1993 APT1 Conference : Identity, tradition and change

PHILIPPINE ART AND CONTEMPORARY ISSUES by Alice G. Guillermo From the conference's them e of "Contemporary A rt and Cultural Identity", we are once more invited to confron t the perennial and commonly shared issues of "cultural identity" and "nationalism" in re la tion to contemporary a rt. Such a p ro jec t naturally s itua tes a r t within its social and h istorical coordinates and within the play of ideological forces on the national and regional arenas. Nationalism is indeed a knotty concept; however, a way out can be seen from its viper's nest of contradictions. In the con tex t of the Philippine experience and on a more general level, nationalism can be viewed in itse lf as an open and free-floa ting ideological elem en t with a core con ten t which is mainly "love of country". But it becomes, in specific socio-historical contexts, a rticu la ted into d ifferen t, even contradictory , ideological discourses, as the political sc ien tis t Ernesto Laclau theorized. In these discourses, its meaning becomes formed by the articu la rting principle of class in te re st, group or sec to ra l in terests, or th a t opf a frac tion of a class. Its meaning is also shaped by the o ther elements occupying the same discursive space. For instance, in conservative discourses, nationalism may be articu la ted with au thoritarian ism and m ilitarism , while in revolutionary discourses, it is a rticu la ted with an ti-imperialism and a radical populism. In the Philippines in the 19th century, nationalism was p a rt of the refo rm ist discourse of the Propaganda Movement of the landed and le tte red e lite whose p ro jec t it was to demonstrate th a t the Filipinos had the ir own na tive cu ltu re before the coming of the Spaniards and th a t Filipino a rtis ts could be on p a rt with European a r tis ts— which is what Juan Luna's winning the F irst Gold Medal in the 1884 Madrid Exposition felicitously demonstrated. This success added fuel to the local economic e lite 's campaign for political power, within a re fo rm ist colonial agenda or a gradualist s tra tegy in which the Philippines would be slowly and painlessly weaned from what they called the Mother Country. For more than two decades now, covering the Marcos regime to the post-Marcos era, nationalism has been a rticu la ted into the conservative ideological discourse, as well as into the radical discourse for change. In the Marcos discourse of Isang Bansa Isang Diwa (One Nation, One Spirit/Mind), his brand of nationalism sought to unify the people, to ce leb ra te the cu ltura l heritage, under the figure of a Strong Man as a symbol of national unity. This s tra tegy served to gloss over the acu te social contradictions, the large gap dividing the classes and to allay the people with myths and narra tives of past and fu tu re glories. Such has continued in the post-Marcos era which, while dispensing with the ex travagan t trimmings of the conjugal dictatorship , has continued its c lie n t- s ta te re la tions with foreign in terests as they secure the local economy, politics, and cu ltu re within the hegemony of the dominant world powers. On the o ther hand, the rad ical po ten tia l of nationalism is fully drawn out in the people's a lte rna tive discourse in which it shares the same discursive space as an ti­ imperialism and a radical populism which advances the in te rests of the broad majority, including the suppressed and exploited masses.