Pilipinas Street Plan

Neo-Urban Plan report - Green Papaya Art Projects WOP Residency

Neo-Urban Plan | Mark Salvatus

January – February 2009

The projects that I did during my two-month W.O.P. residency at Green Papaya revolved around urbanism and urban culture. I was very ambitious when I proposed three projects—Neo-Urban Planner; Connecting Urban Spaces; and Street Art Locator Map. I am very happy with the outcome as I had virtually realized my dreams of being an urban planner and architect.

Neo-Urban Planner was an online project wherein I created a blog and called for ideas on how to improve or change our cities. The open call was an interactive dialogue between the city and its dwellers.

The project was to become a platform to present the people’s creative ideas for change in their cities and eventually present these ideas to city administrators, local government officials, or the MMDA. The online project sparked interest from different sectors—receiving “plans” from individuals and organizations of different backgrounds, thus creating a new breed of urban planners. Some plans received were from writer Lisa Chikiamco, media artist Diego Maranan, and illustrator Joan Medrano, among others.

From this online project, I also received invitations to facilitate workshops at the Museo Pamabata in Manila on mapping and clay city planning with the Children’s Advocates program, and an informal invitation from the Calapan City administration in Mindoro to make their city as a “laboratory” for the Neo-Urban Plan.

Urban Culture

Aside from the received suggestions from the online call, I also invited individuals and organizations who are dealing with our urban environment as their subject of interest and how they see our cities in different perspectives and to present their projects on the weekly W.O.P. gig. From talks, exhibitions and screenings, these presentations were very insightful, spontaneous, fun, and very engaging.

January 7, 2009 was the first presentation of Neo-Urban Planners and I invited photographer Gem Urdaneta to present her Flickr photos of our neglected city and become a guessing game in the end and it was really fun; media artist and radio hacker Jong Pairez’s presented his Postal Box project – an intervention of stickers in postal boxes and mapping as an immigrant in Tokyo, and Buen Calubayan’s sound installation of Manila’s chaotic streets was set up in the second floor of the gallery. It was packed with an eager audience; they interacted earnestly with the presenters and asked questions that ranged from light-hearted queries to more serious ones.

The next presentation (January 21, 2009) was very spontaneous and was not meticulously planned—but it was a hit! After coming back from Kuala Lumpur, I asked award-winning photographer Veejay Villafranca to show his Marked project—a series of photographs of gangs of Baseco, a shipping compound which is now one of the poorest neighborhoods in Manila. His black and white photographs show the underground culture of gangs and its daily muddle of poetry and malady in the dystopian paradise of Baseco.

We also had an instant talk show on stencil-making by graffiti artist Vermonyo of Pilipinas Street Plan—explaining his process of making large format stencils. A deck art exhibition and conversation on skating culture in the Philippines by Datu of 27+20, visual artist Ferdz Valencia and Okto of Pilipinas Street Plan was the funniest and most engaging part of the evening—they discussed the brief history of the culture of skating from the 80’s up to the present and how the movement merged with fashion, design, art, and sport.

And to cap off the night, I screened BCBruta’s video on their “bombing” of Barcelona. BCBruta is a group of street artists in Spain who are changing the colors of their city with manchas and pinturas.

The following week saw a multimedia exhibition that I curated, which brought together artists from Manila, Bangkok, and Madrid. The exhibition’s main theme was urban environment.

Visual artist Wesley Valenzuela made a huge poster of his graphic images that morphed layers of human figures with other familiar elements of the streets of Manila—jeepneys, stars, dogs, and guns, among others. Madrid-based cross-disciplinary artist Kristoffer Ardena showed his project Talking Walls (2006), a series of graffiti photos in Madrid. As a Filipino living in Spain, he collected these “texts-as-images” or “images-as-texts” that was both familiar and foreign—because these images can similarly be found in walls in Quiapo or Sta. Cruz or Madrid.

