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The Politically Powerful, the Constructed Spectacle, the Audience as Subjects in Time-Space
By Clarissa Chikiamco
Locating Charles and Ray Eameses’ designs of multi-screen immersive architecture in the mid-20th century, the historian Beatriz Colomina describes:
‘This is the space of the media. The space of a newspaper or an illustrated magazine is a grid in which information is arranged and rearranged as it comes in: a space the reader navigates in his or her own way, at a glance, or by fully entering a particular story. The reader, viewer, consumer, constructs the space, participating actively in the design. It is a space where continuities are made through “cutting”. The same is true of the space of newsreels and television. The logic of the Eameses’ multi-screens is simply the logic of the mass media.’[i]
It is by this quotation that we can introduce Manny Montelibano’s exhibition Sorry for the Inconvenience. Comprising of six audio-visual projections thrown across walls and ceiling of Gallery NOVA, the single video installation focuses on various declamations of the politically powerful. Featuring speeches by Adolf Hitler, former Uganda President Idi Amin, current Japanese emperor Akihito and, in the Philippine context, celebrity Kris Aquino, former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and a local priest, Montelibano’s Sorry for the Inconvenience presents the exposition of figures who, at their positions, wield mass media techniques in order to influence and ascertain authority.
Montelibano, who gathered most of the original videos online, essentially recasts the contours of public performance space through the videos’ manipulation, repetition and staging.[ii] Stripping the videos of color, he places them at a distance through recalling the early development of the media. Black-and-white immediately situates the videos at a time-space of historicity, a technique often still employed in the use of flashbacks in more popular fare. Here, the historical gaze is a political one, emphasizing a past and present trajectory of the audience who participate not simply as witnesses but as subjects. The current ones of the exhibition must actively navigate the staging of the audio-visual affront in a state of being perpetually addressed, their occasional shadows against the projections being visual intrusions—prompt reminders of their presence, their situatedness, within this milieu. Not merely documentary, however, the videos have interfering blitzes—that constant flickering—which recall the artist’s role, the artist’s mediation.
In this assault of intensification and with the breadth afforded by a multi-projection format, Montelibano highlights the construct of the constructed spectacle. In a resistance and a co-optation, he subsumes these personages’ methods to his own.[iii] The exhibition, which should not be misread as a call to judgment, concentrates on presenting a media landscape of powerful personalities, decentering each in the simultaneity and spillage of their speeches across each other.
While it is inconsequential to distinguish the audios clearly or to put much weight on their individual content, knowing though a little of the context of each may enhance its joint reading and the reasons for inclusions. Adolf Hitler, widely known as a master of propaganda and performance, is an evident choice for his tactics which gave him popular support in his leading of Germany. Idi Amin, the Uganda dictator from 1971-1979, shadowed his reign with such myths of cannibalism and developed an international media portrayal of buffoonery and peculiarity, said to perhaps be a political strategy of diffusing attention from the bloody offenses of his regime.[iv] While in a recent speech this year, Emperor Akihito appeared in his first televised address since succeeding to the throne in 1989, which was also the first televised address of a Japanese emperor in a time of crisis. The appearance, rare in the deliberate distance and veneration placed between the Japanese people and their emperor, was brought forth due to the level of devastation of the March 11 tsunami and concerns of leaking radiation from the nuclear power plant. Designed to assuage fears and deliver a message of hope, the exceptional event of the emperor’s appearance made this particular utilization of mass media especially potent.
Locally, Kris Aquino has no equal rival in her power and celebrity. Occupying the largest projection in the gallery and featuring her speech at the funeral of her mother, former President Cory Aquino, the enlarged video serves to accentuate the dominance of Kris’ presence in contemporary Philippine culture, where her image perennially dotes the television screen, the printed media and the Metro Manila billboard-scape. From her personal life to her professional hawking, Kris extends beyond actress and television host to the epitome of a media cult figure with her mass of devotees. GMA, in contrast, wields media as part and parcel of her political cunning. Projected on the gallery’s ceiling, the speech features her admission on national television of her voice being on wiretap of vote rigging in the 2004 elections. Though her brazen confession was an apology, the very public declaration is heavily symbolic of the confidence and control she maintained in her position, a presidency that she had managed to ride out till the end of its term last year.
