Experimental film, solo exhibits win Ateneo Art Awards

The Ateneo Art Gallery has selected three winners for the Ateneo Art Awards 2011 from 12 short-listed artists and exhibitions.

The winners are Martha Atienza for "Gilubong ang Akon Pusod sa Dagat" (My Navel is Buried in the Sea) at the Office of Culture and Design (Madridejos, Bantayan Island), Gallery Orange and Pablo X; Riel Hilario for "It was a Paradisiacal State: The Body was Allowed to be a Body" at Art Informal; and Maria Taniguchi for "Untitled (Celestial Motors)" at Silverlens Gallery. As the recipient of three grants bestowed by the Ateneo Art Gallery, Atienza will also get to spend about a month in Bendigo (Australia), Liverpool and Singapore, said a news release posted on the Ateneo Art Gallery website Atienza's experimental film/video art installation began with her discovery of 8-mm film clips shot by her parents, back when her father was a sea captain. Filmed in her hometown of Madridejos on Bantayan Island, "Gilubong" eventually involved the community. The recipient of the Ateneo-Art Omi New York Art Project residency grant and the Ateneo Art Gallery-Common Room Networks Foundation residency grant will be announced later this year, the news release said. Now on its ninth year, the Ateneo Art Awards is a recognition given by the Ateneo Art Gallery to outstanding Filipino visual artists. This year's awards is themed "Sneak Peak," which "serves not as a statement of fact but a call for introspection." "The contemporary Philippine art scene is as dynamic as ever and the world is taking notice. With the dazzle of recognition, we are called back to the core to reminisce, to hope and to work anew," the Ateneo Art Gallery said on its site. This year's awarding ceremony was held on August 9 at the Shangri-La Plaza. The Ateneo Art Awards 2012: Sneak Peak exhibition will run until 13 August at the Grand Atrium of Shangri-La Plaza, and will continue at the Ateneo Art Gallery from 22 August to 22 September 2012. The exhibit features the following works by the 12 short-listed artists: Atienza's "Gilubong ang Akon Pusod sa Dagat (My Navel is Buried in the Sea)"; Cabangis' "Shade My Eyes and I Can See You"; Coronel's "Spirit of a Place"; De Guia's "A Lot of Sound and Fury Signifying Nothing"; Eustaquio's "Cloud Country"; Gadia's "Regal Discomforts"; Hilario's "Perro Amoroso / It was a Paradisiacal State: The Body was Allowed to be a Body"; Poblador's "The Ghost in the Machine"; Pueblo's "Stone Mediation"; Taniguchi's "Untitled (Celestial Motors)"; Valenzuela's "Zugzwang"; and Yu's "Inventory." - Carmela G.Lapeña/BM, GMA News