Salvage Project

FOREVER AND EVER AND EVER AND EVER

2009-10-31T21:24:00.004+08:00

My work/s will be featured in an upcoming group show

FOREVER AND EVER AND EVER AND EVER

Forever and ever and ever and ever looks at the under-explored but culturally unique phenomenon of ‘tropical summer’ in the Philippines through the works of emerging contemporary artists working from the island nation. The exhibition examines ‘tropical summer’ as an imported cultural lens adapted from countries with temperate climates through which Filipinos understand and experience their hot and humid season (May – July) each year.

VALENTINE WILLIE FINE ART (SINGAPORE)
39 Keppel Road
ARTSPACE @ Helutrans
Tanjong Pagar Distripark,
#02-04 (Access by Passenger Lift #6)
Singapore 089065

http://www.vwfa.net/sg/index.php

Courtyard exhibition

2009-10-30T12:23:00.005+08:00

It seems that Mark Salvatus has committed himself to a lifetime project of examining “spaces” - public, private and whatever's in between. Working closely with people who inhabit them, Salvatus captures the state of these communities through the objects that belong directly to or are loosely associated with their occupants.

In Courtyard, Salvatus provides a semi-fictional version of his Manila City Jail immersion. In the exhibition, he provides contextual elements of the actual space such as local gang logos that marked territorial borders in the prison itself and tattoos that designate individual inmates.

As a “courtyard” is an enclosed space open to the sky, Salvatus then offers an aerial view of Bilibid itself. Essential to Courtyard,this map serves as point of reference, to a place in question. With the original plan of remaking the space, he embarks on a narrative of a whodunit from an actual event of a riot in Manila City Jail between two rival gangs. From an investigation from the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology, Salvatus does his own inspection in Courtyard. With existing makeshift weapons he was familiarized to in his immersion, he places them traced and “wrapped” as confiscated objects in an “evidence wall”.

The value of objects is once again put into the forefront of Salvatus' oeuvre. Things are symbols of themselves. Pretty much, an improvised knife that killed is an improvised knife that killed. “Do or die” is far from a determining existential cry but is a gang slogan – word/s as objects themselves. It is also much so that an evidence of a crime scene do not say “why” foremost but confirms the “what”. Likewise, Salvatus gives credit to objects being constitutive parts of a whole. As with Courtyard, the objects – adaptations and variants – point to an existing community that Salvatus has re-constructed into a meta-narrative with his own investigation and conclusions.

- Siddharta Perez

Courtyard
October 17 - November 14, 2009
PABLO Gallery Fort
Taguig, Philippines

more photos here:
http://www.peaceloveandrevolution.com/blog/courtyard-art-installation-the-fort/

Courtyard

2009-10-07T19:54:00.009+08:00

Courtyard

Pablo Gallery Fort

Taguig, Philippines

October 17 - November 21, 2009

08/24/2008

MANILA, Philippines – Officials from the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) on Sunday conducted a security inspection at the Manila City Jail a day after a riot among prisoners caused the death of one inmate. - Sophia Dedace, GMANews.TV

In this project, Salvatus finds a news report about a deadly riot inside the Manila City Jail in 2008 and retells it in a different perspective in his new show – Courtyard in Pablo Gallery Fort.

Working with communities and experiences, Salvatus reinvestigates the incident with various media. Making a re-enactment of some sort, he presents the story in a Crime Scene Investigation-type of exhibition. Different visual images are juxtaposed in the said courtyard—from drawings, to installations and objects.

Changing the relationship of the past to the present, the account of the riot now becomes a found object that Salvatus tries to visualize using “evidence” he collected inside the Manila City Jail. Using interviews, photographs, and his immersion experience inside the compound, he comes up with his own visual conclusion and combines them with his personal ideas—ideas that make a strong impression and emotional tension, establishing an intimate and charged dialogue with the audience—will they be familiarized by it or be alienated?