In the last video, the only one personally shot by the artist, a priest in the small town of Hinigaran delivers his early Sunday homily. While perhaps the priest’s identity is not nationally known, the priest for Montelibano is demonstrative of the powerful role of Catholicism and the presence of its representatives in local media culture, where the most skilled have learned to develop and, crucially, to disseminate their commanding oratory performances. It was in partial reaction to being subjected to this priest’s Pentecost Sunday homily and observing how he wielded his influence to a spiritually-hungry audience that Montelibano felt spurred to develop an exhibition on figures of authority. Unfurling to eventually become an examination on the structures of communication, Montelibano stresses the strategies in which characters convey to the addressees, underscoring the growing political significance of the video medium in its online extension, replication, live feed and play-on-demand controls. The installation, finding strength in its concentration, departs from the small youtube screen in which most of the videos were found to a collective arrangement in space. This immersive environment implies the importance of reception, particularly it as a participatory overall sensory experience and not merely the auditory comprehension of a dictation.
‘Sorry for the Inconvenience’ is a signage often displayed when services to the public are suspended for its improvement, at the expense of minor to extremely bothersome circumstances. In the context of exhibition, the title points to the power of redirection, an advantage particularly at the hand of the privileged. Montelibano, illustrating the technological democratization in terms of access and, to some extent, distribution, re-channels their agendas into his own. Though the individual rhetoric is nearly incomprehensible, Sorry for the Inconvenience finds in its streaming of political spectacle a logic and coherence, a space of media in which it, and we, also occupy.
[i] In her essay, ‘Enclosed by Images: The Eameses’ Multimedia Architecture’ in Tanya Leighton, ed. Art and the Moving Image, London: Tate Publishing, p. 88.
[ii] I borrowed the terms of the contours of public performance space from Eric de Bruyn in her discussion of Marcel Broodthaers work. See Eric de Bruyn, ‘The Museum of Attractions: Marcel Broodthaers and the Section Cinéma’, in Tanya Leighton, ed. Art and the Moving Image, London: Tate Publishing, p. 113.
[iii] These are familiar tactics in Montelibano’s past work. In particular, there is the PO Section of his first solo exhibition PO Asa (Gallery Orange, 2008) in which he captured and manipulated the videos of various preachers delivering sermons on TV.
[1] In her essay, ‘Enclosed by Images: The Eameses’ Multimedia Architecture’ in Tanya Leighton, ed. Art and the Moving Image, London: Tate Publishing, p. 88.
[1] I borrowed the terms of the contours of public performance space from Eric de Bruyn in her discussion of Marcel Broodthaers work. See Eric de Bruyn, ‘The Museum of Attractions: Marcel Broodthaers and the Section Cinéma’, in Tanya Leighton, ed. Art and the Moving Image, London: Tate Publishing, p. 113.
[1] These are familiar tactics in Montelibano’s past work. In particular, there is the PO Section of his first solo exhibition PO Asa (Gallery Orange, 2008) in which he captured and manipulated the videos of various preachers delivering sermons on TV.
[iv] As written in the obituaries of the Telegraph, ‘Throughout his disastrous reign, he encouraged the West to cultivate a dangerous ambivalence towards him. His genial grin, penchant for grandiose self-publicity and ludicrous public statements on international affairs led to his adoption as a comic figure. He was easily parodied, and was granted his own fictional weekly commentary in Punch. However, this fascination, verging on affection, for the grotesqueness of the individual occluded the singular plight of his nation.’ Telegraph (UK), ‘Obituaries: Idi Amin’, 18 August 2003, accessed 10 August 2011. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1439131/Idi-Amin.html
End Frame Video Art Project 3, together with Gallery NOVA,
Presents SORRY FOR THE INCONVENIENCE, an exhibition by Manny Montelibano,
Opening on 13 August 2011, Saturday, 6.30 pm.
Artist Talk on 16 August, Tuesday, 6 pm. Exhibition runs until 9 September.
Visual Pond’s End Frame Video Art Project 3: Present, together with Gallery NOVA, presents Manny Montelibano’s Sorry for the Inconvenience, the latest exhibition of the 2011-2012 Philippine video art festival. The solo exhibition of Montelibano opens at Gallery NOVA on 13 August 2011, Saturday, at 6:30 pm with an artist talk on 16 August, Tuesday, at 6 pm.
Examining the idea of aggravating disturbances amidst the thrust for the public good, Sorry for the Inconvenience stages an audio-visual affront on the rhetoric of the politically powerful. In a gathering, manipulation and collision of declamations, the exhibition suggests of the all-consuming nature of dominance, which comes at both the impact and expense of others.
The show forms the fourth solo exhibition of the Bacolod-based Montelibano, who has been practicing as an artist and showing at various venues in Manila and the Visayas since 2002. Montelibano received his training through his experience as technical director at University of St. La Salle in Bacolod and through a 2004 director’s apprenticeship under filmmaker Peque Gallaga. Crossing fields, Montelibano is a member of the Black Artists in Asia Association Inc. and founded Bacollywood: The Visayan Film Festival. He also cofounded the production collective Produksyon Tramontina Inc. An active member of his community, he often shows in group exhibitions in his region. His other solo shows includeGreater than or Equal to Infinity (Gallery NOVA, 2010), Escabeche: Filipino Sweet and Sour (Galleria Duemila, 2009) and PO Asa (Gallery Orange, 2008).
