Monday, February 12, 2007
Winning landmarks
By Id Acaylar
LET alone its touristic value, art competition in whatever form or style is always developmental, more so if it is interactive and would demand an exercise in group dynamics and team building. Such was the major characteristic of the many artistic competitions I created.
For similar reason, I became very interested when a multinational, Unilever, caught the idea and sponsored a national competition for beautiful landmarks during Christmas.
Last year, we participated. I asked the prolific visual artist, Davao's pride, Kublai Millan to do it pro bono and with a meager budget for incidental expenses for which I requested the Kadayawan Foundation to fund.
It must have been good because I learned that one of the judges, the internationally famous glass sculptor, Ramon Orlina strongly argued during the judges' deliberation for the artistic merits of what Kublai did. Not quite fortunate, our entry got only a silver award.
This year, not being a participant to any entry, I joined the team that evaluated the entries in Mindanao. Since then I eagerly awaited the results of judging with my fingers crossed for Mindanao's entries to win even only as a finalist and thus be included in Unilever's 2007 calendar.
The results were announced in a ceremony held at the Manila Hotel on January 30. It was after a long and tedious process of documentation and decision making process according to Ed and Marissa Dames of Creative Enterprises Management Group, Lady's Choice Activation Partner that ran the competition.
From the 129 entries nationwide, 32 were selected as regional finalists. These included the cities of General Santos, Tagum, Digos and Tangub and the municipality of Naawan, Misamis Oriental.
These were further trimmed down to 14 national finalists from which the top three winners were declared.
The entry of Morong, Rizal was unanimously chosen as the Grand Prize winner by a panel of five respectable judges representing various sectors of Philippine society. First-runner up was San Jacinto, Pangasinan and second runner-up was Laoag City.
From Mindanao, only General Santos, Tangub and Naawan made it to the finals. The other finalists were Marikina City; Luna, Apayao; Aparri, Cagayan; San Jose City, Nueva Ecija; Goa, Camarines Sur; Sara, Iloilo; Sta. Barbara, Iloilo and Abuyog, Leyte.
Judging art competitions especially of massive and expansive creations like landmarks could not have been easy. All entries are deemed beautiful especially from the eyes and hearts of their creators. I can therefore understand that at the end of many competitions some participants gripe and feel disgustful.
But from my experience, I discovered that entries with more novel concept and design, most creative use of unlikely materials, finer craftsmanship in execution and in the case of landmarks, a coherent, forceful and prominent symbolic representation would prevail.
And judges, no matter how knowledgeable and objective they are, have a mind of their own and a learned set of reference that make them still highly subjective in their interpretation of criteria and in making their judgment.
So, to those who were not so successful in artistic competitions, better luck next time. After all, art is an endless pursuit for that which is perfect and beautiful.
For more Philippine news, visit Sun.Star Pampanga. For Bisaya stories from Davao. Click here. (February 12, 2007 issue)
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