"Secret Garden" at Sungdu-an 5

2009-09-23T18:05:00.006+08:00

"Secret Garden", 2009
Mixed media installation
mural on the wall, slit wall, plastic bottles, framed story
new commission for Sungdu-an 5
National Museum, Manila
Philippines

Sungdu-an 5
Current, September 30 - November 15, 2009
opening- Sept 30, Wednesday 6PM

Museum of Filipino People
Finance Rd. cor Teodoro Valencia (Agrifina), Manila

Curator (Luzon): Irma Lacorte
Project head: Dr. Patrick Flores

Transient Space

2009-09-17T22:00:00.006+08:00

Transient Space, 2009
Photographs, sound and video projection
size variable
collab work with J Pacena, Charles Buenconsejo and Wesley Valenzuela

Imagine the Silence Exhibition
Greenbelt 5, Makati, Philippines
curated by Rica Estrada

http://thespoilsoflove.blogspot.com/

2009-09-07T17:01:00.005+08:00

New collaborative art project

The Spoils of Love: An Imagine The Silence exhibit

Imagine magazine, 7 For All Mankind, and The Manila Bulletin present The Spoils of Love: An Imagine the Silence Exhibit.Featuring The Museum of Broken Relationship and Solitude and Separation: 9 art collaborations by Filipino artists, designers, and creative professionals.

The exhibit runs September 15 to 30, 2009 at the Ayala Malls Greenbelt 5 and 3.

collab with Charles Buenconsejo, J. Pacena and Wesley Valenzuela

http://thespoilsoflove.blogspot.com/

Broken Map Treaty 2009

2009-09-01T09:23:00.020+08:00

Nations were "imagined communities" because "the members of even the smallest nation will never know most of their fellow-members, meet them, or even hear of them, yet in the minds of each lives the image of their communion", and traced their origins back to vernacular print journalism, which by its very nature was limited with linguistic zones and addressed a common audience. - Benedict Richard O'Gorman Anderson

Broken Map Treaty, 2009
(National Museum)
Traces on the wall, acrylic, flag, documents, table
3-day participatory project
CCCL, Pusat Kebudayan Prancis Surabaya, Indonesia

* I asked different people to trace their personal belongings on the wall to an imaginary national museum to come up with an imaginary map - an imaginary country. Reenacted the Treaty of Paris in 1898 wherein I sold each island for 2,000 Rupiah - Spain sold the Philippines for $20,000,00.00 to the Americans.

Reference: http://avalon.law.yale.edu/19th_century/sp1898.asp

There have been several models of early human migration to the Philippines. Since H. Otley Beyer first proposed his wave migration theory, numerous scholars have approached the question of how, when and why humans first came to the Philippines. The sea-faring tool-using Indonesian group who arrived about 5,000 to 6,000 years ago and were the first immigrants to reach the Philippines by sea. On Palawan, the long and small island in western Visayas, human bones were found dating to about 22.000 years ago. Stone tools from ancient times were found too on Palawan. The age of the tools is estimated to be about 30.000 years old. An analyses showed that the tools have similar features as tools which were found on Kalimantan (Indonesia).

http://www.ourpacificocean.com/austronesian_people/index.htm

Europeans in search of spices later colonized most of the Austronesian-speaking countries of the Asia-Pacific region, beginning from the 16th century with the Portuguese colonization of some parts of Indonesia (present-day East Timor), Spanish colonization the Philippines, Palau, Guam and the Mariana Islands and the Dutch colonization of the Indonesian archipelago.
In 1898, the Treaty of Paris was signed- turning over the Philippines from Spain to the United States of America. The U.S. ultimately paid Spain 20 million dollars for possession of the Philippines. The Treaty specified that Spain would cede to the United States the archipelago known as the Philippine Islands, and comprehending the islands lying within the a specified line.

Treaty of Paris 1898
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:John_Hay_signs_Treaty_of_Paris,_1899.JPG

http://media.photobucket.com/image/treaty%20of%20paris%20philippines/jibrael_2007/Jibrael%202008/map1_rpterritory.jpg

Supported by:
CCCL, Pusat Kebudayan Prancis Surabaya, Indonesia
Appreroom
RuangArt

http://pestaseniperforma2009-cccl.blogspot.com/

Special Thanks to:

Atieq S S Lisyowati
Taufik Monyong
Consul Christian Gaujac (French Consulate, Surabaya)
Lilik Devi
People of Surabaya

X-Change

2009-08-15T23:43:00.002+08:00

I'll be participating in the X-Change 2009 in Surabaya, Indonesia

OASIS

2009-08-03T23:21:00.010+08:00

"OASIS", 2009
Sand, paper, wheel barrow, drawings on the wall,
Jordanian Dinar, Philippine Peso and floor map
size variable

There are more than 10 million overseas Filipinos worldwide, about 11% of the total population of the Philippines

This is a reaction to the millions of Filipino migrant workers in the Middle East. How did the Middle East become a paradise to most Filipinos seeking better opportunities and a brighter future for themselves and for their families back home. But this paradise also become hell to some - with domestic problems and other abuses from their employers.

