Community Pantry-Inspired Art Installation Wins Big in Prague
It's by student artists from the College of Saint Benilde.
(SPOT.ph) While the COVID-19 pandemic saw humanity's darkest times, it also brought out the best in us. This was especially seen when a bamboo cart filled with free food for the benefit was set up by Ana Patricia Non along Maginhawa Street in April 2021. While the concept of food banks is not entirely new, the Maginhawa Community Pantry inspired many Filipinos to do the same. Fast forward to two years later, it was also the inspiration for a student exhibit at the 15th Prague Quadrennial of Performance Space and Design held from June 8 to 18.
What to know about the community pantry-inspired art installation:
'Magbigay ayon sa kakayahan, kumuha batay sa pangangailangan’/ ‘Give what you can, take what you need' is the sole and official exhibition entry of the Philippines for the two-week international design festival. Student artists from the College of Saint Benilde set up their own version of a community pantry on the streets of Prague. It allowed festival-goers to look at the Filipinos' experience of a food bank, most notably the sachets of soup and shampoo (reflective of our tingi-tingi economy), huge and multi-colored umbrellas, and fruit baskets.
For this experiential rendition, the student artists from the College of Saint Benilde's School of Arts, Culture, and Performance, received the Intercultural Exchange in the Student Exhibition. In the citation by Prague Quadrennial (PQ), they said: "This exhibition skillfully brings people together in a joyful intercultural exchange of “knowledge” and “gestures of care” and reminds us of the importance of holding space for one another in a world that’s in desperate need for compassion."
'Magbigay ayon sa kakayahan, kumuha batay sa pangangailangan’/ ‘Give what you can, take what you need' was curated by Ellawyn Cruz and Alain Zedrick Camiling.
The prestigious Golden Triga, given at every edition of PQ to one selected installation, was awarded to Cyprus for their exhibit Spectators in a Ghost City. It reflects the abandoned city of Famagusta, which was fenced off for 46 years due to the Turkish military invasion.