DAMASO READING ROOM

OPENING:
Friday, February 17, 2015, 4 pm

EXHIBITION DATA:
 February 17 to March 23, 2017

1335MABINI proudly presents Carlos Celdran in a solo exhibition titled “Damaso Reading Room” from February 17 – March 17, 2017. Celdran's most notable performative intervention took place on the 30th of September 2010, when he staged a protest against the Catholic Church inside the Manila Cathedral during an ecumenical service. Being an activist for HIV/AIDS awareness and reproductive health, Celdran dressed himself as the Philippine national hero Jose Rizal while carrying a placard with the inscription “DAMASO,” an expression of objection to the Church's involvement in politics and opposition to the Reproductive Health Bill. He was charged by the Catholic Bishops Conference f the Philippines with “offending religious feelings” - a criminal offense in the Philippines under the Revised Penal Code (Article 133) – and was convicted by the Manila Metropolitan Trial Court in 2013, which is currently under appeal in the Supreme Court since 2015. Carlos Celdran also received critical acclaim for his one-man show entitled “Livin' La Vida Imelda,” performed in an Off-Broadway theater in New York City in 2014. The show was a derivation from his tours that he had held in several locations of the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) complex, as the compound is one of the most controversial initiatives of the former First Lady Imelda Marcos during the presidential tenure of his husband and then-President Ferdinand Marcos. Another version of the performance was also recently held in the Southeast Asian Forum of Art Stage Singapore 2017.