Heterot(r)opic Affairs: The Philippines at The Venice Biennale

Countries from Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe, Latin America, and the Middle East have increasingly become more visible at the Venice Biennale, showcasing avant-garde art and co-existing with the national pavilions of the more established countries of Western Europe and North America. The Philippines’ first official participation in The 32nd International Art Exhibition of the Venice Biennale in 1964 was a moment of pride and predicament. Amid the ill-developed culture in art history and artistic practice and the lack of government financial support, corruption occurred through the closed process adopted by the artist selection committee and the reciprocity of personal favors dispensed by the implementing body, the Art Association of the Philippines. The official return of the Philippines after a 51-year hiatus, hence, warranted a democratic, collaborative, and international process. This sign of progress, particularly because of an unprecedented government funding, however, became the very opportunity to profit from a systemic culture of corruption. Drawing inspiration from the concept of heterotopia understood here as a real space of crises where utopia—the myth of civilization and the project of progress—is simultaneously represented, negotiated, and/or subverted, as well as primarily sources through my professional experience as the Project Manager and Curator appointed by the Department of Foreign Affairs for the Philippine Pavilion intended for 2015, this paper examines how the Philippines’ participation in the Venice Biennale as an international form of cultural development and diplomacy sustained government corruption, engendering a national, legal, and moral crisis in the Philippines, a tropical heterotopia.