CROSSOVER RESIDENCIES IN NEGROS ORIENTAL
The first iteration in 2014 was a cultural immersion aimed to establish inter-regional and international art linkages while developing a partnership model between local and international galleries and artists. Entitled ‘Salpung’, a Visayan word that means “to go over ”or
“cross over”, two exhibitions ran concurrently at the NCCA Gallery (Manila) and at Mariyah Gallery (Dumaguete, Negros Oriental).
It explored cross-cultural interaction as it welcomed foreign artists who exhibited alongside Filipino artists livign and working from differents cities. Ibrahim Ghazala (Egypt) was joined in Salpung’s Manila leg by Yveese Belen (London), Kitty Taniguchi (Dumaguete), Anthony Fermin (Bacolod), Jordan Mang-osan, Art Lozano, and Agang Maganda (Baguio), Farley del Rosario (Zambales), Tres Roman (Quezon), Felix Amoncio (Rizal), Wilfredo Offemaria, Jr. and Gonzalo Uy (Bulacan), Anton Balao, Jomike Tejido, Cathy Lasam, Janelle Tang, and Jojo Ballo (Manila).
Another Crossover event was held in Siquijor (2017) with an installation of wood retablos in a public space. The exhibition entitled “Via Crusis” featured talented local carvers. The brochure published by the NCCA Committee on Art Galleries was distributed to public schools in Si-it, Siaton.
ABOUT THE RESIDENCY
Crossover 2025 is an initiative of three agencies in Dumaguete City, Negros Oriental: MARIYAH GALLERY, an artist-run space, FOUNDATION UNIVERSITY-DEPARTMENT OF FINE ARTS (FU-DFA), a fine art school, and MUGNA GALLERY, an art gallery. They envision to support a thriving art community built on innovation and critical dialogue around diversity, heritage and identity in the context of local engagement, scholarly research, and transdisciplinary practices. Its mission is to explore avenues for artistic and cultural exchange as a medium for understanding the self and communities for societal change.
Residencies vary in length and nature based on how the artist(s) intend to immerse in the host community. International and local air fare, accommodation and an honorarium are included. An exhibition may be coordinated in advance. Workshops and outreach activities are coursed through the school. Artists have the opportunity to meet local artists and artisans while conducting activities most advantageous to their goals.
PROGRAM
CROSSING BETWEEN ISLANDS
Having met through Mariyah Gallery’s Kitty Taniguchi through past projects, what Tanja Djokic brings to the table is years of experience practicing art on a global level – having been part of international residencies, lectures, art colonies and many other art projects across the globe. Multiple roads starting in Serbia reach out, extend, and meet in Dumaguete, Negros Oriental as Crossover 2025 begins.
The influential French Martiniquais poet and philosopher, Edouard Glissant espoused a new interpretation of the concept of the archipelago, which he discussed in detail with Swiss curator Hans Ulrich Obrist. Glissant, having grown up in the Caribbean, observed the flow of people from island to island, bringing their culture and language. Through this continued flow and transit, new cultures were formed that were truly unique, but most of all, it united people, connecting everyone regardless of race or nationality. He envisioned the entire world as one archipelago and he dreamed of the same exchange and formation of new cultures happening on a global scale.
Djokic had an early awakening when it came to her life in art. Having been encouraged by her parents from a young age, she specifically found inspiration and a role model in her father — who aside from being a medical research scientist, is also a very active and profound artist. On a personal level, Djokic leans into her search for the meaning of life, listening to her inner voice, and self reflecting: a quest for fire. On the side she also values the rhythm and emotions of music, dance, theater and books.
She has naturally followed artistic and stylistic changes as the flow of life has guided her, but has always maintained the presence of color and expression. This is perceptible as evident of her style.
