For the first time in the Philippines, an impressive collection of traditional Cordillera pieces will be shown in public alongside artworks by 20th and 21st-century Filipino abstract artists
In an exhibition titled, JUXTA:POSITION, the Hong Kong-based AsianArt:Future (AA:F) chaired by the Swiss art collector Martin Kurer will showcase a stunning collection of tribal art from the Cordilleras together with abstract paintings by Filipino artists at 1335 Mabini Gallery in Makati’s Karrivin Plaza from 16 February to 2 March 2019.
The exhibition comes as a result of Kurer’s particular interest in the universal and widespread use of the aesthetics of reduction, something present he says in bulul (carved wooden figures), which are closely associated with the Ifugao peoples of Northern Luzon.
A three-part book, JUXTA:POSITION (The Aesthetics of Reduction), will feature details on the aestheticism of the carvings of the Cordillera peoples, which Kurer says can also be perceived and described utilising an artistic vocabulary similar to the one of the Abstract Art movement. The second and third parts highlight the bululs, boxes, kinahu, and spoons of the Cordillera peoples, mostly from the 19th century and earlier, and a number of abstract Filipino artworks, as photographed by At Maculangan.