Filipino artist makes waves at Cairo Biennale

MANILA, Philippines –  Josephine Llamas Turalba was the only Filipino artist invited to exhibit at the recent 12th Cairo Biennale, joining 78 other artists from 45 countries including the US, Canada, Japan, Mexico, Italy, France, and England.

Her work, consisting of five pieces, was entitled “Ecdysis” and made from more than 20,000 spent bullets of calibers 45, 49, 38, 9mm, 22, 5.56, 308 and shotgun shells. The pieces were exhibited in the main hall of the Palace of Arts and garnered high praise from Ehab El-Labban, the Biennale’s Commissionaire-General. The Biennale was opened by Egyptian Minister of Culture Farouk Hosni.

The 12th Cairo Biennale hosts a selection of practices from four corners of the world. Artists and art collectives responded to our concept ‘The Diversity of All and Everything’ with cutting edge projects that explore the concept and deliver propositions that are both exquisite and personal. We aimed to – and we think we managed to – create a fabric that transcends geography and ideology, inviting projects that succeed in interacting with the global audience, while sometimes maintaining cultural specificities,” said El-Labban.

“Ecdysis is my continuous process of research on the nature of identity, the constant experimentation in life leading to an eventual discovery of the self,” said the artist. These bullet armor sculptures speak of the process of dying and being reborn, psychologically and metaphorical, losing and reconstituting oneself, recreation out of and from destruction.

“I am honored to have been invited to the 12th Cairo Biennale and given the opportunity to share my work with the world,” Turalba said.

Her works were not without controversy, however, since they were withheld by the Egyptian government and had to get clearances from several agencies, including the Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Defense, and even the Cairo Bomb Squad.