Estan Cabigas

This year's Chobi Mela V opens on 30th January in Dhaka with the theme FREEDOM

After much huffing and puffing, huffing and puffing and it was all for naught as funding failed to materialize for my trip to Dhaka in Bangladesh for the opening as well as workshops in this month’s Chobi Mela V where my work Coping with a Desaparecido was invited for exhibition. Yep, I won’t be able to make it. Only my work will be there.

Time is also running out. My awaited payment hasn’t yet arrived. I wrote foundations, a Partylist Congressman who was a comrade of my subject’s family, senators and the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) but it was nada.

Reasons varied:

• it’s not part of our foundation’s thrust
• the governement didn’t release funds for opposition senators
• sorry, we don’t have funds for these kind of requests
• it’s still up for review and will be deliberated upon. we’ll just inform you about the feedback
• no feedback at all

I was revved up in preparing related documents and sample images of the work and paying a big amount for printing and I was just excited that the ten solicitations would be enough. Well, I was just naive. However, it was also a hard learning experience for me. Something that I will remember in the years to come.

Well, some other time, I guess.

Tags: chobi mela V, exhibits