Montelibano’s Sorry for the Inconvenience is the second offering of End Frame Video Art Project 3, following Tad Ermitaño’s exhibition last January. Curated by Clarissa Chikiamco, the theme of the third edition, Present, refers to the current project’s focus on selected Philippine contemporary artists’ practices in video art. Throughout the festival, each artist stages a show presenting new video work in various venues from 2011 to 2012. Other artists presenting for End Frame 3 include Claro Ramirez, Kiri Dalena, Yason Banal, Kaloy Olavides and Maria Taniguchi.
Sorry for the Inconvenience runs until 9 September 2011. Gallery NOVA, located at Warehouse 12A, La Fuerza Compound 2241 Don Chino Roces Avenue, Makati Metro Manila, is open Monday to Saturday from 11:00 am to 7:00 pm. RSVP for the artist talk at tel. no. (632) 392-7797 or +63917-5357955. For inquiries on Visual Pond projects and End Frame 3, call Rica Estrada at +63917-8170198 or emailvisualpond@gmail.com
Opened on April1, 2011. Celebrating Earth Day to Earth Month. A group of artists mounted an exhibition dedicated to awareness and fundraising to promote the conservation of the enviroment. 
The videos were shot in Danjugan Island, Negros Occidental. Run Fish Run is inspired by the movie Forrest Gump...Run Forrest Run. Whenever there is danger all you have to do is run away. Actually, its suppose to be Swim Fish Swim, but this work focuses on humans. As you enter the gallery, it gives you a feeling of drowning, trapped, and pulls you one step backwards. The fish hooks create an illusion of pain in ones imagination. 
Adventures of the Masked Man is a multi-channel video installation by Manny Montelibano and Dennis Ascalon. Installed at 20th Lacson St. Bacolod City. The 3 projections featured Bacolod City during the MassKara Festival. One of its aim is to bring art to the public. Video Art, is not popular in Bacolod City as of 2010. As people pass by, they noticed a different feature of the festival.
Manny Montelibano shooting (photo by Alebert Pypon)
Camera faces the lechon ( roasted pig )
Like most artists, Manny Montelibano’s creative journey is deeply rooted in the land he calls home, Negros Occidental. Though born and based in Bacolod City, his growing up years were spent in extensive exposures to the countryside, notably in Ilog, Hinigaran and Kabankalan. It was in these places where his consciousness of the Negrosanon way of life took shape: the complicated, sometimes violent, conflicts and social issues between the landowner and the sacadas, the beauty and simplicity of rural living, the daily lives of plain farm workers mired in poverty but lived in dignity, the oppression wrought by the feudal system that is the hallmark of Negros. He saw this in all its stark, unblemished reality.
The greatness of an artist, it has been said, is in seeing truth and not blinking from it but instead absorbing it, no matter how painful or difficult the truth may be. Montelibano did not blink. He took it all in and used it to help shape his distinct world-view.
As a middle-class youth exposed to the harsh realities of a still-largely feudal society, Montelibano saw the stunning contrasts that existed in his home province where huge 19th century ancestral mansions co-existed with shanties and slums. This contrast shaped and to a certain extent defined Montelibano’s young artistic sensibilites. He became staunchly nationalistic, fiercely proud of his Negros heritage and yet constantly challenging the status quo that pervades his beloved Negros.
After graduating he became involved with two groups largely instrumental in the unleashing of his vast creative energies. In the early 1990’s, the Negros Summer Workshops, led by Peque Gallaga, invited him in to teach Film Production, a field he had long been involved in with his college friends Erik Matti, Tonipet Yulo and yours truly. Under the tutelage of Gallaga and Lore Reyes, Manny flourished as a film-maker.
It was also around this time, when he became an active member of the Black Artists of Asia. Egged on by founding members Charlie Co and Dennis Ascalon, he began experimenting with multi-media installations, an art form that, at that time, very few artists in the Visayan region dared to tackle. As part of BAA he became actively involved in community arts organizing, touring the Visayas as part of the biennial Visayan Islands Visual Arts Exhibit and Conference or VIVA-EXCON.
