Davaoeño wins international muralfest
Alice G. Guillermo

THE latest Filipino achiever in the arts abroad is Bert Monterona, whose odyssey from Davao ended in Canada, where he won a prize for his mural Women for Peace and Environment at the International Festival and Symposium held in Winnipeg, Manitoba in Canada. The muralfest, held from July 3 to August 3 this year, was organized and sponsored by Graffiti Art Programming Inc. A juried international competition with 80 entries from Spain, Belgium, Chile, the Philippines, Australia, the United States and Canada, the jury chose five winners, unranked, of which Monterona was one of them.

Monterona, who comes from Davao, is at present the artist-in-residence of the Vancouver Film School in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. He has an extensive art practice, being an art educator in workshops, illustrator, painter, muralist, sculptor, installation artist and set designer for stage performances and TV shows. He has assiduously developed his art since earning his Bachelor’s Degree in Industrial Education (Major in Architectural Drafting Technology) in 1985. In 1987 he attended Photography and Sound Slide Production, Development Education Media Services in Davao.

He came to Manila when he was sent by the Makabayan Party of the Mindanao State University student council to attend the Philippine Educational Theater Association Summer Workshop, then handled by Fernando Modesto. Instead, he helped in doing streamers and portable murals for the Task Force Detainees. He made the acquaintance of fellow artists Papo de Asis and Edgar Fernandez, who were also engaged in making murals for mass actions, backdrops for theater performances and concerts, as well as for multicultural protest rallies and campaigns throughout martial law. He also joined the late de Asis in Tondo for his Katag workshops. He later held an exhibit at the Liongoren Gallery owned by his friends Norma and Fred Liongoren. In 1986 Edgar Fernandez and he held a workshop on social realist mural painting in Davao. Some of Monterona’s murals can be seen in several Davao establishments.

His winning painting in the muralfest in Canada, entitled Women for Peace and Environment, measures 25'x 30', in the medium inkjet on vinyl. A stunning work, it conveys his feminist theme effectively by means of vivid well-delineated figures in bright colors. On the left side are faces of women suffering from oppression and surrounded by ravaged and barren lands littered with skeletons. At the center, they reach out to women all over the world in their struggle that takes on a global dimension. On the right, they revive the earth by replanting trees and watch over the rivers to save them from pollution.

The theme of the work is particularly relevant to our times. Women, who have been traditionally marginalized and oppressed, but are now empowered, assume their responsibility over the environment and the health of society. As victims of war, they work for peace, which is, however, a principled peace—one which is born out of struggle and not of capitulation for material gain. The cause for protecting the ecology is not just a simple task but is becoming more and more urgent because of the intensifying global warming which can only have disastrous consequences. If government bureaucrats have not responded adequately to this problem, as Bush has rejected the Kyoto Protocol, then active working women may still save the planet.

Of his winning mural, Monterona has this to say: “Peace and environment issues are everybody’s concern. When there is peace, there is unity and understanding among communities in diverse cultures, faith, race and color. This work of art makes a call for all women and men of good will to take responsibility for sustaining life, environmental protection and prevent war and build a culture of peace.”
Another mural painted this year is Vision and Hope for Justice and Peace. Here, a beautiful brown face is sleeping peacefully. The vision which enchants his soul is signified by the tightly coiled spiral on his forehead, a mystical and indigenous Asian symbol. It is a vision of justice and peace that calls to him and enjoins him to pursue it in struggle. In his sleep, soft blue clouds of traditional Asian design hover over his head to signify another dimension or reality. Engrossed in this vision, his head sprouts forth with new plants in the golden sunlight, a sign of new life in the offing.

The mural Hulagway, or Reality Check Counters Dream, alluding to conditions in Mindanao, is one of Monterona’s most visually appealing murals. Rather than employing a receding perspective, the painting occupies a shallow space in the conflict between two camps. On the left behind a large face with an expression of protest are women riding in the air, like angels bearing horns of warning. Facing them are corresponding guns and weapons challenging them in confrontation, while a wounded dove makes its way to the ground. Meanwhile, in between the women appear gatherings of progressive forces, peasants, workers, professionals and nuns in solidarity against the common enemy.

Still another mural is Philippine Tribal Struggle, which uses motifs and cultural artifacts to convey the depressed condition of the tribes. A large face with morning and evening eyes serves as the arena for the struggle, which has many forms, for freedom and for livelihood. People in various activities swarm over the face and the two heads in conversation below. In the space above, the artist uses a vivid mosaic-like treatment. There is an element of the surreal in this mural, as well as a distinct overlay of the larger Asian, particularly the Indian, with figures in swarming multitudes and the use of symbolic motifs. Indeed, as one writer says, his art reflects the ritualistic character of his rich indigenous roots. At the same time, however, his artistic discourse, while drawing from his origins, is also brought to the level of the contemporary with its conflicts and contradictions and the challenges that it holds for the tribes and the people in general.

Referring to his art, Monterona has an explanatory note: “My art subjects do not attempt to portray the symmetry and balance of human forms. Sometimes, the subjects appear distorted. But here lies my message: Life, as we experience it, is one of travail and struggle which may distort the human spirit and ordinary people who, in their innocence, are vulnerable to the intricacies of life. My works are strongly influenced by social, cultural, religious, spiritual and political norms.”

It is most praiseworthy that Monterona has taken as subject for his winning mural the issues, national and tribal, as articulated within the specific Philippine social, economic and political context, and that he pursues his mural painting along this line. Foreign art lovers may be enamored with the tribal and “exotic” aspect of his work and may wish to limit his discourse to a purely indigenous aesthetic, leaving out the political. But with Monterona’s mural orientation, he will not abandon his original path because his art was forged in social struggle.