“Espacios en Crisis” curated by @tkj_fotografia for BoBAP online video for “HATAK” launching Sept 25. Stay tuned. “HATAK” is a Filipino word used to convey the act of tugging someone along. October is Filipino American History Month! As a kick off, six Filipino owned/founded art spaces are introducing themselves and virtually linking together on Saturday September 25 showcasing a variety of work. Join us as we celebrate the arts across the United States. @aliefarthouse @mata.art.gallery @northwillows @blissonbliss The Orange Door @micboekelmann and

From Typhoon

Espacios en crisis

Adrian Preciado

Andrea Galindo

Andres Jaramillo

Danilo Estacio

For some of us, everyday space has become a concept increasingly distant since the advent of SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. Under the influential discourse of bio-safety, many governments around the world have called for the minimization of face-to-face contact between the citizens, which has exempted us from everyday exposure to corporeal interaction with the other in public spaces - streets, schools, offices, coffee shops and the public transportation system among others.

As many researchers point out, this physical detachment together with the widespread concern about the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 infection had an unprecedented impact on our attitude toward the localized human communities. Certainly it could be said that the circumstances of so-called post-COVID19 “new normal” somewhat diminished our sensibility toward everyday space as a site of divergence, replete of misunderstandings and conflicts, which requires the constant use of spontaneous tactics for negotiation in the face of living together with the social/cultural other.

In Colombia, the critical importance of everyday space surfaced recently during the nation-wide political protests that broke out on April 28th, in conjunction with the Paro Nacional (national strike) organized against the Ivan Duque regime’s tax reform proposal.

Emerging in the midst of the SARS-CoV-2 propagation, this social turbulence, during which thousands of protesters filled the city’s major streets day and night, virtually invalidated the official regulations set forth against the spread of the virus, which stipulated the use of masks, maintenance of the social distance, and above all the mandatory weekend lock-downs. Facing these massive protests , by the first week of June, the city authorities saw no options but to lift all the Corona virus-related restrictions, despite the fact that the number of the infected among the city’s population was reaching its peak.

For many people in Bogota , the coincidence of the two major crisis (that of the COVID-19 and the political protests) after April 2021, has been an unprecedented opportunity to reflect upon the nature of everyday public space as a site of the most immediate confrontation and dialogue, without which the proactive intervention in democratic processes seemed impossible.

With the hope of narrating the actual circumstances in Colombia to the broader art communities, Espacios en crisis presents four video-artists based in Colombia, whose recent works revolve around the understanding of everyday space as a sphere of conflict and negotiation. Produced between 2018 and 2021, and seen against the backdrop of the aforementioned global/local crisis in Colombia, these four works show the degree by which the discourse of the post-Corona ¨new normal¨ has standardized our daily behavior and perception of everyday space, phenomenon which has perpetuated the homogeneity rather than diversity within our social networks, in which the figure of the other tends to be absent.

Takaaki KJ

Curator

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​Filipino Artist-Run Art Spaces:
click on each to see their programming for HATAK

Alief Art House - Matt Manalo (TX)    

Mata Art Gallery - Nica Aquino (CA)   

North Willows Attic - Katrina Bello(NJ)
The Orange Door - Mic Boekelmann (NJ)
From Typhoon - Robinick Fernandez & J.A. Dela Cruz-Smith (WA)

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https://www.micboekelmann.com/?fbclid=IwAR2h4sZk_buc8sSTKFPQ-buQ5YJimppFrQY_pWUOsLsXmavY1NGlsqbA-5w

https://www.mataartgallery.org/?fbclid=IwAR1zsbves_Jc5WrWtcxf1g6ykLIsQpK_zw7tzvQNQPWkHiHNjbjLFwF88DE

https://www.mattmanalo.com/?fbclid=IwAR3uMNDleGCS2fyva3waNinHD-ohL1W9yAcgqcE059BRlkLvH_AezexhmlM

https://northwillows.com/?fbclid=IwAR09FRoHYC7_XH-ENs2KpR6CurB2K3qlQvbnfIVqjxwpO4flhJ3YrkGQOrs