There were two video screenings that night; the first is from Filipino multi-media artist Mannet Villariba—Idolatry, a performance video he presented at the NIPAF in the streets of Shinjuku in Tokyo, Japan. The second screening was supposed to be of visual artist and music video director Jay Pacena, but did not get a copy of his video on time. Instead, I presented Silencio, a short film by Thai filmmaker Sivaroj Kongsaku. The film was shown at the 12th Thai Short Film and Video Festival in Bangkok last year. Andrea Teran’s Monthly Period Readings also graced the evening.

I was very excited that the subsequent weeks of presentations became very diverse—and even the audience became very diverse—people came in from the NGO sectors, and there were students and unfamiliar faces who are not members of the usual artsy crowd.

Upon Donna Miranda’s suggestion to look for the YP Design Challenge—we were lucky to talk to TAO-PILIPINAS, a women-led NGO of professionals in architecture and urban planning that gives technical assistance to urban poor communities. They presented their different projects and one of these is the YP Design Challenge—a competition open to all architecture students in Metro Manila to design sustainable houses, playgrounds, and other spaces for urban dwellers. Aside from the presentation, the Design Challenge winners brought their winning designs and had an instant exhibition of their plans together with the scale models. These designs are just models or suggestions for institutions like National Housing Authority (NHA) or Bahay Kalinga to consider sustainable designs—which are not only low-cost and environment-friendly, but also have a high aesthetic value. Another interesting presentation was from the Philippine FreeRunners, a group of parkour/free running practitioners shared their jumps and glides that made our cityscapes as their big playground. It was also funny that these architects and free runners have the same tastes regarding the different contours and forms of the urban landscape.

Connecting Urban Spaces

I curated a multimedia exhibition that started as a “virtual office” where we investigated, discussed, and developed multi-disciplinary works about cityscapes and urban environments to produce a physical space show. In line with the idea of connecting and researching these urban spaces with a nomadic perspective that the artist is working with, the artists documented their environments using digital technology such as photography, video, and sound for four months.

The project was a collaborative effort among artist-run organizations: web-based group Wooloo.org from Germany, Emmay Thomas Gallery in Brazil and Green Papaya Art Projects in the Philippines.

Participating artists are: Adriano Casanova (Brazil/UK), Rafael Suriani (Brazil/France), Nick Buer (UK), Aline Vondder Assen (Germany), Samantha Orui (Brazil), Marcus Bastos (Brazil), Mark Salvatus (Philippines), Claudio Bueno (Brazil), Denise Agassi (Brazil), Nacho Duran (Brazil), Agustina Barthes (Argentina), Daniel Medina (Venezuela), Juan Estanislao Ortiz (Argentina), Noemie Benezeth (France), Sebastian Bravo (Chile), and Monica Meireles (Mexico).

The last presentation (February 25, 2009) was a quick run-down of what happened during the six weeks of presentations. I also met, for the first time, the ANA people who supported this project; they were in Manila for the peer panel meeting at Green Papaya.

The Neo-Urban Plan is by far the most unique and ambitious process-based project that I have done. Even if the W.O.P. program is over, the online project still continues. Many opportunities are opening up because of this project; the most recent is an invitation for a dialogue with the former Mayor of Bogota, Colombia, who will be visiting Manila this May. The meeting is organized and supported by the Ayala Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation.

Bibliography / Press

De la Paz, Gino. Draft Punk. Manila: Supreme, Philippine Star, January 2009

Mahino, September. City by Design. Manila, Garage Magazine, February 2009

Razon, Lila Anne. Urban Plan, Mark Salvatus urges everyone to rethink and reimagine the city. Manila, Stella Magazine, February 2009

Links:

http://neourbanplanner.blogspot.com/

http://connectingurbanspaces.blogspot.com/

http://www.iu.dsnc.art.br/

http://pilipinastreetplan.blogspot.com/

http://www.tao-pilipinas.org/

Neo-Urban Plan Submission

submission by Clarisa Chikiamco - Pink urinals into real public toilet in bus stops

Neo-Urban Plan Project update: Invitatition- Dialog with the former Mayor of Bogota, Columbia

I didn't expect that my Neo-Urban Plan Project will be this serious... I was invited to have a dialogue with the former Mayor of Bogota, Mr. Enrique Penalosa about urban planning.

