Mideo Cruz's Politeismo

“I wanted to provoke people into thinking. I titled my work ‘Politeismo’ which loosely translates into ‘many beliefs’ or ‘many deities.’ Throughout history, humanity has grown to create new gods and these are not always religious figures but concepts and objects. Some have taken to worshiping money; some see politicians as godsend. People create idols and these idols whether or not they’re deserving of idolatry or worship affect our lives and how we function and see the world,” -- Mideo Cruz


Everybody's angry with Mideo Cruz. And who the fuck is he anyway?

Here's the guy with his controversial work, "Politeismo."

This guy's the one who did the installation art, "Politeismo," which showcased different religious and pop culture icons "bastardized" to a certain level. In what level? There's that crucifix with a penis and there's that Jesus's image with a penis protruding from it. And you can just look at this picture...

Where's the penis? And where's Jesus?

And because of that penis-on-Jesus-face-and-crucifix, the religious and the Catholic Church is churning out words like "blasphemous" and "sacrilegious" like it's the 12th century.

His work suddenly aroused the debate whether the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) should take the installation art down or let it stay and whether should there be boundaries on freedom of expression and morality.

The artwork has long been removed and since then, I haven't heard anything anymore.

"Politeismo" was made ten years ago and was exhibited across the country (if not internationally) and nobody made so much noise about it. It's rather ironic that the creator was branded and tagged as immoral by his own countrymen.

Basically, I don't care whether the Church cries foul or if it was taken down by the CCP. But CCP should have left the fuckin' artwork alone in its place. If the Church felt hurt, then they should feel hurt, but they should not condemn the artist based on their interpretation of the work. They proclaim that they are Catholics and yet the way and speed in which they label the man as "immoral" and "evil" does not really show how a Christian must behave. I thought religion is supposed to make one civilized. If they really want Cruz to feel sorry for what they think is his "sin," then they could have tried a conciliatory approach and not pulling the big guns against him. They should not have pressured the CCP to put the artwork down (again, the soft State, hard Church drama) since it's CCP's mandate to showcase Filipino talents. With the warring approach that they did, they basically just inspired the artist to piss them off all the more in his next project.

As for those people who wonder what could have happened should Mideo Cruz "bastardized" Islamic icons, well, I have this to say: Sure, he'll be beheaded. But apparently, Islam forbids the use of icons or any religious images of anybody, be it Allah, Mohammed, or Jesus. So, there really is no point of analogy. It's only the Christian who like to use "representations" of their God.

Anyway, who dictates what is moral? When do we say that something is immoral? Could we believe these bishops who are as sinful as we are? I think not.

Even if Mideo Cruz intended to piss the Catholic Church off with his 10-year old work, still, it acquires a life of its own. And my interpretation of his work would be as good as the interpretation of those who are throwing tantrums. Apparently, these same people have taken the disrespectful route to tackle the artwork.

Bottomline. Respect.