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CULTURE CALENDAR

10/03/2008

Tulaan sa Tren: Poetry to go with the NBDB and the LRTA

Riding the LRT will be a different sort of experience now the National Book Development Board (NBDB) and the Light Rail Transit Authority (LRTA) bring Philippine poetry closer to the train-riding public through the imaginative Tulaan sa Tren project.

Conceived by NBDB executive director Andrea Pasion-Flores, herself a published writer of fiction, the program is designed to provide train passengers with an appreciation for Philippine literature as they listen to their favorite celebrities reading poems about Manila over the public announcement system of LRT Line 2 stations.

Edu Manzano, Miriam Quiambao, Nikki Gil, Matt Evans, Lyn Ching-Pascual, Romnick Sarmienta, Rhea Santos, Christine Bersola-Babao, Chin-chin Gutierrez and Harlene Bautista will give life to the works of renowned poets such as Jose Corazon de Jesus, Rio Alma, Cirilo Bautista, Benilda Santos, Marjorie Evasco, Jose F. Lacaba, Vim Nadera and Conchitina Cruz. Excerpts from the poems will also be printed in Tulaan sa Tren posters that will be posted inside the trains.

Aside from promoting Philippine poetry, Tulaan sa Tren also aims to give its passengers a different perspective on familiar places in Metro Manila, as they will hear about them as experienced by our own poets. Tulaan sa Tren posters will also feature photos of places in Manila by travel photographer Jay Alonzo and celebrity poetry readers holding Philippine-authored books, who love for Philippine-authored works.

Pasion-Flores hopes that this project will reinforce its other readership promotion campaign in its efforts not just to get Filipinos to read more, but to read Filipino writers.

“We hope that the people who will perhaps encounter our poetry for the first time in this novel way will realize that Philippine literature is something we can all be proud of, and that they will look up the authors, whose works we featured, to discover more treasures.”

Tulaan sa Tren is a joint project of the NBDB and LRTA, in partnership with the Optical Media Board and the Book Development Association of the Philippines .

Alliance Française de Manille presents Dante Perez’s paintings

Dante Perez mounts another series of humorous and thought-provoking paintings tackling the issue of identity presented by two faceless characters constantly at war with each other. These two adversaries represent the self and the other self seeking dominance and emancipation. Perez has chosen to erase the fine line between who owns the ego and the ego itself. In all their naked splendor, the figures of Versus are in myriad struggles: The hues of punches, the saturations of pain, the depth of skin upon skin, the illuminated outlines of bias, the gestures of contact and the strokes of tenacity. Although persistent, neither one seems to be winning, there is no tangible resolution in sight. Perez says, this fight with ourselves is eternal. No way can we escape from the call of the flesh and the hawk-eyed resistance of the spirit.

In Versus, Perez presents an edition of artworks that defies popular genres. Some favorite pieces are Fighting With The Narcissist, Against The Self-Righteous, Amused To Death and Wasakan. His fascination with lines and movement, brutality and the color of blood are put into realization.

Artist Dante Perez opens his latest exhibit Versus, recent paintings and assemblages, at the Alliance Française de Manille. The artist’s reception shall be on Tuesday, Oct. 7, at Alliance Française de Manille’s Total Gallery. Cocktails will be served at 6:30 p.m. Exhibit ends on Oct. 31. For more details about the exhibit, contact Olivier Dintinger, AFM director, or Earl Parco, cultural-PR officer, at 895-7441/895-7585 or e-mail odintinger@alliance.ph or cultural@alliance.ph.

Julie Lluch retrospective at CCP

Yuta: Earthworks, by Julie Lluch, will open on Oct. 9, 6 p.m., at the CCP Main Theater Lobby, and will be on view until Dec. 31 at the CCP Bulwagang Juan Luna (Main Gallery). The retrospective, an initiative of the Cultural Center of the Philippines and Galleria Duemila, celebrates sculptor Julie Lluch’s artistic career spanning 30 years. Yuta is a Visayan word for “clay.” The exhibit will bring together works from private and institutional collections as well as those from the artist’s personal collection.

One of the country’s foremost exponents of terracotta sculptures, Julie Lluch finds perfect expression in the indigenous clay which she refers to as the most sensuous and pleasurable medium. A philosophy graduate of the University of Sto. Tomas, Lluch’s strong feminist stance helped open the national women’s movement in the area of arts and culture and co-founded women’s groups such Katipunan ng Kababaihan para sa Kalayaan and KASIBULAN, which she co-founded in 1990. Her works such as Philippine Gothic, Cutting Onions Always Makes Me Cry, Still Life with Cezanne’s Apple’s on Kiri’s 6th Birthday and Picasso y Yo all raise concern about women’s roles in society. Her works also pay homage to stalwarts of Western modern art, as well as Filipino literary artists and art patrons. Her life-size figures — Filipina 1898 and Maranao Women — uphold the role of women in the revolution, whether in the past or at present. Lluch also did monuments in bronze of Gen. Carlos P. Romulo, Arsenio Lacson, Chief Justice Jose Abad Santos, Cayetano Arellano and President Manuel Quezon.

Julie Lluch has joined prestigious exhibitions here and abroad.

For her excellent works in the field of Philippine sculpture, Lluch was awarded the CCP Thirteen Artists Award (1990), Iligan City’s Outstanding Citizenship in Art (1992); Quezon City’s Most Outstanding Woman Artist (1995) and the Sining at Kalinangan Award given by the City of Manila (1997).

Yuta is supported by the National Commission for Culture and the Arts, Asian Tigers Lane Moving and Storage, Autozentrum BMW, Epson, St. Paul’s de Chartres, Carlos P. Romulo Foundation, Bench, BPI Asset Management and Bailey’s.

Gallery hours are from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily except Mondays and holidays. For more information, call the CCP Visual Arts and Museo Division at 8321125, local 1504/1505.