Becoming a Labor Exporter

The Philippines' ascent as a major labor exporter in Asia and worldwide is based on various factors. When large-scale labor migration from the Philippines started in the 1970s, the "push" factors were very strong but made worse by the oil crisis in 1973. Among others, economic growth could not keep up with population growth. The country was hard pressed to provide jobs and decent wages and had severe balance of payment problems.

At the same time, the oil-rich Gulf countries needed workers to realize their ambitious infrastructure projects. With supply and demand factors converging, the Philippines was ripe for large-scale labor migration, an opportunity the Marcos government recognized. The framework for what became the government's overseas employment program was established with the passage of the Labor Code of the Philippines in 1974.

http://www.migrationinformation.org/Profiles/display.cfm?ID=364

Money sent home by migrants constitutes the second largest financial inflow to many developing countries, such as the Philippines, in which even exceeds international aid. Latest estimates vary between IFAD estimates of US$401 billion and the World Bank information from central banks at a more conservative US$250 billion for 2006 and these figures are increasing by almost 30% year on year. According to several professionals of the field, remittances contribute to economic growth and to the livelihoods of needy people worldwide. Moreover, remittance, such as those from remittance philippines, transfers can also promote access to financial services for the sender and recipient, thereby increasing financial and social inclusion. Remittances also foster, in the receiving countries such as the Philippines, a further economic dependence on the global economy instead of building sustainable, local economies. Note though that in 19th century English usage a remittance man was exiled overseas and sent a meager living allowance from England.

Supported by

Makan House, Amman
Triangle Arts Trust

Acknowledgments:

Diala Khasawnih
Hanan Khalil
Ola Khalidi
Samah Hijawi
Rafique Nasereddin
Nasim

Wrapped:Shatana

2009-07-23T11:02:00.008+08:00

Wrapped:Shatana, 2009
Drawings on the wall, participatory
Abu Rami Mini Market
Shatana, Jordan

Jordan has been the home of humans for several tens of thousands of years, evidence show human activity back to the Paleolithic period, which is 50,000 to 17,000 BCE. It happened most probably that market places developed into real settlements some 6,000-8,000 years ago, during the Neolithic Period. Ain Ghazal near modern Amman is possibly the earliest settlement in Jordan.

Acknowledgments:

Diala Khasawnih
Hanan Khalil
Ola Khalidi
Samah Hijawi
Rafique Nasereddin

and thank you to the people of Shatana, Jordan
Wrapped Project - http://wrappedtraces.blogspot.com/

View: Cartographical Lure exhibition, VWFA, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

2009-07-22T01:55:00.004+08:00

The emotive power of maps captured in artistic expression

Cartographical Lure
VWFA Fine Art
17 June - 4 July 2009

curated by Simon Soon

Artistic mapping is a cool idea. It is visually fun and has a point; one that works extremely well for the South Asian art scene as Cartographical Lure, the previous exhibition at Valentine Willie Fine Art, proves. For the community of artists in this region maps are a simple yet extremely potent avenue through which to represent what it is to be both an individual and part of a multicultural whole. Moreover, maps can have personal meaning or be impersonal, and this show that has them interpreted through different materials, including oil markers and digital offset printing, offers them up in glorious variety, from the warm and recognizable to the complicated and distant.

Installation view @ VWFA, KL, Malaysia (2009)
Comfort Zone, 2007, Found map, ink, acrylic, drawings, photographs

read the full article here:

http://www.arterimalaysia.com/2009/07/09/the-emotive-power-of-maps-captured-in-artistic-expression/

"Comfort Zone" was first exhibited at Goyang Art Studio Gallery, South Korea (2007)
http://marksalvatus.blogspot.com/2007/08/comfort-zone.html

Shatana International Artist Workshop 3

2009-07-16T15:02:00.000+08:00

Shatana International Artist Workshop 3 is an artist-initiated project in collaboration with Makan. As part of the Triangle Arts Trust network, this site specific and process oriented workshop invites artists to spend two weeks in the village of Shatana; it supports experimentation in all media. The workshop concludes with an open day inviting the public to celebrate the event.

artists from Jordan, Morocco, Lebanon, Yemen, Egypt, UK, Holland, Germany, Turkey, India, Philippines, Guatemala, France and Ethiopia will be attending the workshop

