Philippnes: ‘Take 2′ for Mindanaoan revolutionary artist

A two-day run last month of a rare art exhibit left
the public clamoring for another opportunity to view
the genius of an “artist of the people’s struggle.”
The event featured some 100 drawings and paintings of
a Philippine countryside in resistance, all done by
Mindanaoan Parts Bagani.

It was an art exhibit that would have surely sent the
big guns of the National Press Club squirming. Now,
they can do just that.

Due to popular demand, the works of artist Parts
Bagani will again be shown in a four-day exhibit
dubbed as “Sining Luwal ng Kanayunan.” It shall open
with a brief program at 10 AM, November 26, 2007 at
Galleria 2, Faculty Center, University of the
Philippines, Diliman Quezon City. A forum on art and
the freedom of expression is scheduled at 9:30 AM on
November 29, 2007, Recto Hall, UP Facuty Center.
Popular artists have been invited to perform.

While most artists bask in the atmosphere of Metro
Manila and the big cities elsewhere, Parts Bagani
opted to stay in the countryside where he was born.
In Mindanao, he experienced the turmoil of conflicting
forces, and painted a terrain of warfare. His works
show his fluency in imaging an environment that is
taboo for many an artist, but of which he has gained a
profound understanding.

His art abounds with scenes of resistance even of
warriors in repose, of schools in open bamboo
structures in the forest, of people singing songs of
victory, of battered shoes and the lowly rice pot. But
most of all, there are the endless mountains and hills
that have become host to the struggle itself.
The exhibit is sponsored by the First Quarter Storm
Movement, Tag-ani Performing Arts Society, Asosasyon
ng mga Skolar, Kritiko at Artista ng Sining at Kultura
(Asterisk), Alay Sining, Kabataang Artista para sa
Tunay na Kalayaan (Karatula) and the Congress of
Teachers for Nationalism and Democracy.

The exhibit is a fund-raising project for the benefit
of cancer-stricken UP Prof. Monico Atienza.

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