different materials and technique and how to articulate such
process. Then I started to get involved in the artist organization TUTOK, which
some of my artist friends were part of. I personally had an interest in joining
the group because the artists, who I looked up to, were part of the group.
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| The Other Lover, Mixed Media on Canvas, 2011 |
I volunteered myself to help in installing the works in UST Fine Arts in Tutok Karapatan Exhibition. I was strongly inspired by Jose Tence Ruiz, in the way he uses different types of media, forms and execution. Talking to him made me understand more the context of his work and what the thrust of TUTOK is. When I was in high school and up until my college years, I was exposed in a lot of protests along the streets of Diliman where I live, along the streets of España where I study and even during family gatherings where my Father is a Government employee and my cousin is part of a student militant group at that time. But I was only a spectator, unfortunately I was not encouraged to take part in such events or meaningful activities. I grew up being protected, that what I should only focus on is to study and get good grades and veer away from trouble and play indoors or at least just in the vicinity of U.P. BLISS. When I was in TUTOK, Jose Tence Ruiz, Karen Ocampo Flores, Noel Soler Cuizon, Emmanuel Garibay, Mideo Cruz, Iggy Rodriguez and the rest of the TUTOK Family showed me a different light, different ways to work with socio-political topics and how art can be a tool to talk about the current issues happening in our time, making me understand what the role of art in the society is.
I use different media to address different issues in a storytelling manner that is not very straightforward. Most of my work starts with a short narrative or an excerpt of a story that I try to present using representations, metaphors, symbols and things like that. As a graduate of Advertising Arts, I learned how to tackle one idea and invite others to understand it and it helps me with my artistic practice until today.
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| The Library of Ideas and the I was looking for you but instead I found myself staring back at me... covered books and photographs, 2011 |
Curation seems to be another important part of your
practice. Will you tell me the festival you organized in UP Bliss in 2012? Why
did you decide to work with the community that you grew up in?
UP Bliss is a public
housing project during the Marcos era. I grew up there. As you can see, the
complex has deteriorated in the course of time. I think the building itself
talks about how the government treats the people in the Philippines, the
politics and power abandoned this community and destroyed our country. Corazon Aquino
wouldn’t take care of housing projects initiated by Ferdinand Marcos, so the
building naturally died down. You can also see similar things happening in
other areas, wherein the project of a certain Mayor will destroy the project of
the previous Mayor in order to say that their government is doing something for
the people. But what they are actually doing is that they are wasting the
people’s money because of politics.
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| Old photo of Bliss Mart by Rod Dumas |
Housing is one of the major problems in the Philippines, UP Bliss was initially given to Government employees as a residential benefit. It was a good undertaking of the Marcos regime, BLISS until today is a good place to live in, the structures even though is already 33 years old is safe and is really a good community even for the young ones. But today UP BLISS also has a lot of informal settlers just like any other areas in Manila, the irony of it being a housing project that people without houses are surrounding the area and it is what it is now a days.
This place changed a lot.
The society or the community that I grew up with is not the community that
exists now. A lot of the residents left already, the notion of a home is partly
fading and the ones that are left are those who can’t afford to move or buy a
new house. There are a lot of new tenants who live here just because of the
location, accessible especially for those working or studying near UP BLISS. I
don’t recognize most of the people here now, example here on this building 7,
on the first floor, my mother is the only original resident. In the second
floor, there is no original resident anymore. In the third floor only one
family is the original benefactors of their units, others are already sold and
in the fourth floor I think there are two. The situation is the same in the other
22 buildings. From this idea of disconnection, I really wanted to bring old,
new and sort of illegal residents together by organizing this project.
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| Photo of the structure, which used to house Bliss Mart. Photo by Mark Salvatus |
The exhibition is entitled “Bliss Market”. Why Market?
The idea came from Bliss
Mart, the ruins in the center of UP BLISS that you can see now. It was built
during the 1980’s, before there were SM malls, seven eleven and Mini Stop. Bliss
Mart was not just a small grocery for this community, it was also a place with lots
of different stalls, where the residents sold local products or exchanged things.
There was a photography booth, a dental clinic, a library of local comics (Funny
Comics, Adarna, Mr&Ms, etc…) and many different things. Beside it is a
multi-purpose hall where a lot of community events happened. As I grew up, Bliss
Mart was a place where people converged in, as grown ups would go there to talk
and exchange gossips, and kids like us would go there to buy stuff or just look
around. I wanted to capture that essence by organizing the project, by inviting
the people to participate. I was hopeful that we can do something together to rebuild
the community from inside out and this project is my initial undertaking from
the past lessons I learned from TUTOK as well.
I’m sure a lot of groundwork had to be done in the
preparatory phase, especially when the vision of the project is to rebuild the
sense of community. Working with residents takes a lot of negotiations.
Yes, but I wanted to work
independently on this, independently meaning no sponsors or government help.
There are actually only three of us working closely on the project during that
time, Me, Katrina Stuart Santiago who have helped me articulate and write most
of the statements and content of the project and my cousin Joey Comendador who
was the project manager, who helped with all the logistical concerns and there
are of course BMLab who invited student interns to help me facilitate. My
initial process is to really rely on artists I know and have worked with or
younger artists that whose visions are raw and fresh and easy to work with. I
asked artists to make site-specific projects, depending on their practice, like
murals, installations and such. I placed small projects throughout the area, so
that the exhibition would take people go around the community. I also invited
the Future Market by 98B to host a gathering of sellers in the area. I was
hoping that the Market would encourage the community to start thinking of the
possibilities. We went around all the stores here in UP Bliss and asked them to
participate in the Future Market. But they said, "No. It's hard to move my
stuff to go there and sell." Unfortunately they saw my proposal as
something which would just cost their time or cause them trouble.
