Josephine Turalba — Vagari by Galleria Duemila

V A G A R I JOSEPHINE TURALBA

Galleria Duemila presents

Josephine Turalba Vagari March 5 - 31 2016 Acknowledgements: Art Director: Silvana Ancellotti-Diaz Exhibition Team: Thess Ponce, Maria Teresa Taluban, Bing Francisco, Mark Arvin Patiag, Roy Abrenica, Ulysis Francisco, Edgar Bautista, Roger Ocado and Jose Jeoffrey Baba

Texts: Angel Velasco-Shaw

Photography / Catalogue design: Saldy Calamiong

Copyright 2016 Galleria Duemila, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this production may be reproduced or transmitted, in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording in any information storage or retrieval system without prior consent from the artist, writer, and gallery.

J o s e p h i n e Tu r a l b a

VAGARI

Nothing is absolute. Everything changes, everything moves, everything revolves, everything flies and goes away. ~ Frida Kahlo It is not so much that multimedia performance artist Josephine Turalba was born to wander, as the Latin title of her first solo exhibition at Galeria Duemila implies. Perhaps she has a mole on her foot which in Filipino superstitious beliefs could mean that she loves adventure and thus, to wander. This writer would add to the meanings of the term and the superstition—to wander with urgent purpose. Land, sea, air narratives of migration are leitmotifs throughout Vagari. Turalba investigates a multiplicity of mythological, phantasmagorical, and actual worlds—hers, yours, mine, and someone else’s in places and times that collide, converge and confound. As contexts change, so does Turalba’s choice of mediums—video installation; polaroid light-boxes; serigraph prints; video still photographs; and painting. Their textural layers and meanings give way to critical visual and audio utterances in precise overtures on the current state of things—our world plagued with unprecedented environmental damage, globalized terror, crumbling economies, civil wars, ISIL’s acts of terrorism. The list goes on. We can choose or not to look at their profound effects on ecosystems and human beings—causing waves of migration that we have never witnessed before in this befuddling manner. In the opening sequence of her masterful 9:45minute triptych video installation, No Way Forward, No Way Back, ravens fly into a field of red. A superimposed flag flutters in the center field. In the right screen, the multimedia performance artist Turalba assumes her now signature character, a kinari, a mythical half-bird, half-woman. In Hindu, she is the goddess of wealth. In Southeast Asian Buddhist mythology, she is guardian to human beings in danger. A woman takes refuge by the door… but the gun does not fire—is the opening graffiti text crawling onto the screen as Turalba enters, pauses, and makes eye-contact with her audience and leaves the frame. The piece thrusts the viewer into a fast-moving voyage through verdant landscapes, schools of tuna, hordes of fleeing refugees intercut with animated wildebeests (half animal/half human), ravens, manta rays. The kinari intermittently walks or runs through a Madrid shipyard, the

magnificent Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, night traffic in Lisbon, the Manila American Cemetery. Simulated graffiti wall texts punctuate the exodus of people from Greece, Syria, Turkey, Pakistan and Egypt. With the heavily modified sounds of the call to prayer and appropriated television news interviews with refugees, it is impossible to leave without feeling the sensorial weight of terrorism, desperation, xenophobia, war and pleas for peace, stability, a sense of home, humanity and compassion. The other works in the exhibition are not derivative of No Way Forward, No Way Back, but rather in dialogue with it. Migration Series 1, fifteen serigraph prints allure the senses to imagine journeys. Each print depictspoignant migration scenes of abstract figures moving across fragmented negative and positive spaces that suggest the desert, water, rugged terrains, without a clear destination insight. Like the men, women and children in African-American painter Jacob Lawrence’s reverent Migration Series, their movement is involuntary. Turalba’s muted shades and hues of yellow, blue and red Matisse-like shapes are moody, evocative contemplations whose meanings will differ from one person’s perception to another’s depending on how the person enters into each space. Her single frame video-still photographs offer another way of looking at the issues raised in No Way Forward, No Way Back through an inverted déjà vu lens. Her intimate, playful polaroid light-boxes feature newly imagined animated half-human/half wildebeests that no longer fly like her performative kinari but walk the earth surveying the state of technology’s impact on nature. It is insightful to look at the totality of Josephine Turalba’s new body of work with eyes that transmit to the mind what the heart beats. Look, listen and feel the noise that repeats and appears to repeat like a skipping needle that we cannot hear, see or feel anymore. Embedded in these creations are truths that without the prolific aid of an astute artist, we as an audience may find it difficult to digest and understand their core messages that allude to the contradictory gamut of beauty and horrors of our humanity. Artspeak as heartspeak is not simplistic nor singular. It requires the use of all of our senses and mental faculties to decipher a matrix of en/coding, familiar and unfamiliar. - Angel Velasco-Shaw

