ILOMOCA highlights works from 44 women artists to commemorate the signing of Magna Carta of Women

A woman’s place in the system was rigidly built on assumptions that being a wife was all they were bound for. There were revolutionary attempts to turn this discrimination upside down, including the legalization of Filipino women’s suffrage in 1937 during the time of war, but a comprehensive law encompassing women’s and the marginalized sectors’ rights in the state was only signed in 2009. This was known as the Magna Carta of Women (RA 9170). The powerful introduction has set a lot of movements since then, thus the significant push for women empowerment in all platforms, especially in the arts.

In celebration of the law’s 11th anniversary, the Iloilo Museum of Contemporary Art (ILOMOCA) in Megaworld’s Iloilo Business Park focuses on Filipina artists' contribution to the national art landscape through an online exhibit called “7.23%.” Eponymous to the percentage of works by 44 women artists comprising the ILOMOCA’s collection, curator Marika Constantino aims to shed light on women’s representation and imbalance coexisting in art and cultural institutions.

The concept also makes aware of the gap between females and their status in the workplace, the overbearing machismo that causes domestic, sexual, and gender-based violence, and all the other inequalities women are facing in their day-to-day.

The disproportion is a resistance, a call to address these issues, and a way to overcome the ratio through art persuasion.

“I wholeheartedly support the need to push for and support more programs to encourage and embolden women artists and women in general. This project hopes to generate the right discussion and address the inequality,” says Ilonggo art collector and ILOMOCA art patron Edwin Valencia, who featured his artworks for the show.

For Megaworld, hosting an online exhibit is a way to bring its art platforms and museums to more people, including the international community, over the course of the pandemic. “The digital realm has allowed us to engage more people real-time while still promoting the safety of everyone,” says Tefel Pesigan-Valentino, Megaworld Lifestyle Malls’ vice president and head of marketing and business development. “More important, this also helps us promote art as an interactive platform for ideas that supports and celebrates women’s role in the art community.”

The exhibit is available for viewing through ILOMOCA’s Facebook page until Oct. 19.

Located at Casa Emperador in Iloilo Business Park, ILOMOCA is the first art institution in Visayas and Mindanao exclusively dedicated to showcasing the works of mostly Filipino and Ilonggo artists within the realm of modern and contemporary art. For more information on the latest happenings in ILOMOCA, visit ilomoca.org. or [email protected].