It was through his experience with these groups that Montelibano found his artistic voice. His short-film/video installation “My Way” garnered critical acclaim here and abroad and was shown in Open Art Space in Victoria Canada. His full-length film “Ligaw-Liahm” co-directed with Jay Abello was a finalist at the 2007 Cinemalaya Film Festival. His multi-media installation, “Birhaus” co-created with Peque Gallaga was chosen to be part of Sungdu-an, a nationwide exhibit at the Cultural Center of the Philippines, produced by the Visual Arts Committee of the National Commission for the Culture & Arts.
He has recently returned from an art exposure trip to Netherlands and Germany where he spent countless days in galleries and museums that featured classical as well as avant-garde works of art.
“Greater than Or Equal To”, Montelibano’s s third one-man show, heralds the coming-of-age of an artist whose works offer a refreshing look at Filipino culture and way-of-life as seen through the prism of a Negrosanon Truly, through the visual arts, Montelibano has found the perfect venue through which he can express his unique view of the world as it is. And what an amazingly interesting world it is that he shows us. Conflicted, complex, provocative and never-simplistic, Montelibano’s multi-media installations are bound to challenge audiences for years to come.
The Art of Perception
By Gabby Fernandez
Perceive - \pər-ˈsēv\, transitive verb 1: to attain awareness or
understanding 2: to become aware of through the senses
– Merriam-Webster Dictionary, 2009 Edition
Montelibano’s latest installation, ≥∞ (Greater than or Equal to Infinity) is nothing short of an exploration of the processes that go into human perception. More specifically, it challenges the audience’s understanding of perception. Do we really perceive things as they are or do we merely assume to perceive them? Can we say that what we absorb through our senses truly reflect the actual stimuli, be it a sound, a scent or an image? After all, rarely do we experience stimuli for what they are. Rather, we process stimuli through our brain which then attaches to these various meanings, connotations and connections depending upon many factors such as age, race, culture, historical perspective, education, previous experiences and memories. For example, to generations of Filipinos who grew up in the early part of 20th century, a drawing of an apple would automatically mean the start of the alphabet, or A is for apple. But to this generation it merely means an unfinished logo of a Mac or an Ipod. When we perceive then how much do we owe to cultural and educational brainwashing and how much is ours as individuals? Furthermore, are we still capable of perceiving stimuli for what they are instead of perceiving them with meanings preconditioned by our experiences?
The greatness of an artist, it has been said, is in seeing truth and not blinking from it but instead absorbing it, no matter how painful or difficult the truth may be. Montelibano did not blink. He took it all in and used it to help shape his distinct world-view.
As an ironic contrast, he was a student from grade school to college at the University of St. La Salle, the premiere university in Negros where most of the hacienderos sent their children. Manny’s branch of the Montelibano family were not hacienderos. They were the rare middle-class family in a land that was comprised either of the very rich or the very poor. This contrast shaped and to a certain extent defined Montelibano’s young artistic sensibilites. He became staunchly nationalistic, fiercely proud of his Negros heritage and yet constantly challenging the status quo of the still-largely feudal system of Negros.
After graduating he became involved with two groups largely instrumental in the unleashing of his vast creative energies. In the early 1990’s, the Negros Summer Workshops, led by Peque Gallaga, invited him in to teach Film Production, a field he had long been involved in with his college friends Erik Matti, Tonipet Yulo and yours truly. Under the tutelage of Gallaga and Lore Reyes, Manny flourished as a film-maker.
It was also around this time, when he became an active member of the Black Artists of Asia. Egged on by founding members Charlie Co and Dennis Ascalon, he began experimenting with multi-media installations, an art form that, at that time, very few artists in the Visayan region dared to tackle. As part of BAA he became actively involved in community arts organizing, touring the Visayas as part of the biennial Visayan Islands Visual Arts Exhibit and Conference or VIVA-EXCON.
It was through his experience with these groups that Montelibano found his artistic voice. His short-film/video installation “My Way” garnered critical acclaim here and abroad and was shown in Open Art Space in Victoria Canada. His full-length film “Ligaw-Liahm” co-directed with Jay Abello was a finalist at the 2007 Cinemalaya Film Festival. His multi-media installation, “Birhaus” co-created with Peque Gallaga was chosen to be part of Sungdu-an, a nationwide exhibit at the Cultural Center of the Philippines, produced by the Visual Arts Committee of the National Commission for the Culture & Arts.
“Escabeche”, Montelibano’s s second one-man show, heralds the coming-of-age of an artist whose works offer a refreshing look at Filipino culture and way-of-life as seen through the prism of a Negrosanon Truly, through the visual arts, Montelibano has found the perfect venue through which he can express his unique view of the world as it is. And what an amazingly interesting world it is that he shows us. Conflicted, complex, provocative and never-simplistic, Montelibano’s multi-media installations are bound to challenge audiences for years to come.
by Gabby Fernandez
