Dynamic art

As always, two sides to our beloved Philippines: the good and the bad. And we can only hope that one prevails over the other in the long run. Or pulls it up alongside, on an exalted track.

Unarguably the most dynamic arts festival conducted in our country in recent memory transpired last February in Baguio City. Billed as the AX(is) Art Project: Philippine International Arts Festival 2011, it was conducted grandiloquently at the Rose Garden of Burnham Park.

From February 20 to 27, the festival gathered Filipino and foreign artists in a veritable marvel of a lovefest that drew the public and engaged them in one long, throbbing embrace of awareness and appreciation. It was cultural harmony at its finest, showcasing creativity in cutting-edgework levels, and manifesting once again how we Filipinos often take the lead when it comes to arbitrating public spaces, the rest of the world notwithstanding.

A brainchild of Baguio partners Kawayan de Guia and Ferdie Balanag, the festival proved to be a well-conceived, painstakingly prepared, and adroitly executed — even as an ambitious spectacle of traditional and hypermodern creative expression fused so seamlessly as to gain everyone’s plaudits.

Dovetailing with the Panagbenga Flower Festival that takes place on the last weekend of February, the AX(is) Art Project opened with “IPITIK: A Celebration of Cordillera Culture & Traditions,” featuring performances by a group not-so-improbably named 108 gongs cañao pinikpikan tapuy brewing woodcarving.

Galactic indigenes?

Serving as a curiously resplendent hub for the displays and activities laid out at the project site was the Art Project Tent, also called the Ukay-ukay Dome, an eye-catching tent made up of scraps of used clothing assembled by over a hundred student volunteers of Baguio under Kawayan’s supervision. After the fest, the cloth tent was transported to Bontoc, where it was draped over the concrete gazebo at the provincial plaza grounds — in keeping with the objective of making the AX(is) activities accessible to a wider public.

The organizers’ vision statement articulated this principle early on, even as the project was yet in its prepping stages.

“Access to art should go beyond those already active in the art community. The responsibility of moving art works into the awareness of the general public in Baguio therefore rests on us local artists. Thu the AX(is) Arts Festival is designed to inspire community involvement that is total and not exclusive. This is a declaration that art is relevant in all walks of life.

“As vehicles for the perpetuation of Baguio’s unique hybrid culture, local artists will spearhead art happenings in public spaces throughout the city. Visiting artists will also come from different parts of the country, as well as other parts of the world. We encourage collaboration beyond the realm of visual arts by including film, performance, music, installation and literature.

Inside the Ukay-ukay Dome

“A colorful tent constructed from used clothing (ukay-ukay) will serve as the hub of the festival. Although a bulk of the AX(is) events will be centered in this tent and its surroundings, happenings will reach out to other barangays. The essential navigation guide will be an art map connecting the various venues and activities.

“Besides encouraging the use of public spaces for artistic expressions, AX(is) will be opening artists’ studios to the general public. Hopefully, the intimate face-to-face interaction will allow artistic inspirations to spill over into the public for whom we make art.”

Indeed, the international festival made good on all these claims. Baguio residents and visitors alike delighted in the cornucopia of unusual visual art works that dotted the site.

Art photographer Rudi Tabora commented that the public interaction with the installation works was interesting to observe.

For instance, there was Dennis Lagdameo’s configuration of stainless steel sheets perched on the limbs of a tree, reflecting the onlooker if he or she stood at a proper angle below. There were Leonard Aguinaldo’s paper prints on grid-like display on corrugated iron, similarly fusing post-modernist elements with what could claim to be organic imagery. The same could be said of an installation work by Rishab Tibon, another long-time Baguio artist of fine note.

Standing figures that looked like a native couple turned out to be made of reeds, adorned by odds and ends of found objects that ultimately characterized them as galactic indigenes. The Ifugao blind weaver Rogerio Ginanuy always had a large crowd surrounding him as he meticulously crafted his standing woven figures.

Photographer Rudi Tabora may seem to be up in the tree, but it is simply his image reflected on a steel sheet in the installation work by Dennis Lagdameo.

Then there was the “Petcha” bridge (Monkey bridge) by veteran performance and installation artist Rene Aquitania, inspired by the famous Tocucan Bridge that spanned a river separating two communities in the Cordillera Highlands.