Migration Series #15 (front cover) serigraph and collagraph print on paper (edition 1/1) 35 x 50 cm. / 13.79 x 19.70 in. 2015

Migration Series #19 serigraph and collagraph print on paper (edition 1/1) 50 x 35 cm. / 19.70 x 13.79 in. 2015

17 Migration Series #23 serigraph and collagraph print on paper (edition 1/1) 35 x 50 cm. / 13.79 x 19.70 in. 2015

Echoes video still print on Hahnemuhle museum etching fine art paper (edition 1/2) 38 x 59 cm. / 14.96 x 23.23 in. 2016

10 Migration Series #6 serigraph and collagraph print on paper (edition 1/1) 35 x 50 cm. / 13.79 x 19.70 in. 2015

18 Migration Series #14 serigraph and collagraph print on paper (edition 1/1) 35 x 50 cm. / 13.79 x 19.70 in. 2015

Sangre video still print on Hahnemuhle museum etching fine art paper (edition 1/2) 95 x 147 cm. / 37.4 x 57.9 in. 2016

11 Migration Series #5 serigraph and collagraph print on paper (edition 1/1) 35 x 50 cm. / 13.79 x 19.70 in. 2015

19 Migration Series #7 serigraph and collagraph print on paper (edition 1/1) 35 x 50 cm. / 13.79 x 19.70 in. 2015

12 Migration Series #18 serigraph and collagraph print on paper (edition 1/1) 35 x 50 cm. / 13.79 x 19.70 in. 2015

20 Migration Series #1 serigraph and collagraph print on paper (edition 1/1) 35 x 50 cm. / 13.79 x 19.70 in. 2015

13 Migration Series #20 serigraph and collagraph print on paper (edition 1/1) 50 x 35 cm. / 19.70 x 13.79 in. 2015

21 16:43 Photograph on fine art paper (edition 1/3) 9 x 11 cm. / 3.54 x 4.33 in. 2016

14 Empire video still print on Hahnemuhle museum etching fine art paper (edition 1/2) 38 x 59 cm. / 14.96 x 23.23 in. 2016

22 21.57 Photograph on fine art paper (edition 1/3) 9 x 11 cm. / 3.54 x 4.33 in. 2016

Minbar video still print on Hahnemuhle museum etching fine art paper (edition 1/2) 40 x 80 cm. / 15.75 x 31.5 in. 2016 Flight video still print on Hahnemuhle museum etching fine art paper (edition 1/2) 38 x 59 cm. / 14.96 x 23.23 in. 2016 Migration Series #15 serigraph and collagraph print on paper (edition 1/1) 35 x 50 cm. / 13.79 x 19.70 in. 2015 Migration Series #10 serigraph and collagraph print on paper (edition 1/1) 35 x 50 cm. / 13.79 x 19.70 in. 2015 Migration Series #21 serigraph and collagraph print on paper (edition 1/1) 35 x 50 cm. / 13.79 x 19.70 in. 2015

15 Taksim WW video still print on Hahnemuhle museum etching fine art paper (edition 1/2) 38 x 59 cm. / 14.96 x 23.23 in. 2016 16 Migration Series #11 serigraph and collagraph print on paper (edition 1/1) 35 x 50 cm. / 13.79 x 19.70 in. 2015

23 Rush video still print on Hahnemuhle museum etching fine art paper (edition 1/2) 40 x 80 cm. / 15.75 x 31.5 in. 2016 24 Migration Series #9 serigraph and collagraph print on paper (edition 1/1) 35 x 50 cm. / 13.79 x 19.70 in. 2015 25 Migration Series #22 serigraph and collagraph print on paper (edition 1/1) 35 x 50 cm. / 13.79 x 19.70 in. 2015

