Mark Salvatus
MANILA, Philippines – What would an artist who’s proven especially proficient in site-specific work do in an environment as trade-driven as an art fair? “Actually, I asked them [if I could do something for the fair],” Mark Salvatus confesses, chuckling. “I was playing with this idea and I think Art Fair is the best venue for the concept.”
Mark Salvatus has long made a name for himself on the strength of his site-specific interventions and clever utilization of materials. After taking detours in teaching (in the University of Santo Tomas) and broadcast design (junior graphic designer in ABS-CBN), he began his career as a practicing artist in 2007 and quickly established himself as a talent to be reckoned with. In 2010, he won the Ateneo Art Award. By 2012, he received a Thirteen Artists Award from the Cultural Center of the Philippines and a Sovereign-Schoeni Art Prize in Hong Kong. In the same year, he co-founded 98B Collaboratory, an artist-run initiative that encourages multi-disciplinary collaboration through events, projects, and even residencies.
For Art Fair Philippines 2016, Salvatus invites his audience to take part in Structural Downpour, a sponsor’s project in collaboration with Globe Platinum. He’s providing pencils and tables for his audience to participate and trace whatever coins they have, with the etchings eventually pinned on a wall at the fair. “It deals with trade,” he explains. “It talks about money and the connection of money to different people.”
The working title for the project was “Constellation”—because the etchings arranged in a certain way resemble stars, but also because he believes those coins connect us to the world. “I’m asking random people to trace their coins, kung ano meron sila in their pockets that time,” he says. ‘Yung mga coins na yun are connected to coins from all over the world… Sabi nila 16,000 people pumunta [sa Art Fair] last year, galing sa iba’t ibang lugar.
“Of course, Art Fair, kung pupunta ka diyan, alam mong art makikita mo… On another layer, it’s really about economy or the trade of money. But for the viewers [of the works] who aren’t collectors or buyers, what is the trade?” he asks. “I see Art Fair as a place of trade, not only of money but also trade of ideas, concepts.”
