Prof. Martin G. Genodepa, an artist, cultural worker, and UP Visayas professor, addressed the UP High School in Iloilo achievers and honor students during the UPHSI Pasidungog, a recognition program held at the Iloilo City Convention Center on July 15, 2024.
He shared in his message his experiences as a graduate of UPHSI from 40 years ago, the travails of his jobs as an artist, a teacher, and an administrator, and the responsibilities that go along with them. “Perhaps one of the reasons why I was asked to speak before you today was because I had been in the corridors of power and have fared satisfactorily in your estimation. I realize now that nobody is ready for anything thrown at them. I told a good friend how weird my life has become. While others are busy eking out a living, building their families, or expanding their wealth, here I am, building museums!”
Challenges are always part of life, and one way to cope is “to roll with the punches." For this, he has set a preselected option for coping, and this has become part of his instinct to face challenges and overcome obstacles that come. It has created in him flexibility and resiliency to handle situations. “I have found a very suitable line from the Old Testament that calls for everyone to be strong in the face of adversity: ‘“If you stumble in a safe country, how will you manage in the thickets by the Jordan?”’ Genodepa shared.
He also prodded the students to learn how to laugh at one’s self: “All our best efforts are merely attempts at perfection. So learn to laugh at yourself. A famous artist who made portraits that explored tormented psyches once shared with amusement that his own children would tell their friends: Ang galing ng tatay ko na gumawa ng pangit!’ Different people will see us differently. So be ready to laugh with them even if they seem to insult you.”
He enthused that, as one grows, one becomes less afraid and gains self-assurance of one’s own capabilities. “What made me happy or joyful when I was young or when I was about your age has persisted, but I have learned how to turn my guffaw into a chuckle, and my chuckle into a knowing smile depending on the context. What made me cry in my youth or what I liked, loved, or hated have all remained, but the intensity of how these manifest today has been mitigated by time and experience. So still I cry, I love, and I hate passionately or dispassionately, over the same things, but only this time I do it as circumstances warrant and with some amount of discretion.”
He would also relish talking about his love of teaching and his intense ardor for the arts. “My first love, Teaching, supported my engagement with my mistress, Art. But it was a wonderful arrangement, unlike in the movies or in real life. I was not exactly a starving artist. To identify oneself as an artist has been cool, but life with art is not easy and will never be easy. The competition is great, the money comes few and far between, and the recognition is usually posthumous. Knowing these realities, I tried to set goals for myself as an artist, even if I don’t become rich selling my sculptures. I just want to get good reviews from the country’s top critics, exhibit in Manila in venues that matter, get an artist residency abroad, and be in a book. The fates smiled, and I got all that I wanted—and surprisingly, without getting rich.”
His final message to the UPHSI students whom he never imagined to be addressing as recognition speaker: “Thank you for listening to this old man who entered UP High School over 40 years ago, who had no ambition except maybe to strike gold somewhere, and now who only wishes peace and quiet once all his present responsibilities are over, and all the work assigned to him is completed. To all the achievers who will be honored today and to the survivors of Junior High School, in your serious strides to complete the work that is set before you, may you also learn to roll with the punches and have a good laugh when confronted with your imperfections! Congratulations! ”
Martin Genodepa earned his BA Humanities with concentration in Comparative Literature, Broadcast Communication, and Journalism from UP Visayas and his Master of Development Communication from UP Open University. He has also completed the graduate course work in the Master of Fine Arts program of UP Diliman.
He is an Associate Professor at UP Visayas. He had served as UPV Vice Chancellor for Planning and Development and is currently Director of the UP Visayas Office of Initiatives in Culture and the Arts (OICA) and Project Development Assistant for Antique.
As an artist, he has had 18 solo exhibitions in venues such as Hiraya Gallery, Alliance Francais, Red Mill Gallery in Vermont (USA), UPV Art Gallery, Museo Iloilo, the Bulwagang Fernando Amorsolo (Small Gallery) of the Cultural Center of the Philippines, and the National Commission for Culture and Arts Galleries. He does sculpture and installations. His works have been well received by art critics Alice Guillermo, Patrick Flores, Tito Valiente, and Emmanuel Torrres, among others.
As a cultural worker, he curates exhibitions, writes about local art, and has been involved in art and culture projects in the country and internationally.
He was instrumental in establishing the Iloilo Museum of Contemporary Art (ILOMOCA) as its first museum director. He also founded the UPV Museum of Art and Cultural Heritage (UPV MACH) through a grant from the Commission on Higher Education.
Along with several distinguished art writers and curators of the country, he was Volume Editor of the Pananaw 8 Journal of Philippine Visual Arts (2014). He was also an editor and wrote several chapters of the book Kadagatan Tubtub Kabukidan: Traditional Knowledge Systems of Panay and Guimaras in 2018. He also contributed a chapter on arts and crafts in the reference book Pagdahu ka Surundun Panay and Guimaras Traditional Knowledge Systems (2024).
He was a Bureau Member (2018–until August 2022) representing Southeast Asia in the Asia Pacific Higher Education Network for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage (APHEN–ICH). Currently, he serves as one of the network’s focal points.
As Vice Chancellor for Planning and Development of UPV, he was responsible for the design of the Oblation Plaza and University Avenue on the city campus. He was instrumental in the establishment of the extension campus in Pandan, Antique.
In 1995, he received two fellowships: at the Samba-Likhaan National Visual Arts Workshop under the National Commission for Culture and the Arts, and at the 23rd UP Writer’s Workshop. He was a recipient of a full grant from the Freeman Fellowship for Asian Artists and became artist-in-residence at the Vermont Studio Center (USA) in 1999, the UP Outstanding Professional in the Visual Arts in 2008, the Ford Foundation International Fellowship in 2009-2011, the UP Artist I productivity award for 2018-2020 and 2021-2023, and the One UP Professorial Chair Award for Creative Work and Public Service for 2022-2024.
Currently, he is the program leader of the Cultural Mapping of Panay, Guimaras, and Negros Occidental and the project leader and editor of the two-book writing project on the Ati and Panay Bukidnon.