I also invited an
architecture group to propose a plan for the ruins in the Bliss Market and some
artists, like Anino Shadowplay Collective and Alma Quinto to run children’s workshops
but the kids didn’t come. I even distributed a personal letter introducing
myself: “I'm J Pacena. I live in building 7. I'm a practicing visual artist.
I'm doing some project here.” I wanted to let them know what is happening, but
a lot of them still didn’t want to get involved.
So I tried doing not just
the artistic projects done by the invited artists, but I also tried to do
events, like music concerts and film screenings. I tried to lure them into
these events so that people can talk. But not a lot of people did. So I tried again
different things like basketball and used Facebook and invited some of the
residents that used to live here. I was hoping that the old ones would come,
including my friends who used to live here. But none of them came. The
participants in the basketball games were the young ones who always play basketball
here and the most active participants are those living in the informal setting
and the senior members of the community, mainly because my mother is a member
of the senior organization.
To rebuild the spirit of a
certain community, I really tried to use different media.
Economic development changes the life style of people. It
can cause social problems such as the disparity between rural and urban areas
and weakened sense of community in a neighborhood.
Local residents or the
original residents in UP Bliss didn’t want to be involved in any of the
projects. They don't see the people living nearby as a community anymore. They
see it just as a place to live. The very active participants in UP Bliss turned
out to be the informal settlers, especially the kids. They are the ones who
actually participated in a lot of different projects of the Bliss Market
project. The saddest part was that those who live inside the buildings think
that getting involved with or doing something together with someone who lives
in an informal settlement is dangerous for their kids.
A lot of residents were
asking me why I was doing this. They're actually connecting it to politics. Are
you going to run in the election? And I told them I don't live here anymore,
but this is the place where I grew up in, and this is the place that my mother
is staying in. UP Bliss is my hometown.
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| Anino Shadow Play Collective Workshop |
They thought that you had a secret political agenda.
That’s funny. It might be a reflection of general public’s skepticism about “art”.
I agree, I think most
people still think as Art as something that is unnecessary for them, something
that comes and goes, something that can be hanged on the wall and left there to
rot. There was an old man who is also a family friend, consulted me about
killing the stray dogs in the area. He thought of me as a local spokesperson,
that my project can do a lot of things for the community. Another friend told
me to hold a pet club and do a dog show or something like that…The positive
thing was that a lot of people approached me with different ideas, but sadly they
wanted me to do it. I encouraged them to realize their own ideas and start it
for and with the community.
By using art that I care
for, I wanted to raise awareness of community to their environment. In
connection to this I also exhibited the photographs and works from the project
in UP Vargas at the same time.
Do you have future plans for Bliss Market? Do you plan to
continue it?
I'm still trying to look
for time to finish the research catalog. I gathered a lot of videos, photos and
articles about UP Bliss and the project. I wanted to put up some sort of
publication like research catalog or paper that can be easily understood by
different readers. I’m actually still carrying out the research by talking to a
lot of different members of the community. Bliss Market project’s phase 1 was
not successful in it's initial goal, there were a lot of failed attempts and
engagements, but it was a good research material on my end, so when I do the 2nd
phase of this project, I would ready and armed well.
Do you plan to organize another exhibition in UP Bliss?
I'm planning to do an
artistic project and I’m thinking of something that can physically take a
simple form to invite people to look in to this architectural landscape. I
believe that when you live in a place for a long time, you tend to forget the
natural beauty of it.
I think the rehabilitation
of a certain place really depends on how different points of views meet. I am trying
out the possibilities of art as a medium to bring them together to talk. It’s
not just about having a party. It’s more about creating opportunities to meet,
listen to each other’s needs, and try to understand the situation together. A
community wouldn’t be rehabilitated if you don’t participate.
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Jaime Jesus C. Pacena II (b. 1980) graduated with a degree of Fine Arts at the University of Sto. Tomas. He is a multimedia artist, an independent curator, a teacher and a video director. As a visual artist, he has participated in solo and group exhibitions both locally and abroad; and his curatorial projects have extended from Manila, to Japan, and Australia. He has art directed several educational videos for museums and is also notable for his music video works as a director. Some of his awarded work includes Magda that won best music video at MYX Music Awards 2014, Sirena that won best music video in Star Awards for Music 2013 and Awit Awards 2013 and Dapat Tama, an Advocacy Music Video that was awarded Best Music Video in Catholic Mass Media Awards 2013 and Bronze Medal award at the New York Film and TV Festival 2014. In 2010, he was a grantee of the Jenesys Programme for Creators sponsored by the Japan Foundation. He represented the Philippines in the Travel Study Tour and Symposiums of the Asahi Art Festival Worldwide Network in Japan in 2011 and was invited as Artist-in Residence in Rikuzentakata, Japan December 2013 until February 2014. He was a core-member of TUTOK and is currently the in-house curator of CANVAS Gallery that promotes Art, Culture and the Environment and is the founder of a newly formed independent technical and artistic support group called BMLab.
© Jaime Pacena II and the author
© Jaime Pacena II and the author