The Mona Lisa Project - Cultural Center of the Philippines

Of all paintings in the world, nothing can surpass Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa. John Lichfield described it as the best known, the most visited, the most written about, the most sung, the most parodied work of art in the world. One can’t say he’s been to Louvre, if he never saw Mona Lisa. The painting was present on Palace of Versailles when the French Revolution broke out. It spent some time in Napoleon Bonaparte’s room. It’s loss painted a melancholic Paris, mourning until it was finally found. It took a poet and painter as primary suspects  of the theft; namely Guillaume Apolinaire and Pablo Picasso. Marcel Duchamp’s L.H.O.O.Q bequeathed it with bearded and titled Mona Lisa a horny woman.

And now its time for the Filipino artists to parody the most parodied art, and for everyone  to decipher Da Vinci’s code.

There have been ten paintings that captivated my interest. I have selected them as they fertiled my common imagination and dug deep an implication beyond eye-pleasing-aesthetics.

   

Ten.

Bembol Dela Cruz
Oil on Canvass
2011

Mona Lisa is a war time painting, overseeing revolutions and wars passing through through the West. Here she has a gas mask prepared for any threat that may alter her identity even to the least chemical strand . A woman threw a mug over her and a someone sprayed a red paint in the painting. But she still complacently smiles, unharmed.  She has a dynamite obedient to time. Mona Lisa is not eternity, she may last long but she shall come to an end, no matter what gas mask she has. And it is men who will destroy her from her dignified identity to the physical painting itself. After all it is men who created dynamite. 

Nine.

Iya Consorio
Ink Acrylic on Paper
2013

Mona Lisa is a streaming art, passively flowing through space occupying null minds. She fills ideas and memories to any one who sees her. Much like this painting, cannot be grasped easily. She fleets as an omnipotent thought intricately wielding concepts.

Eight.

Kaloy Sanchez
Acrylic
2013

Mona Lisa is widowed by humanity. She hides under a black cloth hoping to be consumed by darkness to be numb of humanity’s maleficence. She mourns for the evil of times – injustice, infamy and greed. She hears our cries, let us hear hers.

Seven.

Manok Ventura
Oil on Canvass
2013

Mona Lisa is a witness. She has witnessed time before anyone of us. Her innocence is our innocence. And in that eyes loom not only history but a tale of a woman of her times. She is gradually receding from humanity, don’t waste a moment with her.

Six.

Romeo Lee
Oil on Canvass
2011

Mona is a woman size. Our modern world dictates skinny girls to be mouth watering. What if Mona Lisa was fat, would the world treat her as she is a queen today?  She challenges women to eat, defying public opinion slavery. And for everyone to not to belittle the bulging sizes.

Five.

Marija Vicente
Oil on Wood
2013

Mona Lisa is decomposing between two opposing weathers. This painting opens a realistic wounded flesh of her. If we position ourselves in the middle of everything,nothing will happened to us. We are born rational being to think, therefore to choose. Between beauty and vile, good and evil – there should be a choice. If we abstain we are rotten like the portrayed woman. Dante Aligheri told us that the darkest place in hell are reserved for those who maintain their neutrality amid a moral crisis.

Four.

Luis Santos
Oil on Canvass
2013

Mona Lisa has no perfect emotion. She may have a perfect smile but her emotion lives as a question.  You cannot pin point what she feels. But one thing we can see is he defiance to the contemporary, may be going too far or too bad. She bears this time as a cross.

Three.

De Guia
2013

Mona Lisa is disturbing. The painting tries to convey a Da Vinci message. She becomes an artists’ colony - a sub-altern, forced to show her breast.

Two.

Tanya Villanueva
Digital Print
2013

Mona Lisa is a feasted lady. But unlike now, she has clothes to conceal her boldness. For centuries, we have her as an apple of the eye, now we have women who show what they can offer to lust. Men’s eyes are no longer into her beauty but into something aphrodisiac. The modern Mona Lisa moans rather than smile. The modern Mona Lisa wears her flesh with a strip of cloth.

ONE.

Arturo JR Sanchez
Collage on Mirror
2013

Mona Lisa mirror us. We see her shattered pieces in us. This art allows us to peek Mona Lisa’s vision – how does she see her visitors. It is something that diversifies itself for every spectator. For each who stands before her presence, sees a different version Mona Lisa with a very familiar figure reflected by the mirror. Who is the Mona Lisa in you?

More Delight

Allan Balisi
Oil on Canvass
2013

Bearded Ladies
Mixed Media
2013

Dave Lock
Oil on Canvas
2011

Dex Fernanadez
Acrylic Ink, Thread, Archival Print
2013

Epjey Pacheco
Pen and Ink Color Markers
2011

Froilan Calayag
Oil on Canvass
2011

Gail Vicente
Carbon Transfer Paper
2013

Jacob Lindo
Collage
2013

Jason Montinola
Oil on Canvass
2012

Jonathan Ching
Oil on Copper
2013

Mark Andy Garcia
Oil on Canvass
2011

Pete Jimenez
Steel
2013 

Pete Jimenez
Steel 
2013 

Ranelle Dial
Oil on Canvass
2011

Roberto Chabet
Digital Photo
2012

ARTISTS: Allan Balisi, Bearded Ladies, Lyle Buencamino, ZeanCabangis, Annie Cabigting, FroilanCalayag, Bjorn Calleja, Roberto Chabet, Jonathan Ching, IyaConsorio, Louie Cordero, Jigger Cruz, Don Dalmacio, Kawayan De Giua, BembolDela Cruz, Ranelle Dial, Dex Fernandez, Dina Gadia, Mark Andy Garcia, Nona Garcia, Sarah Geneblazo, Carlo Gernale, Edric Go, Raymond Halili, Troy Ignacio, NiloIlarde, Jon Jaylo, Pete Jimenez, Sam Kiyoumarsi, Romeo Lee, Jacob Lindo, Dave Lock, Luis Lorenzana, Jason Montinola, Jason Moss, RaffyNapay, Elaine Navas, Epjey Pacheco, LynyrdParas, Neil Pasilan, Raul Rodriguez, Arturo Sanchez Jr., Kaloy Sanchez, Carina Santos, Luis Santos, Stevesantos, Frederick Sausa, YasminSison, TatongRacheta Torres, Manok Ventura, Olan Ventura, Gail Vicente, Marija Vicente, Ryan Villamael, Tanya Villanueva, MM Yu, and Christopher Zamora.

PS. The lights are unfriendly my camera so please visit the exhibit in its last day.