Thirteenth International Conference on The Inclusive Museum

Abstract

The representation and promotion of the identity of Albayano art is an odyssey embarked upon by the foremost curatorial platforms in the province of Albay in Southern Luzon, Philippines. As this study shows, an analysis of these institutions point to a problematic lack of engagement with the communities which they deem to represent. Even among the grassroots communities of Albay, there is a seemingly great lack of awareness concerning these existing platforms of artistic and cultural expression. Further complicating this are the skewed notions of public, space, and art as they are understood by the existing curatorial platforms in Albay–notions characterized by a strong tourism-oriented practice which oftentimes privileges profit and displays a homogenized view of communities. Informed by participatory and process-oriented modes of curatorial engagement, this study seeks to explore the roles and possibilities of curatorial practice in the imaginings of a sense of place, of history, and of community. At the heart of this study is the creation of a platform for select communities to uniquely respond to perceived lacks and handle the venture of identity-formation and placemaking. This is done through community-generated cultural projects which are largely independent of great infrastructural need, financial burden, and pre-existing grand narratives. Emphasis is placed on the processes by which each community executes their own project, in hopes of capturing the unique and nuanced artistic language of each community. The relations which lie between and among the communities acting as stakeholders rather than as outsiders function as guideposts to this study.