As part of this year’s Museums and Galleries Month, Fringe Manila, in partnership with the Japan Foundation Manila, recently launched 1SA (supposedly acronym for solo artist), which, according to a press preview at Pineapple Lab in Makati, is a “platform” to celebrate solo artists and present them in a “more dynamic way” to local communities.
1SA creative director Andrei Nikolai Pamintuan explained that Solo Arts Platform seeks to enable artists to convey the realities they are confronting through their chosen medium of artistic expression.
“Through this project, we are working to push for the increased visibility of emerging artists, new genres and evolving traditions in contemporary arts,” Pamintuan said.
For its maiden year, 1SA’s week-long festival will feature artists such as Takao Kawaguchi, Mark Valino, Skyzx Labastilla, Daniel Darwin, EA Torrado, Gabbi Campomanes, Gabe Mercado and Herminio Tan Jr.
The festival starts tomorrow, Oct. 20, at Pineapple Lab on Palma Street, Poblacion, Makati, with an exhibit of Herminio Tan Jr.’s “Mitolohiya 2018,” depicting mythological creatures in the form of wearable sculpture. It is a glimpse into an alternate reality where beings from local mythology coexist and share in the woes of the modern-day Filipino, said the artist’s notes.
In “Moments of Movement,” Filipino-Canadian director and cinematographer Mark Valino captures the collaborative power of dance, music and cinema in a freestyle video series.
Gabbi Campomanes invites people to an unauthorized and completely fictional account of a debauched evening as she “shares” the stage with a top figure of musical theater in “My Night with Lea.”
1SA continues on Oct. 23 at the Power Mac Center Spotlight with a performance by Takao Kawaguchi. “About Kazuo Ohno” caused controversy within the Tokyo dance community when Kawaguchi literally copied the dance of the butoh master who was the inspiration for the piece.
The following night, Daniel Darwin attempts a sustained spinning of 75 minutes in “Dance Until You Shatter Yourself.” The endurance piece explores the fragility of the identity through a series of poems, songs, and immersive projections as Darwin commits to a continuous whirling akin to those done by the whirling dervishes of Sufism.
Tickets are available at TicketWorld tel. 8919999; ticketworld.com.ph. Visit fringemanila.com; follow @FringeMNL on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
