THE Salon Series (#1) kicked off at Qube Gallery for a one-night performance last Jan. 7, featuring contemporary choreographer, dancer and performance artist Eisa Jocson, along with poet and essayist, Lawrence Ypil. The first Salon is a joint effort by Eisa Jocson and Stephanie Misa, hosted by Qube Gallery and curated by Stephanie Misa.
“We thought of the Salon Series as a type of event—borrowing from the tradition of the Salon, ala Gertrude Stein, or the spirit of Carlos Celdran’s Living Room events, but with a contemporary pop-up feel as we it did not have a set time or place, so it has a transient, as well as organic nature— it comes around when there is desire and opportunity,” shared curator Stephanie Misa.
Salon Series in its first edition features “Corponomy,” a performance by Eisa Jocson, and a special reading by Lawrence Ypil from his book “Experiment of the Tropics.”
Jocson is a contemporary choreographer and dancer from the Philippines, trained as a visual artist, with a background in ballet. She has been commissioned by and toured extensively in major contemporary festival with her solo triptych: “Death of the Pole Dancer” (2011), “Macho Dancer” (2013) and “Host” (2015). “Macho Dancer” won the prestigious Zurcher Kantonalbank Acknowledgement Prize at the Zurich Theater Spektakel in 2013. A recipient of the 2018 Cultural Centre of the Philippines 13 Artists Award, she won the Hugo Boss Asia Art Award 2019.
Ypil is a poet and essayist from Cebu. Winner of the inaugural Gaudy Boy Poetry Book Prize, he is the author of “The Experiment of the Tropics” and “The Highest Hiding Place.” His work examines the intersection of history, photography and desire. The recipient of many awards including the Palanca, the Academy of American Poets University Prize, and the Ani ng Dangal, he teaches creative writing at Yale-NUS College in Singapore.
“It made sense to launch the series with a piece by Eisa. We thought of Lawrence Ypil’s reading from ‘Experiment of the Tropics’ as a way to give Salon (#1) a sense of place, as Larry writes on Cebu, and from Cebu, with a clarity of voice that touches on a historical sentimentality but also moves beyond it. Eisa’s ‘Corponomy’ on the other hand was a visceral body of work, that brought in complex themes of Philippine Labor abroad through her own body. Between Larry’s words and Eisa’s gestures, we had the makings of the perfect first Salon.”
Qube Gallery is located in Crossroads, Banilad, Cebu City. (PR)