Norberto S. Roldan
Shri Vishayas Project
Philippines · Cultural Management
The Shri Vishayas Project: Intersections of Indigenous, Rural, and Contemporary Cultures is a co-learning platform that supports indigenous peoples’ rights to ancestral domain, self-governance, social justice, and cultural identity.
Shri Vishayas aims to provide artists with opportunities to engage with, be informed by, and recognize the importance of cultural work and solidarity with the under-recognized and gravely exploited Panay Bukidnon; the indigenous people of Panay island.
Norberto Roldan is cultural worker and multi-disciplinary artist. He founded Black Artists in Asia in 1986, a group with a socially and politically progressive practice. In 1990 he initiated VIVA EXCON (Visayas Islands Visual Arts Exhibition and Conference), the longest running biennale in the Philippines. He co-founded Green Papaya Art Projects in 2000 which remains to be the longest-running independent and multi-disciplinary platform in the country.
His practice is rooted in social and political issues. His installations, assemblages and paintings of found objects, text fragments and found images address issues surrounding everyday life, history and collective memory. His artistic process engages with ways in which material objects are re-appropriated in another context.