This year’s 10th edition of AsiaNOW reaffirms its commitment to showcasing voices from across Asia and offering a platform for pushing boundaries on the European stage.
Words Pio Angelo Ocampo
For its milestone anniversary, AsiaNOW’s 2024 program at La Monnaie de Paris reflects dialogues on cultural identity, history, and community engagement—dialogues championed by Filipino artists like Roberto Feleo and Eisa Jocson. Their works—presented by The Drawing Room and The Columns Gallery respectively—engage in a profound dialogue around myth, ritual, and labor. By channeling cultural narratives and transformative performances, Feleo and Jocson illustrate what art historian Patrick Flores describes as the “polytropic” nature of Filipino artistry: adaptability that merges the spiritual, historical, and social to expand cultural identity beyond traditional boundaries.
In The Drawing Room’s booth at the Salon sur Seine, Feleo’s installations invoke Philippine mythology as a “polytropic” terrain, drawing viewers into a universe where life, death, and the afterlife are inseparably connected.
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