Arete Museum

I haven’t been to a museum for a long time. The last time we were was at Ilumina but too bad, I wasn’t able to blog about it yet. We were at Dessert Museum before that and it was 4 years ago. Wow.

One of the huge artworks inside Arete. We were allowed to take photos but not videos. This is an acrylic and collage on canvas which is on loan from the artists. 21 artists collaborated in this mural and the title is Saranggola ng Pag-asa ( these might be the kites that flew the day this artwork was made, a kite flying activity launched nationwide)

This time, we had time to visit Arete Museum, a museum of arts inside Ateneo University. The museum showcases a collection of arts donated by different artists, mostly I saw were from Fernando Zobel de Ayala, Ateneo alumni and other famous artists, not that I know most of them. I am not an art aficionado but I enjoy looking at artworks. Some I stare at for a couple of minutes, some I just enjoy the way they look, for their weirdness and most of the time, I think about the artists who made them and try to think of what they are thinking as they were doing those arts.

Hubby beside a glass and stone piece – gift of an ateneo alumnus – Ocean by Imelda Pilapil

A House on Fire – by Julie Lluch , a relative of hubby – terracota and acrylic – this piece is really amazing, you can actually see so many details all around the sculpture – starting with that person on the uppermost right portion, screaming for help as the house is on fire

Judas Kiss – sculpture made from adobe – gift of Teodoro Katigbak

Bintana ni Momoy – oil, textire and sawali collage on canva, gift from Imelda Cajipe-Endaya

Favali at iba pang Biktima – oil on canvas, gift by Anna Fer

Man Thinking – collection of Ambeth R. Ocampo – with hubby

Terrible landscapes series by Lena Cobangbang – if you will look at these works, they look like landscapes but they are not, they are scraps (food, dirt etc) photographed in a way they look like landscapes

This is a big screen showing a video of boy/man in the middle of the ocean – it’s quite creepy looking at this looping video with the room quite dark with the boy staring back right at me

One of the rooms contain this mirror and tv with looping video similar to the ring, and the mirror looks like also in a horror film – I did not look in here

Some more weird looking but interesting sculptures

a giant cockroach holding a beer, knife and spoon?

this seems to be a depiction of pollution killing our Earth

Going to a museum is more of relaxation for me. I just think of how lucky and grateful I am that I am in this state that I am able to enjoy looking at art works who artists spent so much time to work on and display in the museum. Plus I always go with someone, this time with my husband. It’s a bonding moment for us, and we chat/whisper while we look on each work of art.

Arete is actually not only a museum. There are also performance and event halls inside that students and the public can rent. For a small fee (we paid I think P50.00 each), anyone even non-Ateneo students can enter the museum. You can check their website at https://arete.ateneo.edu/.

How about you, what’s the most recent museum have you visited since the pandemic ceased?