Present Encounters : Papers from the conference of the Second Asia-Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art, Brisbane, 1996

musings is popu lar cu lture as it impinges on the creation of what Chantal Mouffe calls rad ical democracy (Mouffe 1 988) which would extend the democratic revolution to wider and deeper equ ivalences with new forms of oppression and struggle; and Jameson's cognitive mapping of an aesthetic of the total ity which would hopefully imbricate 'an embattled struggle of a group' with 'a figu re for an entire systemic transformation . ' (Jameson 1 988, 260) Justiniani's invocation of colonial memory through the Jeepney may, however, fall into the trap of capitalism's desire to include 'symbolic traditional goods in its massive ci rcuits of communication i n order to reach the popular sectors least i ntegrated into modernity . ' (Canclini 1 993, 434) Memory must not only, therefore, not forget, but also remember: that is to say, make new and d ifferent the destiny of collective mental ity. This is probably what Jameson means when he claims that the Jeepney 'blasts apart the sterile opposition between the old and the new, the traditional and the Western , and allows its former components themselves to be cannibalised and conceptually resoldered . ' (Jameson 1 992, 21 0) But what bears watching is how the Jeepney locks horns with the constraints of, for instance, colour­ coding, banning, and other regulatory measures like uniform for 'macho' drivers as wel l as the power of the militant and politicised sector of Jeepney organisations to stage strikes during oil price h i kes and para lyse parts of the city. How far can the Jeepney pursue its ideology and practice of resisting the globalising market? And how far can Justin i ani appropriate it as artistic representation and repackage social and political values through the signage of the veh icle? Mu rakami's bel ief that post-structu ralism and post-modern ism can actually be deployed as tactics in repealing the primacy of technology and reordering it along progressive political interests homes i n on the theory of critique as a possi bility even outside the auspices of modern ity. The latter has come under vigorous attack for its imperialising schemes in laying the groundwork for a nationalist discourse which has repressed the finer humanities constituting people , forces, and solidarities, but nonetheless is being celebrated as telos and trajectory of the h istorica l identity of, for instance, the Philippi ne centennial of the 1 896 Revolution. The rhetori c inscri bed in popular cultu re, metaphor, and change heralds potential resistance to a malfunctioning Third World and a heightened state of g lobal capitalism. Inasmuch as there seems to be nothing outside capital, we must, even grudgingly, refunction it and hold on to the thought that not everything is mediated by money and that local human agency - if it must be at all critical, reconstructive , and resistive of all forms of mystification - is finally constituted i n the act of contestation. The works of Mu rakami and Justiniani spin the promise and the paradox that the logic of structure does not always a l ready contain agency. The question we must pose is: I n the domains of an equally globalising art world, what logic does this kind of art contain, and what contains this logic? • Nestor Garcia Canclini, ' Memory and I n novation in the Theory of Art', in South Atlantic Quarterly, Summer, 1 993. • Jonathan Crary, 'Critical Reflection', in Artforum, February, 1 994. • Max Horkheimer and Theodor W. Adorno, Dialectic of Enlightenment, (Trans. John Cumming), Allen Lane, New York, 1 944. • Fredric Jameson, The Geopolitical Aesthetic: Cinema and Space in the World System, I ndiana University Press, Bloomington, 1 992. • Cary Nelson and Lawrence Grossberg, (eds), Cognitive Mapping. Marxism and the Interpretation of Culture, MacMillan, Houndmills, 1 988. • Chantal Mouffle, 'Hegemony and New Political Subjects: Towards a New Concept of Democracy', Marxism and the Interpretation of Culture, (ed. ) Cary Nelson and Lawrence Grossberg, MacM i l lan, Houndmills, 1 988. • Emmanuel Torres, Jeepney, GCF Books, Manila, 1 977. 1 32