National Gallery Singapore

In an exhibit that aims to present art as witness to life, and society's ills and conflicts, two Filipino artists tapped into Rizal’s work to re-define 19th century political resistance for the 2017 Venice Art Biennale. This year, the works of Lani Maesto and Manuel Ocampo, dubbed as The Spectre of Comparison, and curated by Joselina Cruz, will be mounted at the Arsenale, one of the event's main exhibition spaces. The Spectre of Comparisons was drawn from the phrase El demonio de las comparaciones of Jose Rizal’s Noli Me Tangere, a book that reflected the Filipino society under the Spanish regime. “The phrase encapsulates the experience of Rizal’s protagonist, Crisostomo Ibarra, when he gazes out at the botanical gardens of Manila and simultaneously sees the gardens of Europe,” Cruz said in a statement.