In her youth, Djokic constantly changed schools, and that movement shaped her adaptability and perspective, leading up to her time as a visiting artist in Bali, Indonesia which she considers the start of her global journey. She described her work as such: “My work lives in the realm of associative abstraction and color expression, where intuition guides the process. It is a process in which the structure of the image is built mainly by the direct action of filling in empty white spaces, which are increasingly tamed in further construction. Color, form, structure and gesture come through in expressive tidal waves, maybe even volcanic. During the process, it gets more and more organized, and through quiet contemplation, it becomes akin to a garden that I cultivate with color, form, and gesture. It is a place of reflection, a fabric woven from dreams and subconscious threads.” The most striking feature of her works would be the eye motif, either part of a figure or somewhat randomly yet sensibly placed. “To me, the eye symbolizes presence, an awakened attention that lingers within the artwork. It represents the pursuit of truth, the desire to perceive beyond the surface, to see clearly through illusion and ambiguity. The eye is both a witness and a seeker. It gives the painting a pulse, a consciousness. It watches, but also invites the viewer to be seen—to engage in a quiet, unspoken dialogue.” While Djokic’s art offers a lot to be seen, it also has a lot to say.
Believing in the role of the artist on a global level, Djokic knows that artists speak the same language regardless of where they came from, and that which makes them function as messengers of humanity, working towards a higher level of development and awareness. These actions reflect Glissant’s notions of that global archipelago, and having experienced art on a global scale, Djokic agrees that a new energy is formed with each new culture and country met and traveled to. Realizing that the world is much bigger than anyone can imagine, she knows that there is always something new to experience.
This Crossover experience is a meeting of cultures through the arts, a warp and weft that creates a unique woven fabric of experience for future generations to see. Djokic leaves a message for young artists: do not be afraid of struggle, stay endlessly curious, and know that art grows in those spaces where comfort ends and a true connection begins.
Francisco Jin Sung Lee
Yokohama, April 2025
Tanja Djokic – Serbia
Tanja Djokic graduated with a BFA in Painting from the Academy of Fine Arts, Belgrade, Serbia in 1997, and obtained an MFA in Painting from the Academy of Fine Arts, Priština in 2000. She has exhibited worldwide in numerous solo and group exhibitions, and in 2003-2004 was the visiting artist and government scholar of the Institute Seni Indonesia, Denpasar, Bali. A winner of international awards for painting and drawing, as well as a participant of international symposiums and festivals, Djokic works and lives as a freelance artist worldwide.
Art Associations
Selected Solo Exhibitions:
CROSSOVER RESIDENCIES IN NEGROS ORIENTAL
The first iteration in 2014 was a cultural immersion aimed to establish inter-regional and international art linkages while developing a partnership model between local and international galleries and artists. Entitled ‘Salpung’, a Visayan word that means “to go over ”or
“cross over”, two exhibitions ran concurrently at the NCCA Gallery (Manila) and at Mariyah Gallery (Dumaguete, Negros Oriental).
It explored cross-cultural interaction as it welcomed foreign artists who exhibited alongside Filipino artists livign and working from differents cities. Ibrahim Ghazala (Egypt) was joined in Salpung’s Manila leg by Yveese Belen (London), Kitty Taniguchi (Dumaguete), Anthony Fermin (Bacolod), Jordan Mang-osan, Art Lozano, and Agang Maganda (Baguio), Farley del Rosario (Zambales), Tres Roman (Quezon), Felix Amoncio (Rizal), Wilfredo Offemaria, Jr. and Gonzalo Uy (Bulacan), Anton Balao, Jomike Tejido, Cathy Lasam, Janelle Tang, and Jojo Ballo (Manila).
Another Crossover event was held in Siquijor (2017) with an installation of wood retablos in a public space. The exhibition entitled “Via Crusis” featured talented local carvers. The brochure published by the NCCA Committee on Art Galleries was distributed to public schools in Si-it, Siaton.
ABOUT THE RESIDENCY
Crossover 2025 is an initiative of three agencies in Dumaguete City, Negros Oriental: MARIYAH GALLERY, an artist-run space, FOUNDATION UNIVERSITY-DEPARTMENT OF FINE ARTS (FU-DFA), a fine art school, and MUGNA GALLERY, an art gallery. They envision to support a thriving art community built on innovation and critical dialogue around diversity, heritage and identity in the context of local engagement, scholarly research, and transdisciplinary practices. Its mission is to explore avenues for artistic and cultural exchange as a medium for understanding the self and communities for societal change.
