November , 2020Philippines / Philippines
Volcanos and epidemics…sometimes you just gotta know when to sit down, take a sip of brew, and get that ol’ drawing board back out.
It is with genuine heartfelt sadness we are announcing that Micro Galleries Live, Manila is postponed. Micro Galleries takes the health and safety of all its artists and the wonderful communities we work in exceptionally seriously and feel with the current Conronavirus circulating throughout Asia, and beyond, we cannot in good faith continue in March.
BUT it is with HUGE excitement we can announce that the program is being shifted to later in the year. We are in the process of collaborating on a new program for 2020 and developing some great ways to create in our communities, with each other, in the virtual space, and around the world.
So, with charged glass in the air and a sense of the Les Miserables soundtrack playing in the background, we say: let’s take this crappy situation and make it powerful, awesome and gold – and continue charge forth into 2020 using art to make this world a little better each day!
A MASSIVE shoutout to our Manila-based team 98B and HUB as well as all our extended team and artists there who have been the most incredibly supportive and wonderful collaborators and friends. We look forward to continuing to work with each of them throughout the year.
And a SCREAM-IT-FROM-THE-ROOFTOPS thanks to our MG International Artist Collective. What a tribe of shining brilliance all our artists are. They’ve been a tower of support and understanding whilst taking a financial hit and a logistical fraying, and yet have remained positive and creative for the whole process.
You know what, people are really awesome.
With much love and gratitude, The MG team
NOVEMBER, 2020
The Philippines is one of the world’s largest archipelago nations and mega biodiversity countries. But this diversity doesn’t halt with the birds and the tamaraw: the urban spaces are some of the most dynamic, insane, colourful mashups of history, architecture, innovative living and city-survival adaptation you will ever see.
And the emerging cultural epicentre of the Gotham-guised Manila is Escolta. Perched with pride on the edge of Binondo, Escolta is a cultural conga congee of Malay, Arab, China, and American influence with flair that only Filipino’s can bring. Knocked about by nature and colonisation, Escolta has formed a new, unique identity and proud community who are ready to show the world how incredible their block is.
This year’s Micro Galleries Live Festival theme is Displace[ME]nt: Movement of people, economies, climate, human rights. From no place, to making space.
What does the shifting nature of Escolta’s identity mean to people who live there? How does the displacement of so many around the Philippines affect their urban landscape? How does the displacement of those who have made Escolta their home, through rapid development, affect them and wider-Manila? How do you forge new space and meaning in a place crumbling with meaning and no space?
We will explore all this in March!
HUB Make Lab is an artist and maker-led experiment in arts, cultural programming, community activation, and creative sustainability supported by the First United Building. It is recognized as one of the pioneering creative hubs in the Philippines. Started in 2016 as a project of 98B COLLABoratory and the First United Building, it has graduated in December 2018 into its own organization serving its creative, geographic, and action-oriented communities.
98B COLLABoratory is an artist-run initiative and space in Manila, Philippines. We are a community + network + library + kitchen + shop. The idea is to have a setting where artists and creative individuals from other disciplines can interact and work together while presenting art, design and creativity in different ways; be it a talk, a bazaar, a publication, a meal or a simple gathering.
Ika Vantiani is a self-taught artist that mostly talk about women, media and consumption on her works. She tend to start working with what’s from within and around her being. Collage is her main medium whereas she finds it down to earth yet has the power in taking her to the places she has never been. Being an artist is the way she celebrates herself and her life everyday.
I am an artist, photographer and activist, working in various media, particularly photography and social media tools, to play my relationship with the environment and communities, and to encourage marginalised communities to develop a voice for self-expression through art-making, social awareness and change in USA, Canada, Brazil, Colombia, Venezuela and Nepal.. I have been actively working in collaboration with the French artist JR since 2013.
Teacher of creativity, communication and self-discovery through Mail Art using various mediums, primarily collage. Collage is her medium, and the postal system is how she shares it.An active member of the International Union of Mail Artists, which connects her with people throughout the world.
I am a self-taught artist from Jordan who aims to create a positive social impact via art in marginalised communities and slums.
Sarah is an Australian-based urban artist who creates colourful, emotive, layered work. Inspired by the female form, typography and colour. Sarah mixes these elements to create vibrant murals, over-sized canvas artworks and urban paste-ups.
General kat@microgalleries.org | Media media@microgalleries.org