My interest towards art platforms,
groupings and practices that are not (in) the mainstream is known among my
friends. I prefer examining what is not at the center, or frontline, or
dominant. A visit to Alitaptap Artists Village contributed to this long standing
interest.
I learned of Alitaptap Artists
Village earlier this year while they were promoting the Paghilom Art Camp on
Facebook. What I knew about them then was that the program was similar to most
art camps—exhibit, performance, talks and workshops; but the place looks like a
forest.
Jon Romero, a good friend and a
sound practitioner, is sort of a regular of this foresty art community. I saw
him posting about Alitaptap Artists Village even after Paghilom. He invited me
and other artists to visit AAV, to maybe jam or just tambay. Finally, after a
month talking about it, I get to go.
On the day I went I was received by
Jon and Mary Ann Jimenez Salvador, another old friend, a batch mate in cultural
work, and the Gaia-force behind pioneer-sound artist Lirio Salvador.
What’s my take away from this visit
to Alitaptap Artists Village?
AAV is a community under
construction. It is a cluster of houses on a hilly part of Brgy. Halang in
Amadeo, Cavite. The property is owned by, artist Henry "Bokeng" Ancanan’s family. They
sold parts of the property to friends, mostly artists too, and mostly
empty-nesters or young-families. Most huts are squares and triangles on stilts,
with details that characterizes one from another. The huts were built using
combination of salvaged materials from old houses, and harvested coco lumber
and bamboo from the same property. Utilities, like electricity and water, are
available. Access like private and public transportation and internet are
likewise available. They have vegetable and fruit gardens. And there is a good
stretch of river in the premises. Besides Bokeng’s hut, musicians Bobby
Balingit, Paul Puti-an and Omni Saroca are also building their huts; as well as
artists Winston Hernandez, AJ Manuel, Manny Garibay, Lito Mondejar and Espasyo
Siningdikato.
AAV is a community of artists. A
stranger unfamiliar to provincial life might be confused on what stage the
community formation is at, at the moment.
It looks like it is under construction, but it actually feels that the
neighborhood is old or is already well-established. In one of the
conversations, we called it “the spirit”—the spirit of the community is
familiar because the “residents” are already a community (what is under
construction then is the physical village). How is this possible? The “elders”
came from art groups called Pito-Pito, Grupong Walo, Grupong Ekis, Bobby
Balingit is one of the pioneers of Pinoy punk, and Espasyo Siningdikato are
artists too from Cavite, identified with Lirio, who are intermedia art
practitioners who have taken different names as organization in the past many
years. They belong to at least 2 generations—first are those who started their
art practice in the mid to late 1980s and others who started early to late
1990s. In other words, they came from the generation of artists who
participated in the reimagining of self and national identities post-EDSA, in
the midst of expansion/ contraction art world due to globalization, until the
emergence of this now categorically influential art market. Works around the
village and the projects that were mentioned in our conversation revealed that
these are artists engaged in production of all different sorts and forms—they favor
performance and installation, but they also do traditional forms of visual
arts, music and literature. Building their huts may also be considered an art
project as one can immediately appreciate the creative qualities far beyond
their structural and functional characteristics.
Another essence that forms the
spirit of this community, I noticed is the residents’ common valuation of art
education. Art education, not only
translated as teaching art, but more as a matter of engagement with the
community beyond the AAV.
AAV is a community for/of learning
art. While their (collective) belief that their sense of self, as artists is realized
through art making (and not satisfying an externally imposed superstructure),
they also share that the matter that nurtures their sense of belonging is
through their community art projects or art projects that are offered to the
community beyond the “gates” of the AAV—the local community. These projects are
in the form of art workshop for children from elementary schools; nature-tour
of the village; community concerts; hosting transient artists; serving as a
camp site; engaging other art groups in their art projects; among others. These
projects are mutually appreciated by the residents and the local community,
which is reflected through the support AAV receives from the Baranggay, the
Mayor and the Provincial Government. Local carpenters and other skilled workers
who are hired to build the structures in the Village, becomes project staff
during bigger festivals. Tricycle drivers even know when they have
performances. In effect, AAV art
projects is a portal in which they allow the rest of the Brgy. Halang, Amadeo,
Cavite and other guests who participate in their art projects, to enter their
world--for those who do not belong inside the community, to understand their
way of life. In return, through these
same projects, the AAV artists have more grasp of the embeddedness of their practice
with the rest of the society.
Having been nurtured by this kind of
symbiosis in their own locality, it is not surprising to hear that the artists
of AAV do not crave for inclusion in the “center of the art world.”
Participation to activities, conversations, and discourses in the art centers
are more incidental than planned or program. With this, is a clear
understanding that they, as residents of the periphery or region, are not in
competition with what is in the cities or centers. Instead, their energy is directed
towards sustaining their practice through their own efforts and ensuring
harmonious coexistence with those they encounter in their journey.
In all these, where my words fell
short to capture the beauty of this artists’ village, I bid you to sprinkle
fairy dusts, because some parts of it, I already thought is magical.
And also, did I mention they have a
falls?
