Laruan

Laruan

mixed media

1 x 1 x1'

Marius Black

2012

photo by Artists' Arrest

I once participated in the exhibit FACT SHEET # 6 it was organized by the group Artists' Arrest and was exhibited at the same time as the President's 3rd State of the Nation Address, July 23, 2012 along with other artists.

FACT SHEET # 6  Concept  

In its maiden exhibit notes, it declared that “under this situation, “fact sheets” pile up, reaching a point where complaint desks become literally and figuratively too small to contain them. Its increasing volume starts to demand interpretations beyond legalistic jargons.”  Fact Sheet thus attempted to render a human face to and a nuanced depiction of the information and statistics that, for the purposes of the courts, are stated in an impersonal manner so that the escalating problem of human rights would enter public discourse.   

 In 2008, Artists' Arrest curated the exhibit Fact Sheet which featured artworks inspired and based on documents called “fact sheets” prepared by paralegal and human rights workers in the course of documenting and campaigning against human rights violations. Based on different fact sheets given to them, the artist is asked to interpret the legal language of the reports using their own.  The successful run of the exhibit in 2008 led to four more exhibitions in the years that followed. As in the original, these exhibitions featured artworks that lay bare the state of human rights in the country. The succeeding exhibits were also held in time for the commemoration of International Human Rights Day on December 10. All in all, the Fact Sheet art project was able to solicit 154 artworks from both established and budding visual artists.This initiative came as a response to the escalating number of human rights violations committed by state agents of the Arroyo administration.  

But the end of the Arroyo government did not, in any way, indicate an end to the atrocities. This aggression against militant leaders and critics of the government has persisted under the administration of Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino III with his counter insurgency program Oplan Bayanihan. Barely four months into his presidency, there were already 20 victims of Extra Judicial Killings-- a proof that Aquino’s administration is out to continue Arroyo’s legacy of state terror and political repression. One year of his presidency, there were 76 totals of extrajudicial killings, 9 enforced disappearances and 62 cases of tortures. Until now, there is a total of 354 political prisoners, of which 45 of them were arrested under the Aquino Administration. There are 15,862 reported threats, harassments and intimidation by the military and 2,074 reports of restriction or violent dispersal on mass action and public assembly. (Statistics as of July 2010-March 31, 2012: KARAPATAN, March 2012). 

All text beside intro are from Artists' Arrest Fact Sheet # 6