SUMMING THE FACTS THROUGH VISUAL FICTION
A fact sheet is exactly what it states, a concise gathering of key points of information summarized on a single page. "Fact Sheet" is a serial exhibition project which was started in 2008 by the cultural group Artists’ Arrest, addressing cases of human rights violations that in face of reportage and litigation, reduce the wrenching plight of victims and their families into mere data within case reports persistently documented by human rights advocates.
Within the view of art as a humanizing medium, and as an experiential tool able to provoke empathy and awareness in social engagement, Fact Sheet has continued as an art project involving mostly young artists and art students who basically respond to fact sheets about individuals and lives shattered by summary and extra-judicial executions; undue, arbitrary and undocumented arrests; torture; disappearances and kidnappings mostly traced to alleged authorities of government and law. The series has resulted into artworks that are considerably raw, but emotionally compelling, and definitely fresh by virtue of the immediacy of the issue and the youthful perspectives brought forth by the artists.
Fact rendered as fiction through visual means is an exercise in the mindful processing of meanings. It expands what is simply ‘news’ or ‘incident’ into realms of inquiry. Where one person’s suffering becomes owned as ‘mine’ or ‘ours,’ and beyond knowing what happened, we also ask what it means to us. What more should we think of, and what must be done? This too is discourse, although most probably not the dominant one. Because the cynical retort is that art does nothing. It does not change society. True enough, and that is fact. People do things, and social systems perpetuate actions as culture.
PWU SFAD, school to some of the art students and alumni participating in and organizing this exhibit, hosts “Fact Sheet 7: Down The Drain” to place it within the space of discourse and learning for young artists whose works speak to their own youthful peers. Subtitled as “The Wasted State of Human Rights under the Aquino Regime,” the exhibit voices criticism for the wasted opportunity for reform against military abuses, especially within the counter-insurgency peace and security plan Oplan Bayanihan. It also points to the way Jennifer Laude was murdered in October 2014 and how provisions of the Visiting Forces Agreement with the US government aggravate the ongoing case.
Thus articulated, the exhibit could also clue in on culture's interface with authority, and the tensions that are part of what is contested in precepts of nation, identity and territory. Inevitably, fact migrates into the personal, for issues and repercussions cannot be alienated from the people who embody these facts as human stories.
"Fact Sheet," for this seventh edition, is a collaborative effort by Artists’ Arrest with Southern Tagalog Exposure, Guni-Guni Collective, UGATLahi Artist Collective and KARAPATAN- Southern Tagalog. It is also a traveling exhibit, having made its caravan through other schools, the commemoration of Human Rights Day in December 2014, and the 28th anniversary of the Mendiola Massacre this January 2015. Its next stop after PWU will be at UP Los Baños.
Exhibit opens on January 27, 2015 5:00 to 8:00pm at the SFAD Studio Gallery. It will run until February 07 and will hold a Discussion on Human Rights and Artists’ Walkthrough on Wednesday, February 04 from 2:00-6:00pm.
