ON WRITERS, ARTISTS AND MATERIALS OF COMPLICITY

Animosity peopled the air as calls for boycott of the Frankfurt Book Fair drove a wedge between local writers and publishers.

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The concluded fair, which received the Philippines as its "guest of honor" this year, has been criticized for its alignment with Israel. Still, a group of delegates, which included Nobel Peace Prize awardee Maria Ressa, literary royalty Butch Dalisay, and even battle rap mogul Anygma, flocked to Berlin to attend the fair, with trauma journalist Patricia Evangelista even delivering a speech condemning the murder of Palestinian journalists by Israeli forces.

The whole affair happened within the backdrop of the continuing exposé on the theft of public funds and the escalating protests all over the country. As more Filipinos are radicalized by this climate of dissent, it's not hard to see why emotions are high against these supposed luminaries of culture and freedom who maintained their support for a fair that openly suppresses said values.

Issues of complicity among artists and how they relate to institutions have been the subject of many critical works over the years. The recent debates brought these discussions again to the fore. The Buchemesse delegates lament the invisibility of Philippine literature on the "global" stage, thus insisting on attendance for the opportunity to put the country on the map. Meanwhile, boycotting writers and publishers argue that the fair is "instrumental" to the sanitizing of the Palestinian genocide. In a statement, Gantala Press pointed out how "cultural institutions are utilized by Israel and its allies in the deliberate, persistent and violent erasure of Palestinian identity and history." Even by framing boycott as a legitimate response, the boycotters have already shifted the conversation toward a more empowered and critical perspective, at a moment when participation in the fair seemed almost inevitable and non-participation professionally impossible.