*****************

Also: http://www.makanhouse.net/shatana/the-event

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In Arabic: ورشة الفنانين العالميّة تبدأ في 'شطنا' بالتأكيد على التجريب والتفاعل مع البيئة المحيطة
http://www.alghad.jo/?news=431008

In the Press: Mabuhay Magazine (April 2009), Metro Society (June 2009) and SwankStyle blog

2009-06-02T21:36:00.005+08:00

Chekitaw!

http://salvagenews.blogspot.com/2009/06/in-press-metro-society-june-2009.html

http://salvagenews.blogspot.com/2009/06/mabuhay-magazine-philippine-airlines.html

http://theswankstyle.blogspot.com/

and by the way, a new ACA- Accidental Contemporary Art http://accidentalcontemporaryart.blogspot.com/

Upcoming Exhibit- Cartographical Lure (June)

2009-05-28T11:29:00.004+08:00

Cartographical Lure is an exhibition that explores artistic mapping as a subjective visual representation of our lived environment. Artists were asked to create personal responses to a particular locale, working with different materials - computer generated images, traditional hand-drawn or even other forms of craftsmanship - resulting in a complex body of work that ranges from the biographical to the conceptual, from maps of interventional nature to maps on land use interpretation. Cartographical Lure is the first in a series of exhibition by VWFA to acknowledge the increasing number of contemporary artists who are using various mediums to explore our cultural geography. Participating artists include Chong Kim Chew (Malaysia), Tiffany Chung (Vietnam), Gan Siong King (Malaysia), Bea Camacho (Philippines), Mark Salvatus (Philippines), Jason Wee (Singapore), Krisnamurti (Indonesia), Jenifer Woodford (Philippines), and Nadiah Bamadhaj (Malaysia).

Valentine Willie Fine Art, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

June 17-July 4, 2009

http://www.klue.com.my/events/2182-Cartographical-Lure

Residency Report -WOP Green Papaya

2009-05-28T11:24:00.003+08:00

Here is my 2-month artist residency report of Neo-Urban Plan project at WOP Green Papaya Art Projects

http://neourbanplanner.blogspot.com/2009/05/neo-urban-plan-report-green-papaya-art_08.html

Salabay

2009-05-03T11:30:00.001+08:00

a project I did at the 2nd Bagasbas International Eco Arts Festival in collaboration with Barngay San Vicente in Camarines Norte

curated by Patrick Flores

Salvageproject News: Awarded Shatana International Artists Workshop

2009-04-25T20:40:00.007+08:00

Awarded to participate at the 3rd Shatana International Artists Workshop & Residency at the Makan Art House in Jordan in July 2009

The project is supported by the Triangle Arts Trust

Stacked

2009-04-17T17:46:00.005+08:00

Stacked, 2009
books, acrylic on panel, potted plant

Exhibited at TutokEduk http://salvagenews.blogspot.com/

photo by Mark Vivas

Salvage News (Fudge Magazine Arpril-May 2009)

2009-04-17T17:36:00.002+08:00

http://salvagenews.blogspot.com/

Maze

2009-04-02T23:57:00.001+08:00

Urban Jealousy of Tehran in Belgrade, Serbia

2009-03-31T16:20:00.007+08:00

Urbana Ljubomora u Beogradu

My "Wrapped:Persona" poster is included in the show in Belgrade

List of artists-Poster
http://www.biennialtehran.com/artists_posters.html

Last year when I went to the Consulate of Serbia and Montenegro

Neo-Urban Plan Project update

2009-03-30T18:35:00.002+08:00

Went to Museo Pambata for the Clay City workshop with the Children's Advocates Program (CAP)
check the upadte here:
http://neourbanplanner.blogspot.com/

Q&A with KLue (Malaysia)

2009-03-12T14:01:00.003+08:00

I was recently interviewed by KLue Magazine when I was in KL

check the link

http://www.klue.com.my/articles/1528-QA-Mark-Salvatus

In the Press: Status Magazine

2009-02-25T11:12:00.002+08:00

Text by Ana Canlas
Photo by Rev Naval

Domestico, Madrid

2009-02-03T16:02:00.002+08:00

Rock Star Biennial, 2008
Domestico, Madrid
El Papel de Artista
Curated by Tania Pardo

Artists
http://www.artslant.com/ew/events/show/40677-one-plus-ones-a-crowd-uno-ms-uno-multitud