As the artist noted, this unifying passageway “was created by anchoring large tree trunks in the rocky ground on the two opposite river banks, then slowly bending the wood until they could be roped together in the middle over the stream. It was a perilous procedure which, to be successful, required great collaborative skills — physical (nimbleness) and emotional (mutual trust). Symbolically and practically, this rite tied together the traditions, livelihood and fate of two neighboring tribes.”

Aquitania noted further: “Manumbalik nawa ang tulay na nag-ugnay sa kultura at pagkatao. Ito ay isang mungkahing palabas para sa tulay. We should revive the bridge connecting culture and humanity.”

Many other eye-catchers drew constant attention. There were shirt printings as street installations and mosaics by Baguio’s The Mighty Bhutens; the works of Cordillera nomad and traditional handtop tattoo artist Kalawang; graffiti artists Dex Fernandez’s and Froilan Calayag’s street wall mural; various photographers’ albums on standing boards simply covered with plastic sheets; and outstanding works by Baguio artist Mark Tandoyog, Toronto-based artist-facilitator Jennifer Maramba with her Babaylan-inspired art, collaborative sound/experiential installations by Ruel Bimuyag, JR Punzalan, and Kawayan Punzaramba, and Czech artist Magdalena Peseva’s public graffiti and wall art.

Veteran performance and installation artist Rene Aquitania built a Tocucan-type bamboo bridge

Inside the Ukay-ukay Dome, videos were screened, including a loving work of nostalgia by New York-based Angel Velasco Shaw, a live visual collage concept by new media artist and Gangan Ensemble member Tad Ermitano, and a compilation of one-minute videos celebrating Baguio City as “a dynamic space of art and social change while simultaneously questioning the essence of identity that could easily be taken for granted.” These were done by Baguio youngsters aged 17 to 22, resulting from a workshop conducted by Katrin De Guia, Ruel Bimuyag, JR Punzalan and Kawayan Punzaramba.

The Ukay-ukay tent also became the venue for various musical performances, by master guitarist Noli Aurillo; punk poet and visionary artist/musician Bobby Balingit; Baguio’s UPTOWN RaSKals; sound art experimenter Ugong (utilizing home-made circuit-bent sound devices created from toy keyboards, walkie-talkie and other low voltage electronic devices); sonic bricolage performances plus new media arts & sound workshops by Fete de la wsk!; beatmaker/producer/sound provider/graffiti artist/DJ & MC Caliph8 with his left-field abstract jazz & psychedelic hip-hop beat moniker group Albatross & Loveski; and Spoken Word Hiphop Collective A.M.P.O.N. from Metro Manila.

Multi-instrumentalist and electro-acoustic pioneer Shant Verdun, another old Baguio hand, mesmerized the crowd. The Kawangis ng Tribu Palawan ensemble conducted traditional fire and ritual dances plus a drumming workshop and display, while Tabla beats and “Bhangra riddims” were performed by Mantra, and Cordilleran fusion rock group Pe’tune sang and chanted in their native tongues of Bontoc, Kankana-ey and Isneg.

Foreign participants included Prague’s pioneer electronic hardcore musician JTNB (Jezis tahne na Berlin), who performed Live Sound Breaks & vocal manipulations; American poet, sound & percussion artist Z’EV, a pioneer of industrial music since the 1970s; Taiwanese Pipa player Lu Chao-yun; U.K.-based heavy soul funk DJ Kramm; Felipe Bari, Latino DJ from El Salvador; Austrian AFROLOLO (Stefan Loweinstein) who played a wide selection of Latin infused percussive rhythms.

Other musical artists were the dub scientists GOoDLeAF; DJ Pasta groove a.k.a. Il Primitivo; indie rock band Turbo Goth; and the positive hardcore punk band N4S (Not For Sale). Collaborative work was also presented by visual artist and tapuy (rice wine) connoisseur Rei chan’ and found-object artist Rommel Pidazo.

A crowd surrounds blind weaver Rogerio Ginanuy, whose standing woven figure is seen among them.

In brief, the AX(is) Art Project was quite a spectacular fest, backed by no less than the NCCA (National Commission for Culture & the Arts) as well as Baguio Rep. Bernardo Vergara and Mayor Mauricio Domogan.