Art Con

It was in one of those plenary sessions where some international big shot “creative” in the advertising industry was speaking that my student and I decided to sneak out of the auditorium to join local artists mount outdoor installations at a public park in what was rather a hastily organized Art Congress that had for its theme the question: “Art ba o ad?”

It was alluding to the Philippine Advertising Congress, the much bigger event held in a more posh venue in the city that we were supposed to be attending as delegates representing the academe. The artists were putting up the Art Con to mock the Ad Con.

And unlike the gathering of executives in suit and ties whose discussions centered on how “creative” they could conduct their selling, the Art Con delegates who came to the public park looking more like hippies talked about how to avoid selling out or ending up being con artists in the dog-eats-dog world of the art market.

That night we skipped the Ad Con’s big party that had famous TV and movie stars drawing raffle tickets for prizes that included Rolex watches, cars, gadgets and trips abroad. Instead, we watched the Art Con’s event for the night: an adaptation of Nicolo Machiavelli’s “La Mandragola” held in an abandoned building in Session Road that the artists have converted into a makeshift theater.

It was our small act of subversion, jumping over the fence to join the “other” congress. But we ended up having the best of both worlds.

Today, as this column comes out, I should be in some beach in Mactan, joining the fellowship of artists in the culmination of “Primero Kongreso”, the three-day art congress for Central Visayas sponsored by the National Commission for Culture and the Arts.

Unlike in Baguio, this Art Con is not organized as a protest for some other big event running at the same time in the city. It is, therefore much better organized and better funded, with delegates fed well and given the usual convention kits and T-shirts.

Since it started in Friday, we have been attending talks about the dynamics of the art market and what it takes for the artists to—I hate the word—succeed. Speakers from Manila came to give practical tips to regional artists about how their work’s value may be “appreciated” for such things as publicity, reselling, and even the number of “likes’ you get when you post a picture of it on Facebook.

In other words, it’s all about how to increase the “perceived value” of your work in a market that sometimes gives more attention to factors other than artistic merit. Thus, an inflated chromed cartoon balloon bought in one of those stores selling Chinese-made products may become an expensive piece of fine art if it was already auctioned in places like Sotheby or Christie’s. Never mind if it’s a shameless redo of Jeff Koons.

Artists from the regions who have not even been acquainted with how Manila-based commercial galleries operate, are surprised to find that beyond the glossy catalogs that feature their work, posters, the press releases, and rounds of red wine at the opening cocktails, they had to share at least half the sales with  the one who runs the “stable”.

But in order for you to land in some stable and get branded, you have to do a little “self-promotion”, brush elbows with the right people at the right places, and go out of your usual timid way to be seen. You need to learn the tricks of enhancing your marketability or improve your “brand”.

In other words, it’s all about positioning or—I hate the word—advertising. And we go back to the same question posed by those artists in Baguio: “Art ba o ad?”