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AUTHOR, curator, and art critic Cid Reyes has turned over cassette tapes of conversations with late renowned Filipino visual artists to the National Museum of the Philippines. As part of a museum project, the contents of the tapes are now available on YouTube.
The one-on-one interviews, some from 50 years ago, include conversations with National Artists Victorio Edades, Vicente Manansala, Hernando R. Ocampo, Napoleon Abueva, Arturo Luz, Jose Joya, and Ang Kiukok. Other renowned artists on the tapes are Anita Magsaysay-Ho, Mauro “Malang” Santos, Nena Saguil, Juvenal Sanso, and Pacita Abad.
“Lost Conversations,” an event held on March 7 at the National Museum of Fine Arts, formalized the turnover of the materials. It also marked the launch of ArticulatePH, a YouTube channel dedicated to the preservation of the oral history of Filipino visual art, where some of the digitized interviews have been uploaded for public access.
Mr. Reyes, who previously used many of these tapes as source material for his book Conversations on Philippine Art, published in 1989, told the press at the launch that documentation is just as important as the works themselves.
“I have always expressed my disappointment in having missed conversing with Fernando Amorsolo and Botong Francisco. I was able to talk to Professor Edades and that was really the start of this compilation,” he said.
He also explained that digitizing the interviews and putting them on social media through ArticulatePH is vital, as it is “the instrument for communication, for connecting, where there are interactions and contact with the global.”
“Even though we have what you call written history, written by historians after the fact, oral history which is history being lived at every moment, is history, as we say, straight from the artist’s mouth,” Mr. Reyes explained.
At the sidelines of the launch of “Lost Conversations,” the National Museum’s deputy director-general for museums Jorell Legaspi told BusinessWorld how meticulous the turnover process of the physical cassettes will be.
“It’s important for us to have a sit-down with Cid Reyes because, of course, he was a custodian of these tapes for such a long time. For us to continue that work is a very big responsibility because this is such a treasure trove of information,” Mr. Legaspi said.
He added that the tape’s previous storage conditions will inform the “short-term interventions” that the museum will have to do, under their dedicated conservation lab.
In attendance at the launch were officials from the Museum Foundation of the Philippines and heirs of some of the artists whose voices are on the tapes, such as Khristina Manansala and Diwa Abueva. The two granddaughters of National Artists, who are now artists themselves, praised the ongoing “efforts in preserving history for the future generations.”
The event also coincided with Mr. Edades’ 40th death anniversary. With this, Mr. Reyes shared an anecdote of going to Davao where Mr. Edades had retired in the 1970s.
“I was sent by my advertising agency to Davao. It was my opportunity. I looked for Professor Edades, not knowing where he lived. I asked a tricycle driver if he knew and, by some miracle, that driver changed the history of Philippine art and said yes!” Mr. Reyes said.
Their conversation that evening lasted six hours, from 6 p.m. until midnight, then Mr. Edades invited him to come back the next day. “So I came back and brought four cassette tapes. That started it all.”
As for the goal of having the recordings uploaded on ArticulatePH, Mr. Reyes said, “I want young artists to realize the real tradition that has been handed down to them. The value of oral history cannot be underestimated.”
The compilation of “Lost Conversations” is now available via https://www.youtube.com/@articulateph. — Brontë H. Lacsamana
