BS1 UnTuned exhibition at PWU

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippine Women’s University School of Fine Arts and Design and the independent platform Back to Square 1 (BS1) bring together Patrick Astilla, Francis Amora, Pips Brown, Nelson Caliguia, Noel Cuizon, Jason Mitchel, Eric Pakingan, Jet Pascua, Alwin Reamillo, Flash Tangalin, Josephine Turalba and Eric Zamuco in UnTuned, an exhibition curated by BS1 artistic director Claro Ramirez at the PWU Gallery, Taft campus, Manila tomorrow, Nov. 22. UnTuned draws upon performance in the use of the body and sound to recall memories — cultural, collective and personal; to examine nuances of how heritage and culture can be experienced in a new media landscape. In invoking the ‘cry’ as first breath or originating utterance, this Back to Square 1 project attempts to dually evoke the tropes of misery and hope, drawing from the experience of frustration or surrender, specifically as one of its initial triggers was the planned discarding of three rundown pianos taking up room at the PWU School of Music. As metaphor for the displaced and about to be junked, this project takes off from the history of PWU, its dual beginning as School of Music and Fine Arts and the attendant tensions, growing pains and haggling for significance.  The clunky pianos, their hulls marked by the presences and absences of missing keys and other pieces, taunt with both voids and crevices of possibility. The exhibition will run until Feb. 28, 2014, while the Online exhibition content to mark Bonifacio Day/Araw ng Kapanganakan ni Bonifacio will go live on Nov. 30, 2013 via www.backtosquareone.com.