Third Zone by Boboy Yonzon
Third Zone

MONUMENTABLE MOMENTS

Aug 2, 2021, 12:40 AM
Boboy Yonzon

Boboy Yonzon

Columnist

IN these heady times over the gold win of Hidilyn Diaz, the Zamboanga government has announced that it will be erecting a monument of the Olympian.

I hope it is able to capture that glorious moment when the SONA eclipser broke into a smile and tears as she hoisted the record-breaker 127 kilograms.

Just as Chicago froze Michael Jordan flying like a god for a dunk on United Center.

Konting bato, konting semento, monumento. Un momento, ito ba’y totoo?

WHAT FOR?

A monument is something that we build to honor a person, an event, and even a concept or an ideal – expressed through an edifice, a pillar, an obelisk, an arch, a temple or a statue.

Monuments are cultural indicators of who we are as people. They tell the world what events we hold dear, what part of our history or heritage we value and celebrate, or who in our race we pay homage to.

They are real, tangible, tactile creations that we could go around and even go through to remind and give us dignity and pride over spikes in human graphs.

The Eiffel Tower of Paris commemorates the French revolution while that of the Statue of Liberty celebrates America’s independence and, later, freedom in the world.

There’s Peace and Harmony monument in Liverpool to honor John Lennon. Or the Taj Mahal built by an emperor of India as a mausoleum for his wife.

RIZAL AND BONIFACIO

In the Philippines, Monumento is where the masterpiece of sculptor and National Artist Guillermo Tolentino stands. It shows Andres Bonifacio, handsome and defiant, leading other martyrs in his ill-fated quest for freedom against colonizer Spain.

A counterpoint to that in the Luneta is the monument of Jose Rizal, the pacifist (some say a non-believer) in the Philippine Revolution.

Statues of his likeness were decreed built all over the archipelago by the American regime. That is why you see him in town plazas.

The Rizal statues are to serve as the rallying point for patriotism and reforms.

“Death comes to all, but great achievements build a monument which shall endure until the sun grows cold,’ enthused Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Aside from encountering rebultos of Pepe elevated as a saint in Rizalista enclaves in Quezon and Laguna, I have witnessed the statue of Jose Rizal in Dumaguete City being prayed to. He continues to raise religious fervor.

MANILA’S PRIDE

In Manila, the Bonifacio monument ordered built by Mayor Alfredo Lim on Mehan Garden was rescued from crap and being turned into scrap by Mayor Isko Domagaso.

Erected across Manila’s city hall, this paean to the peon Andoy was done by Ed Castrillo, the guy who had a scorching grand entrance into the art scene in the late 60s.

The Bonifacio montage diverges from the artist’s usual bare brass pieces and, instead, uses happy revolutionary colors.

An elegant version of Bonifacio, also by Tolentino, stands on Plaza Lawton where this writer, in his college days, joined protests with his girlfriend and considered these as dates.

Probably not to be outdone when he took over Manila, Mayor “Bulaklak” Atienza had statues of former Mayor Arsenio Lacson, political martyrs Ninoy Aquino and Evelio Javier Roxas on Baywalk.

FALSE HEROES

These were sculpted by Julie Lluch of Iligan City who has the uncanny ability to capture the aura of the personalities in her obras.

Lacson and company are now witnessing the atrocity of an artificial beach that says so much of the wasteful monuments that the present leadership has engendered.

Mayor Lim also had statues of actors Fernando Poe and Dolphy in Manila, purportedly for their contributions as outstanding Manileños in the nation’s cultural development.

I do not know what process Manila uses for choosing who or what monuments to build.

My favorites among Castillo’s pieces in Manila are those of Rajah Sulaiman in Malate and of Mayor Lacson in Quiapo.

DYING BREED?

These are dynamic and inspiring. Amidst the hustle and bustle of Carriedo, “Arsenic” seems to stride across the sweating throng to ably lead the city from muck.

The Philippines has very few sculptors. Of those, even a slimmer number of outstanding ones.

Among them are Impy Pilapil, Junyee, Abdulamri Imao and son Sajid, Agnes Arellano, Daniel dela Cruz, Seb Chua, the Cacnio brothers Ferdie and Mike, and collectors’ darling Ramon Orlina.

Still, although suffused with enormous talent, none has yet turned out a definitive work that could approximate the impact of what Tolentino’s Bonifacio monument achieves - simultaneously commemorating as it does, a hero, a cause, an event, a place and an ideal.

None, except perhaps Junyee. This is for his stark and powerful, prize-winning monument marking the Holocaust. But that stands in Israel and away from the experience of everyday Filpino.

WHEN WE LOOK UP WITH PRIDE

Art schools are no longer shaping sculptors like they used to. The University of the Philippines College of Fine Arts which has produced Tolentino, the iconic Billy Abueva, Anastacio Caedo, and Imao, has now only one or two students majoring in sculpture.

It takes more than konting bato and konting semento to build a monument. The devil wrenches the soul of a sculptor for the artist to come up with a monumental work.

But how much do the people pay attention to monuments? Do they look at them with reverence or reflection? Or, as one thinker has said: as the clasps of generations?

Perhaps as we attain prosperity, we would have the bigger capacity to look at our history and circumstances with monumental pride.

And we would welcome more glorious reminders to dot our landscape, so that they may egg our amnesiac race to greatness.


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