26 Migration Series #3 serigraph and collagraph print on paper (edition 1/1) 35 x 50 cm. / 13.79 x 19.70 in. 2015

35 17:28 Photograph on fine art paper (edition 1/3) 9 x 11 cm. / 3.54 x 4.33 in. 2016

N O WAY FORWA R D , N O WAY B A C K 2016

27 Migration Series #4 serigraph and collagraph print on paper (edition 1/1) 35 x 50 cm. / 13.79 x 19.70 in. 2015

36 18:23 Photograph on fine art paper (edition 1/3) 9 x 11 cm. / 3.54 x 4.33 in. 2016

28 The Pasig video still print on Hahnemuhle museum etching fine art paper (edition 1/2) 38 x 59 cm. / 14.96 x 23.23 in. 2016

37 15:58 Photograph on fine art paper (edition 1/3) 9 x 11 cm. / 3.54 x 4.33 in. 2016

Location Shoot Abbazia di Monte Oliveto Maggiore, Siena,Arezzo, Castiglione Fiorentino, Camaldoli National Park of Casentinesi Forests, Venice, Italy, Istanbul, Turkey, Madrid, Spain, Lisbon, Portugal, Laiya, Batangas, Tubbataha, Palawan, and Manila, Philippines, Maldives, Rangiroa, New Zealand, Tahiti, French Polynesia, Tonga

29 Migration Series #12 serigraph and collagraph print on paper (edition 1/1) 35 x 50 cm. / 13.79 x 19.70 in. 2015 30 Migration Series #2 serigraph and collagraph print on paper (edition 1/1) 35 x 50 cm. / 13.79 x 19.70 in. 2015 31 Migration Series #16 serigraph and collagraph print on paper (edition 1/1) 35 x 50 cm. / 13.79 x 19.70 in. 2015 32 Migration Series #8 serigraph and collagraph print on paper (edition 1/1) 35 x 50 cm. / 13.79 x 19.70 in. 2015 33 Migration Series #17 serigraph and collagraph print on paper (edition 1/1) 35 x 50 cm. / 13.79 x 19.70 in. 2015 34 08:18 Photograph on fine art paper (edition 1/3) 9 x 11 cm. / 3.54 x 4.33 in. 2016

C R ED ITS

Music by Jason Mitchell

38 Tadakatsu acrylic and paper on masonite board 122 x 122 cm. / 48 x 48 in. 2016 39 Silent March video still print on Hahnemuhle museum etching fine art paper (edition 1/2) 38 x 59 cm. / 14.96 x 23.23 in. 2016 40 Serekh video still print on Hahnemuhle museum etching fine art paper (edition 1/2) 40 x 80 cm. / 15.75 x 31.5 in. 2016 41 No Way Forward, No Way Back Three-channel video (running time 09:45) 42 Serene Embrace video still print on Hahnemuhle museum etching fine art paper (edition 1/2) 38 x 59 cm. / 14.96 x 23.23 in. 2016 (back cover)

Edited by Flash Tangalin Performances by BurcinYildirim Josephine Turalba

Cameras Oliver Breitenstein Marissa Florendo DenizhanOzer Flash Tangalin Juha Turalba Toti Turalba Drone Operation by Juha Turalba Animation by Flash Tangalin

Feature Footage “War on Terror, War on Muslims?” Empire, AlJazeera Marwan Bishara Hamid Dabashi Philip Golub SlavojZizek Internet Media Footage Al Jazeera CNN Bandila,ABS-CBN BBC World News Council on Foreign Relations Eurostaat monthly figures Getty Images History Channel Nikkei Asian Review TVOne World Vision Emmeline Booth,IRINews Maria A. Ressa, RAPPLER Rebecca Harms, Greens Group

Special Thanks to Claudia Chianucci, John Chua, Silvana Diaz, Tet Lara, Mauro Magrini, AsliOzok, GamzePlatin, SandroSantarelli, Angel Velasco-Shaw, TotiTuralba Directed, Produced and Written by Josephine Turalba Copyright © Josephine Turalba 2016

