REFLECTION ON MIDEO CRUZ&#; POLITEISMO
Dr. Feorillo A. Demeterio III
Vice Dean, College of Liberal Arts, De La Salle University
I did not have the privilege of experiencing the Politeismo of Mideo Cruz, as the whole exhibition Kulo was closed the day I thought of going to CCP and see for myself this installation in the context of the whole show. But since the controversy it created is aesthetic, philosophical and cultural, I, as a professor of Philippine studies, am compelled to make sense out of it using the fragmented footages and snapshots that I saw on television and the internet.
I propose that Mideo Cruz&#; Politeismo be analyzed using the Dada movement as the overall framework, because his installation is indeed a representative of this a problem arises here, owing to the fact that even for the classic and traditional arts, the average Filipino tends to have a very low aesthetic literacy. If we cannot expect the average Filipino to be able to plumb the meaning of realistic painting or sculpture, the more that we cannot expect him to make sense out of Dada installation. I believe that this gap between an artist&#;s expression and the people&#;s capacity
Poleteismo
Cultural Center of the Philippines
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF
PHILIPPINE ART
(Polytheism) / / Site-specific installation / Variable materials and dimensions / Artist: Mideo Cruz / Bulwagang Juan Luna, Cultural Center of the Philippines, Manila / Artist’s collection
Poleteismo is an installation by Mideo Cruz that became controversial in the mass and social media in because of its usage of religious imagery juxtaposed with social, political, and popular images. It was part of the Kulo (Boil) exhibition, , a project held by the University of Santo Tomas (UST) fine arts alumni in commemoration of the UST’s th anniversary and Jose Rizal’s th birth celebration. The furor and pre-terminated exhibiting of Kulo spurred by reaction to Poleteismo became a landmark incident in the discourse of art and the public, as well as on issues of intervention and censorship.
Poleteismo is a multidimensional, site-specific installation. Its exhibition in the CCP featured a three-wall assemblage of various signage, religious, political, movie, and celebrity posters of public personalities and icons, including Jesus of Nazareth, Mary, the holy family, various saints
Mideo Cruz
Mideo M. Cruz (Philippines, b. ) is a cross-disciplinary artist and activist based in Gapan City, Nueva Ecija, Philippines. His artworks often showcase bold and provocative statements on the social structure. Specifically, Cruz takes his activism from the streets to his art by creating political yet humorous work, igniting individual and collective social conversations. As an activist, Cruz devotes his time in searching the truth beneath the sanitized and censored declarations from existing institutions. In , Cruz and a group of artists/activists established a cultural group, “UGATLahi”, an art collective that aims to promote and popularize the role of culture and arts in nation-building. Later, he organized the international artists’ network “New World Disorder,” initiating art events and interventions to question and challenge capitalism and imperialist globalization. He is a recipient of the Cultural Center of the Philippines 13 Artists Award in and the Ateneo Art Awards in In , Cruz received an Asian Cultural Council (ACC) Fellowship to participate in residencies at the Headlands Art Center in California and PointB Worklodge i
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