Expat Zine Publishers Make Their Mark in Japan
Jong Pairez is a six-year Tokyo resident who started making zines when he was an art student in the Philippines in 2002. “My drinking buddies and I planned to publish a monthly journal as an alternative to the arrogant art establishment,” he explained to Metropolis during the Mini Zinester Gathering, held in July at a cafe in Shinjuku. “Unfortunately, most of my friends were only serious about drinking and ranting about the Manila art scene, so I decided to do everything myself. The project eventually became a personal zine that I called Solublefish, from an essay by Surrealist author Andre Breton.” READ MORE
Featured Filmmaker: Jong Pairez
EngageMedia Interview
EngageMedia: What are the main issues you address in your video work?
Jong Pairez: My condition as a foreign migrant and part-time laborer in Japan has led me to question issues that affect me, namely, Migration, Identity, Displacement, Environment and Globalization. These are the basic elements that constitute my works. READ MORE
Video Taping a New World in the Shell of the Old
Anarchist Video at the Beginning of the 21st Century
Other video producers prefer the less ideological term “anti-authoritarian,” feeling that any “ism” could ultimately recuperate oppression and inequity. Jong Pairez, a video artist based in Manila, expresses a common sentiment. “What is important is to use anarchist ideas as a methodology, rather than to be used by anarchist ideas.” READ MORE
Video Taping a New World in the Shell of the Old
Anarchist Video at the Beginning of the 21st Century
Other video producers prefer the less ideological term “anti-authoritarian,” feeling that any “ism” could ultimately recuperate oppression and inequity. Jong Pairez, a video artist based in Manila, expresses a common sentiment. “What is important is to use anarchist ideas as a methodology, rather than to be used by anarchist ideas.” READ MORE
Feature Article on Love Motel
“I’ve noticed that most of the garbage in the toilet is napkins,” Jong says. “But if I see blood in the bed and no napkins in the toilet, it is obviously not as a result of a menstruation.” READ MORE
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OWN WRITINGS
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Displacement Series
An Exhibition Note
"Displacement requires dislocation of objects and space, which transforms the physicality of its geographical landscape. Only by having conscious awareness of its previous arrangement (of space and objects) that displacement is observed." READ MORE
What Does It Mean To Be Creative?
Art Talk Manuscript of Displacement Series Exhibition
"Precarious labor is just another term for systemic Exclusion in Modern Capitalist societies such as Japan. This is a necessary occurrence to further sustain a certain exercise of power that depends upon barrier, prison and dispossession. And if we compare this in the Philippines, this could be translated as extra-judicial killings and forced disappearances of activists- a terrible scenario for the Excluded inferior." READ MORE
Earth Defender Slain in Cold Blood
News Article for Manila Indymedia
Isabelo dela Pena a forest defender who is a key figure in derailing massive forest logging by big corporations in Southern Mindanao was shot dead by unidentified gunmen, a local newspaper said Wednesday. READ MORE
On Sagada 11: BrigadaElectronika Electronic Disturbance Group Strikes Again
News Article for Manila Indymedia
MANILA, Philippines (March 2006)-- The current ban on Public Assembly and Free Speech gave birth to online protest action- "electronic sit-in", introduced by local computer activists. READ MORE
Not Yours Neither Mine
Understanding Roberto Chabet
The emergence of particular specialization in skills since the early stages of Civilization has strengthened Division of Labour in present Capitalist society, from which it, “produces the miserable pseudo-games of non-participation” (SI Manifesto 1960) that dehumanises the dwellers of society. In this regard, avant-garde thinkers of Art and Culture (particularly the SI), demands “an art of dialogue, an art of interaction” where the human presence is being put forward rather than passively disregarded by spectacles. This is to continuously challenge old traditions brought by unilateral culture and art.
In Constantino Tejero’s article (PDI Life Section) featuring Roberto Chabet’s April 2005 exhibition. He claimed Chabet for being an avant-garde through his obvious practice of unilateral work- a piece of art that he may claim as his own, which it can be traced back from a long traditional practice since before the Helenic period and the present conservative idea of Copyright.
Roberto Chabet who is a well-known person in the mainstream Philippine art, believes in the preservation of specialised skill, he never really challenge the existing superstructure, but rather he said, “It doesn't bother me. It's the only way to do it. If I have an idea for a painting or sculpture, and I think that a professional craftsman can do it better than I can, then I'd let him do it.” (Cid Reyes)
Separating the artisan who manufactures the work and the person who conceptualises, whom the latter would basically own the by-product (the same as kings and emperors who owns their castle but never did lift a stone to build it), is nothing but a reproduction of passive consciousness that suppresses “immediate participation in a passionate abundance of life,” (Guy Debord).
What is so avant-garde about this?
WHO IS CHABET
In his words, Tejero at least gave us the ultimate reality behind the fictional name- Roberto Chabet a.k.a. Roberto Rodriguez. It can also be spelled as Authoritarianism. And the better way to know a person is to challenge his Authority to create a vast possibility of various strands of creativity: “a higher stage, everyone will become an artist, i.e.,inseparably a producer-consumer of total culture creation, which will help the rapid dissolution of the linear criteria of novelty.” (SI 1960).