The First Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art

Roberto Villanueva was born in 1947 in Olongapo, Zambales, the Philippines. After graduating in 1973 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Santo Tomas he taught at the PhilippineWomen's University. He began his artistic career as a surrealist, butwas graduallydrawn into the filmmedium. In 1983 he became a member of the Board of Directors of the United Filmmakers Or­ ganization. He has won several awards in documentary film. When Roberto Villanueva moved to the northern highlands of Baguio in 1980 hewas inspired to create art built from the basic materials ofthe environment. His art acquired a shamanic aura, the source of its powerful energy drawn from ancient but continuing community symbols, rituals and traditions among the animist ethnic groups. He won critical recognition for Archetypes: Cordillera labyrinth set up on the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) grounds in the summer of 1989. Forty-five metres in diameter and 600 metres in length, the installationconsisted of a spiral labyrinthmade of bamboo and reeds. Itscentrewas coveredwith rocks from a river bed, creating a sacred space peopled with spirit figures fromwhichlife power emanates. THE PHILIPPINES ROBERTO VILLANUEVA Another installation was Atang ti Kararua (Soul offerings) consisting of three bamboo floatscarrying offerings on a lake for thesouls of those who perished in the big Baguio earthquake. The artist also conducted a ceremony with a shaman to pacify the spirit of Mount Pinatubo. Roberto Villanueva tries to restore the communal function of art and the primitive life force it originally possessed but which still survives in Cordillera mountain culture. He also seeks to recover and understand the animistic strain in the heart of Philippine culture. In 1990 he was invited to New York as Artist-in-Residence of the New York State Council of the Arts and in 1992 won the CCP ThirteenArtists Award. A recent work, Bridge across cultures, which the artist did in Saitama-ku, Japan, shows his preference for setting up water installations to symbolise migration routes linking different cultures. His work acquires an anthropological aspect, calling to mind the celebrated sea voyage of the Kon-Tiki across the Pacific. With his use of organic materials and natural locations, together with community 39 The dream weaver 1992 Installation Fukuoka Art Museum, Japan interaction, Roberto Villanueva creates an art that is integrated with the life of the people. Alice Guillermo