KoloWn at CCP: Let’s talk about art and social issue

(A satire art piece with photos of public figures. Photo by Theresa Clare Tañas, Daptian Post)

Inside the notable “toilet-shaped” building, a conglomerate exposes “dirt” and issues of the society through a mind boggling art exhibition – leaving you a penetrating impression to be critical of the issues raised, hidden behind the eye and mind pleasing masterpieces.

From the streets of Cebu City to the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP), no one could stop KoloWn, a group of artists exploring the “concept of absurdity, contradictions and dialectics” since 2007, from using art as a voice to challenge the existing norms and ideologies, and to form new meanings and understanding from it.

The exterior and interior of the stunning National Center for Perfoming Arts are adorned by 17 innovative art pieces of the inventive group, which are dispersed playfully to utilize the unanticipated spaces of the building to set the pieces.

(Modern Dillema, an interactive puzzle in response to Antonio Luz's "Black and White." Photo by Theresa Clare Tañas, Daptian Post)

Low Pressured Areas is the determined title for the brilliant exhibition “because the project is like a space disturbance, a phenomena to [the] spaces – since [they] are not using the normal exhibition spaces in CCP,” KoloWn told Dapitan Post in an e-mail interview.

Under the blazing heat of the sun, twisted large-scale steel work that are made out of PVC pipes adorned the grass area which surround National Artist Arturo Luz’s abstract black metal sculpture – there is no question as to why it is called Barangay Luz.

At the Manila side of the building, inside a dark metal cell, Looped, a human-shaped piece concealed with yellow caution tape, “pertains to a repetitive prisoned life.” It has caught the attention of spectators who have questioned their existence and have experienced constraints.

The grand interior of the cultural center is amplified by KoloWn’s art pieces which are dispersed at the Bulwagang Carlos V. Francisco up to the fourth floor. Viewers are welcomed by a mysterious door with shadows of two people and a telephone sticker plastered on the window of the door – Hello Garci, a part of the exhibit that will bring you back to the time when a presidential candidate communicated with an electoral official.

("Hello Garci". Photo by Theresa Clare Tañas, Daptian Post)

Rehabilitation 2.0 at the Pasilyo Vicente Manansala telephone booth flaunts creative drawings contributed by various artists showing their distinctive idea on redecorating the facade exterior of CCP.

(Rehabilitation 2.0. Photo by Theresa Clare Tañas, Daptian Post)

The exhibit also talks about the recent addiction issue in the country, with the piece titled Addiction. It displays three red tarpaulin showing a sign of “50% OFF” placed on glass windows.

(Addiction. Photo by Theresa Clare Tañas, Daptian Post)

Throw_Up, a satire art piece, is placed on trash cans adjacent to Pasilyo Guillermo Tolentino - a creatively combined crumpled paper bag with photos of public figures such as Senator Vicento Sotto III, Presidential Communications Operations Office assistant secretary Mocha Uson and a former band member Marlou Arizala.