Does the artist Mideo Cruz deserve to be crucified?

Freedom is never absolute, but in post-dictatorial Philippines where even art has become a commodity, and religious icons fair game, where does artist Mideo Cruz stand in the scheme of discourse?

People of the cloth and similarly concerned sectors seem to have won round one when the Cultural Center of the Philippines management decided to shut down, albeit temporarily as a form of truce, the ‘Kulo’ exhibit at the main gallery which featured works of 32 artists from the pontifical University of Santo Tomas, the better to let things simmer a bit after clearly boiling over.

Cruz’s ‘Poleteismo’ reaped the whirlwind of brickbats and criticism, wild nearly incoherent accusations of sacrilege, blasphemy, among other unprintables, so as to render the gallery goer, if reports are to be believed, aghast and shocked and awed by what could be the work of genius or deviltry.

But wait, isn’t Cruz’s section supposed to be part of a larger exhibit, and the dildo Christ just one of the symbols of polytheism, which in turn is one of 32 streams of Kulo, merely a minuscule detail magnified to possibly more than what it’s worth?

If CCP finds it prudent to discontinue the exhibit  again, temporarily  then that is its choice, as it’s also doubtful that the other 31 artists represented would agree to stay on if Cruz’s or any of the others’ works are pulled out. Artists are too few as to afford to abandon one of their own to the wolves.

So what do we have here, an imminent return to the true, the good, the beautiful? A pity because it is likely Mideo Cruz’s best work lies ahead of him, even as he has done equally memorable but less controversial work before, including about a year ago in Galleria Duemila that also featured polytheist symbology.

Perennial optimists Filipinos are, they can’t help but see the positive that came from this brouhaha: the opening of the doors of discourse, debate, thesis and antithesis, which real art anyway should encourage and foster, notwithstanding the occasional quicksand of emotional ferment.

Mideo Cruz should be given the right of his freedom of expression, even if the concept is not entirely original, multiplying the walls of barongbarongs across our blighted country. And the priests, senators, the rest of the kneeling throng should give us a break, they are perhaps upset with the mirrors of their own mediocrity, or is it hypocrisy.

Fear not the exhibit, rather the irrational response it has spawned, as most of the mob  including one congressman delivering a privilege speech without having seen the work  have frothed at the mouth without having gotten within spitting distance of CCP.