EDUCATION 2009

Masters in Fine Arts, New Media Transart Institute, validated by University Krems, Linz, Republic of Austria

1988

Bachelor of Arts, Major in Psychology University of the Philippines, Diliman-Quezon City

EXHIBITIONS 2016 Solo 2015 2014 Solo 2013

London Biennale Synchronisations/Syncopations, Rome, Italy Vagari, Galeria Duemila, Manila, Philippines Personal Structures – Crossing Borders, European Cultural Center, Palazzo Mora,Venice, Italy (concurrent with the 56th Venice Biennale 2015) TAXI, Parallel Vienna, Vienna, Austria & Art Market Budapest, Budapest Speak Together, Hofburg Imperial Museum, Innsbruck, Austria Handmade, Cultural Center of the Philippines Fusionera, Thompson Giroux Gallery, Chatham, New York, USA Studio 300 Digital Art and Music Festival 2015, Kentucky, USA Alay Sining 8: Save Hearts with Art, Manila, Philippines En Masse, Thompson Giroux Gallery, Chatham, New York, USA The Roving Eye: Southeast Asian Contemporary Art, ARTER Space, Istanbul, Republic of Turkey Mother Load, MET Open, Metropolitan Museum Manila, Republic of the Philippines Fractured Focus, Koussevitzky Art Gallery Massachusetts, United States of America Relative Realities, Yuchengco Museum Makati City, Republic of the Philippines ‘Terms & Conditions Simultan Festival #10, Arthouse, Timisoara, Romania Dornier, Royal Armed Forces Museum, London, UK Yesterday Once More, Erehwon Art Space Quezon City, Republic of the Philippines Pra Biennale – JOGJA International Mini Print Festival Jakarta, Republic of Indonesia VII Tashkent Biennale of Contemporary Art: Different Cultures-One World Republic of Uzbekistan Grounded, Lopez Museum Republic of the Philippines Nuit Blanche, Paris, French Republic Inside OUT, Atlantic Center for the Arts Florida, United States of America Hugot, Sining Makiling Gallery

Solo 2012 Solo 2011

Calamba Laguna, Republic of the Philippines Masterpieces: Asian Digital Art, Ayala Museum Makati City, Republic of the Philippines Untuned, CCAMS Gallery, Philippine Womens University-Manila Manila City, Republic of the Philippines Six Pack Abs, Ricco Renzo Gallery Makati City, Republic of the Philippines Pagtitipon, De La Salle University-Manila Manila City, Republic of the Philippines Ricochet, Nova Gallery-Manila, Makati City, Republic of the Philippines 2nd Izmir International Biennal, Republic of Turkey The Story of the Creative, See Exhibition Space New York, United States of America DomestiCITY, J Gallery, Manila City, Republic of the Philippines Where is the here if the here is in there? Dublin, Republic Ireland Earth Body Mind, 2nd Kathmandu International Arts Festival Katmandu, Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal In Wonderland, Künstlerdorf Schöppingen,Germany M1 Singapore Fringe Festival 2012 Singapore City, Republic of Singapore Beautiful Life: Memory and Nostalgia, Pier-2 Art Center Kaohsiung, Taiwan, People’s Republic of China Connecting the Dots, Arnica Gallery Kamloops BC, Canada Human Frames La Cinémathèque Française, Paris, French Republic Wits School of Arts, Johannesburg, South Africa École des Beaux-Arts, Paris, French Republic Werkstatt der Kulturen, Berlin, Federal Republic of Germany Nowheresville, General Hardware Contemporary Toronto, Canada Nothing to Declare, Yuchengco Museum Makati City, Republic of the Philippines Beautiful Life: Memory and Nostalgia, South Hill Park Bracknel, United Kingdom Not Festival, New York, United States of America Human Frames, KIT Kunst-im-Tunnel Düsseldorf, Federal Republic of Germany Human Frames, The Sub station Theatre Singapore City, Republic of Singapore