Neo-Urban Plan: Clay City + Parola Compound

Clay City
workshop at Museo Pambata ng Maynila
Feb 28, 2009

These kids are from Parola Compound in Manila (Binondo side), "Looban" - a walled slum maze-like neighborhood.

First, I asked them to draw their community- mapping their neighborhood - drawing their houses and other structures like stores, bakery, internet shop, basketball court, barber shop, school, water well etc. and they explained their typical day in the community...



Since all of them live in Parola (except Xtian who is from Pandacan), I asked them to model thier ideal "Parola" using children's clay... and these kids has an amazing grand plan for their community...


*Planning their ideal city/community (construction site)



After doing the activity, the kids invited me to come with them in Parola... and it would be nice to see their actual neighborhood and suddenly I realized that I am already riding with them in a motorized pedicab flying along Roxas blvd! hehe. They toured me around the maze- amazing! hehe

It's a very unique experience - I remember hearing the Poverty Tourism of India and Brazil
But I went there not as a tourist but for my new friends.

These kids has a grand plan for their community and maybe we can realize their plan in the near future...




Their actual neigborhood in Parola Compound



*This is part of Mark Salvatus’ Neo-Urban Plan project that was developed during his 2-month residency at Green Papaya Art Projects and Diego Maranan’s suggestion (from the online call) to ask people to model their ideal version of the city using children's clay. The project is a collaboration with the Children's Advocacy Program of Museo Pambata

The Children's Advocacy Program or CAP is an alternative educational program that aims to help children understand and appreciate their roles in their families, schools, communities, and in society. It uses the child-to-child approach wherein children advocates serve as mentors who help inspire other disadvantaged Filipino children through outreach activities in schools and communities. Children advocates are chosen from various street children centers and disadvantaged communities and are exposed to workshops, field trips and film showings to enhance their awareness on identity, nation-building, rights and values formation. CAP is a venue for children to learn how to formulate ideas and speak their minds on issues affecting them.

http://neourbanplanner.blogspot.com/
http://www.museopambata.org/

Neo-Urban Plan: Clay City

*Selected street and urban poor children from Parola in Tondo.

This is part of Mark Salvatus’ Neo-Urban Plan project that was developed during his 2-month residency at Green Papaya Art Projects and Diego Maranan’s suggestion (from the online call) to ask people to model their ideal version of the city using children's clay. The project is a collaboration with the Children's Advocacy Program of Museo Pambata

The Children's Advocacy Program or CAP is an alternative educational program that aims to help children understand and appreciate their roles in their families, schools, communities, and in society. It uses the child-to-child approach wherein children advocates serve as mentors who help inspire other disadvantaged Filipino children through outreach activities in schools and communities. Children advocates are chosen from various street children centers and disadvantaged communities and are exposed to workshops, field trips and film showings to enhance their awareness on identity, nation-building, rights and values formation. CAP is a venue for children to learn how to formulate ideas and speak their minds on issues affecting them.

*Please donate used or new children's clay for the said workshop, thank you. ;-)

http://www.museopambata.org/

Green City- Neo-Urban Plan submission

1) Have 80% of all exposed cement, concrete, or metal in the city
covered in a creeping plant of some sort, like ivy





2) Find or bioengineer great, big, tall, sturdy, flexible trees that
can withstand typhoons and have massive canopies and blanket the city
under interlocking canopies

3) Ban the use of concrete in certain areas or certain structures.
Only volcanic ash, wood, bamboo, recycled plastic, rubber, brick, mud,
straw, whatever is appropriate

4) Link all the equipment in manila's gyms to power-generating
mechanism so that everytime we go on the treadmill or lift weights, we
generate electricity that is stored somewhere and is used to power...
i don't know, a giant parol. street lights. traffic lights. a
mechanical art installation.

Or if not all manila's gyms, then have a stationary bike,
power-generation center.

5) Go to communities and ask people to model their ideal version of
the city using children's clay. Then have their models realized in
exactly that way, complete with all the sinuous curves and
imperfections of the medium.

submitted by Diego Maranan