Residencies vary in length and nature based on how the artist(s) intend to immerse in the host community. International and local air fare, accommodation and an honorarium are included. An exhibition may be coordinated in advance. Workshops and outreach activities are coursed through the school. Artists have the opportunity to meet local artists and artisans while conducting activities most advantageous to their goals.
PROGRAM
CROSSING BETWEEN ISLANDS
Having met through Mariyah Gallery’s Kitty Taniguchi through past projects, what Tanja Djokic brings to the table is years of experience practicing art on a global level – having been part of international residencies, lectures, art colonies and many other art projects across the globe. Multiple roads starting in Serbia reach out, extend, and meet in Dumaguete, Negros Oriental as Crossover 2025 begins.
The influential French Martiniquais poet and philosopher, Edouard Glissant espoused a new interpretation of the concept of the archipelago, which he discussed in detail with Swiss curator Hans Ulrich Obrist. Glissant, having grown up in the Caribbean, observed the flow of people from island to island, bringing their culture and language. Through this continued flow and transit, new cultures were formed that were truly unique, but most of all, it united people, connecting everyone regardless of race or nationality. He envisioned the entire world as one archipelago and he dreamed of the same exchange and formation of new cultures happening on a global scale.
Djokic had an early awakening when it came to her life in art. Having been encouraged by her parents from a young age, she specifically found inspiration and a role model in her father — who aside from being a medical research scientist, is also a very active and profound artist. On a personal level, Djokic leans into her search for the meaning of life, listening to her inner voice, and self reflecting: a quest for fire. On the side she also values the rhythm and emotions of music, dance, theater and books.
She has naturally followed artistic and stylistic changes as the flow of life has guided her, but has always maintained the presence of color and expression. This is perceptible as evident of her style.
In her youth, Djokic constantly changed schools, and that movement shaped her adaptability and perspective, leading up to her time as a visiting artist in Bali, Indonesia which she considers the start of her global journey. She described her work as such: “My work lives in the realm of associative abstraction and color expression, where intuition guides the process. It is a process in which the structure of the image is built mainly by the direct action of filling in empty white spaces, which are increasingly tamed in further construction. Color, form, structure and gesture come through in expressive tidal waves, maybe even volcanic. During the process, it gets more and more organized, and through quiet contemplation, it becomes akin to a garden that I cultivate with color, form, and gesture. It is a place of reflection, a fabric woven from dreams and subconscious threads.” The most striking feature of her works would be the eye motif, either part of a figure or somewhat randomly yet sensibly placed. “To me, the eye symbolizes presence, an awakened attention that lingers within the artwork. It represents the pursuit of truth, the desire to perceive beyond the surface, to see clearly through illusion and ambiguity. The eye is both a witness and a seeker. It gives the painting a pulse, a consciousness. It watches, but also invites the viewer to be seen—to engage in a quiet, unspoken dialogue.” While Djokic’s art offers a lot to be seen, it also has a lot to say.
Believing in the role of the artist on a global level, Djokic knows that artists speak the same language regardless of where they came from, and that which makes them function as messengers of humanity, working towards a higher level of development and awareness. These actions reflect Glissant’s notions of that global archipelago, and having experienced art on a global scale, Djokic agrees that a new energy is formed with each new culture and country met and traveled to. Realizing that the world is much bigger than anyone can imagine, she knows that there is always something new to experience.
This Crossover experience is a meeting of cultures through the arts, a warp and weft that creates a unique woven fabric of experience for future generations to see. Djokic leaves a message for young artists: do not be afraid of struggle, stay endlessly curious, and know that art grows in those spaces where comfort ends and a true connection begins.
Francisco Jin Sung Lee
Yokohama, April 2025
Tanja Djokic – Serbia
Tanja Djokic graduated with a BFA in Painting from the Academy of Fine Arts, Belgrade, Serbia in 1997, and obtained an MFA in Painting from the Academy of Fine Arts, Priština in 2000. She has exhibited worldwide in numerous solo and group exhibitions, and in 2003-2004 was the visiting artist and government scholar of the Institute Seni Indonesia, Denpasar, Bali. A winner of international awards for painting and drawing, as well as a participant of international symposiums and festivals, Djokic works and lives as a freelance artist worldwide.
Art Associations
Selected Solo Exhibitions:
