In early 2021 Asia Art Archive launched two new research collections: Green Papaya Art Projects Archive and Manila Artist-Run Spaces Archive. These archives document the development of Manila’s contemporary art communities beginning in the mid-1980s, when artists took it upon themselves to create platforms that would support experimental work. This brief introduction to these collections by AAA researcher Chương-Đài Võ, was followed by a conversation with Norberto “Peewee” Roldan, co-founder of Green Papaya Art Projects, and Ringo Bunoan, co-founder of Big Sky Mind, one of the six organizations featured in the Manila Artist-Run Spaces Archive.

Chương-Đài Võ is a Researcher at Asia Art Archive in Hong Kong, where she supervises projects on contemporary art in Southeast Asia. Her recent publications can be found in Afterall, Sismographie des luttes from Institut national d’histoire de l’art, and Southern Constellations from MG+MSUM. She will curate an exhibition about Green Papaya Art Projects at the Vargas Museum in 2022.

Ringo Bunoan is an artist, writer, researcher, and curator based in Metro Manila, Philippines. A recipient of the 2003 Thirteen Artist award from the Cultural Center of the Philippines, her works have been shown widely in museums and galleries in the Philippines, Asia, and the United States. Bunoan is a founder of the alternative art space Big Sky Mind (1999-2005); King Kong Art Projects Unlimited, a non-profit organization that supports and initiates projects on pioneering Filipino conceptual artist Roberto Chabet (2010-present); and artbooks.ph, an independent bookstore focusing on Philippine art, history and culture (2014-present). From 2007 to 2013, she worked at Asia Art Archive in Hong Kong as Researcher for the Philippines and initiated work on the archives of Roberto Chabet and several artist-run spaces in Manila.

Norberto “Peewee” Roldan is a multi-media artist and curator, and currently the artistic director of Green Papaya Art Projects, a multi-disciplinary platform founded in 2000. He has worked at the forefront of cultural artistic practice in the Philippines, having founded the seminal artists group Black Artists in Asia in 1986 (a Philippines-based group focused on socially and politically progressive practice), and initiated the longest-running, artist-led biennale in the Visayas called VIVA EXCON. Norberto Roldan’s work offers commentary on the social, political, and cultural conditions of the Philippines. The artist works with found objects, such as old photos and magazine clippings. His materials are drawn from everyday life, and deal with contemporary issues informed by history and collective memory.

This program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council.