JOSEPHINE TURALBA

2010 2009 2008 Solo Solo 2007 Solo

12th International Cairo Biennale, Cairo, Egypt Re-Dress, Tam-Awan Arts Festival Baguio City, Republic of the Philippines Constructing Secrets, Thoughts & Memories: Aspects of Postmodern Practice National Commission for Culture & Arts Gallery, Manila City, Republic of the Philippines The World Next Door, Malta Contemporary Art Center, Republic of Malta Uncommon Sense (trauma, interrupted, too) Cultural Center of the Philippines, Manila City, Republic of the Philippines Tutok SONA Edukasyon, Manila Contemporary Manila City, Republic of the Philippines Tutok Krisis: Kalunasan Anong K Mo?, Blanc Art Space Manila City, Republic of the Philippines 08.08.08 Britania Art Projects Quezon City, Republic of the Philippines Open Season, Cultural Center of the Philippines Manila City, Republic of the Philippines Hidden Tales, Ricco Renzo Gallery Makati City, Republic of the Philippines Trajectories, Wooloo Productions, Chelsea Gallery Space New York, United States of America Corredor Gallery, CFA, University of the Philippines Quezon City, Republic of the Philippines Exploits on the Dining Table, Power Plant Mall Makati City, Republic of the Philippines

40 2003 Solo 2002 1995 Solo 1992 Solo 1990

Batanes Through the Lens, Intramuros Manila City, Republic of the Philippines Our Environment Today, Exportbank Plaza Makati City, Republic of the Philippines Living Tales, Berenguer-Topacio Gallery Manila City, Republic of the Philippines Josephine Turalba Paintings, Lopez Museum Pasig City, Republic of the Philippines Oil, Water and Clay, Galleries of Fine Arts Quezon City, Republic of the Philippines

GRANTS AND AWARDS 2015 2014 2013 2012 2011 2008 2005 2003

Cultural Center of the Philippines, Visual Arts Venue Grant National Commission for Culture and the Arts, Philippines Travel Grant to Venice, Italy Turkiye Artist Residency Grant, Sapanca, Turkey Vermont Studio Center, Artist Residency Grant, USA Atlantic Center for the Arts, Artist Residency Grant, Florida, USA 9th International Art Camp Grant, Cappadocia, Turkey Art Omi International Artist Residency Grant, New York, USA Stiftung KĂźnstlerdorf SchĂśppingen Visual Artist Residency Grant, Germany National Commission for Culture and the Arts, Philippines Travel Grant Cultural Center of the Philippines, Visual Arts Venue Grant Tahitian Pearl Trophy Asia 2005, G.I.E. Perles de Tahiti Tahitian Pearl Trophy Asia 2003, G.I.E. Perles de Tahiti

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Galleria Duemila was established in 1975 by Italian born Silvana Ancellotti-Diaz. Duemila means “twentieth century”, and it was this vision that inspired Duemila’s advocacy in promoting and preserving Philippine contemporary art. To date, it is the longest running commercial art gallery in the Philippines maintaining a strong international profile. With the vision to expose its artists locally and within the ASEAN region, Duemila complements its exhibits with performances, readings, and musical events in its custom-built gallery in Pasay City, Manila. Galleria Duemila takes pride in being the only local gallery to publish and mount retrospectives of artists as part of its advocacy in pursuing art historical research and scholarship. With the collaboration of institutions, Duemila has mounted the retrospectives of Roberto M.A. Robles (Ateneo Art Gallery, 2011), Duddley Diaz (Vargas Museum, 2009), Julie Lluch Dalena (Cultural Center of the Philippines, 2008). It has also published a book on Diosdado Magno Lorenzo (National Library of the Philippines, 2009), produced a major Pacita Abad exhibition at the Cultural Center of the Philippines, 2004, Impy Pilapil, New Life, A Public Sculpture Exhibition (Greenbelt Park, 2015-2016) and Roberto M.A. Robles, Here Is How The Transition Into The Mambo Beat Looks Like (Yuchengco Museum) 2016. The gallery maintains close ties with museums throughout Asia, Australia, Europe, and the United States. Its futurist vision keeps it at the cutting-edge of Philippine art, making and archiving history as it happens. Services: Conservation and Restoration of Paintings Consultancy Services Commissions and Installation

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