2020 Algún día todo esto tendra

“2020 Vision” (working title) Describe The Year 2020.  A participatory project that involves the community of embroiderers in Bogota and Medellin, contributions from social media call outs, engaging passersby, performance artist and poets, 

At Bliss on Bliss BOG in Barrio San Felipe. After which will travel to NYC and Manila in 2021. The participatory process continues in NY and Manila and will e site specific

The residency and exhibit is made possible by the generosity of a private sponsor in Bogota, Colombia

"Stitching Boundaries" is a collaborative project with Manila based artist Aze Ong. In 2019 The GedAze Project were reciepiemts of the QCA QAF Grant to cerate new work. For this two venue exhibit I put a call out via social media for photographs about "Relationships-Place-Objects-Memories", I then had them printed on synthetic textiles and sewed them onto. repurposed textiles. Then while in Bogota, Colombia I worked with local embroiderers who created their own versions of the call out by embroidery 

which I incorporated into our installation

“Stitching Boundaries “is made possible by a grant from the Queens Council on the Arts with public funds from the New York State Dept. of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council
with support from The Drawing Room Contemporary Art and The National Commision for Culture and the Arts

 "The Hybridity and Dynamism of the Contemporary Art of the Philippines" 

 "The Hybridity and Dynamism of the Contemporary Art of the Philippines" commemorates the 70th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the Philippines and the Republic of Korea. The Philippines is the first Asian country to establish diplomatic relations with Korea

The six-day exhibit is part of a series of art exhibitions shedding light on ASEAN countries organized by the Hansae Yes24 Foundation. Founded by Hansae Yes24 Holdings CEO Kim Dong-nyung, the foundation has introduced over 60 artists through exhibitions centering on Vietnam, Thailand and Myanmar since 2014.

The exhibit is curated by Choi Eun-ju, now director of the Daegu Art Museum. Choi visited the Philippines several times and said that Filipino contemporary art has developed beyond expectations.

Ged Merino visited Seoul last weekend to host his signature wrapping workshop with Korean participants. Merino breathes new life and meaning into old objects such as books and shoes by covering them in recycled fabric and string. The encased objects connote a new relation between the object and the person who wrapped it.

Korean Times

Found Bound Rebound

Back in April 2015 I got an e-mail from FABNYC  inviting me to host a reuse, recycle workshop. I was excited to meet up with Anne, Patrick and Marieke and Executive Director Tamara GreenfieldSeveral Theatre workshops in the Lower East Side were donating costumes and scrap fabrics. I had an idea for a project that was brewing in my mind a year ago So I proposed that we invite participants to donate and bind the shoes with the donated fabrics. My goal was to collect about five hundred to a thousand pairs of wearable ( old or new) pairs of shoes and exhibit the shoes at Topaz Arts NY to launch the project. Then ship them to Manila via Balik Bayan boxes. I shipped about 25 boxes to Manila as part of my solo show In July of 2016 at the Drawing Room Contemporary Art in Manila.  At the end of the show I donated them to the Haiyan/Yolanda typhoon victims thru Caritas (a charitable organization )

The whole processs was inspiring. During the FABNYC workshop about 50+ people showed up that day. The only two rules 1. Shoes must be wearable and in pairs. 2. No glue or anyting permanent. At the end of the workshop we collected about 200 pairs. I continued workshops at my studio and did call outs via social; media. The response was inspiring. shoes (mostly ewrapped and bound) were shipped from as far as San Francisco  to Maine. Friends n NY drove by and dropped of their contributions, some left them by the studio doorway.  We collected around 450 pairs.  My HS Alumni was having a grand reunion in Jan 2016 in Manila and I was thrilled that they did their own workshop as part of their actvities. 

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