September 2016 Program at Vargas Museum

For its September program, the Vargas Museum, with support from the Romanian Cultural Institute, opens the exhibit A Matter of Contemplation and Discontent which will run from September 22 to November 19, 2016 at the 1F Galleries. The exhibit is curated by Romanian curator Anca Verona Mihulet, and presents a selection of works by Romanian artists produced in the 1980s and the 1990s. The exhibit revisits this historical context in Romania using modes of contemporary thinking and, at the same time, aims to foreground a connection between Romania and the Philippines within the history of the long-term diplomatic relations between the two countries. A Matter of Contemplation and Discontent includes works by Alexandru Antik, Sandor Bartha, Geta Brătescu, Teodor Graur, Ion Grigorescu, Peter Jacobi, Dan Mihălţianu, Dan Perjovschi, Lia Perjovschi, Mircea Stănescu, and Sorin Vreme. Alexandru Antik’s project consists a selection of short films and animation from the period, complemented by an artist talk that fleshes out the crucial period in Romanian history covered by the exhibit. The work of Filipino artist Brenda Fajardo rounds out this selection.

In conversation with this exhibition, the Vargas Museum presents the third iteration of its Art History Series, a relay of exhibitions curated based on art historical methods. The series aims to bridge the gap between curatorship and art history, especially in line with the museum’s continuing efforts to reactivate its collection and situate it within contemporary social contexts. From its two iterations, which were based on thematic and monographic approaches, this third exhibition moves on to a diachronic curatorial approach. The exhibition at the 3F Galleries titled Republic, and which runs parallel with A Matter of Contemplation and Discontent, engages with the milieu of the Philippine Commonwealth government from 1934 to 1941. The exhibition presents archival materials from the Vargas collection in juxtaposition with works by Filipino contemporary artists Roberto Feleo, Michelle Dizon, Renan Ortiz, Stephanie Syjuco, Santiago Bose and Brenda Fajardo.

For more information, please contact Vargas Museum at (+632) 928-1927 (direct line), (+632) 981-8500 loc. 4024 (UP trunk line), (+632) 928-1925 (fax) or send an e-mail to vargasmuseum@gmail.com.

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