Creative spark plugs in the regions
Of course we still hear of “Imperial Manila” lording it over practically all pursuits in whatever front. That decades-long gripe will continue to persist, since government funds and mandates necessarily start in the seat of power. Capital-intensive activities enjoy similar entitlement.
The same may be true of cultural activities, given the heavy concentration of participants, media, sponsors and venues. But it’s become increasingly apparent that Metro Manila has no monopoly on creative talent and impetus.
Thanks to spirited independent efforts, artistic manifestation keeps apace in certain areas, primarily in the visual arts, as well as with literary expression. Several cultural hotbeds scattered in our islands benefit from the inspiration, production, and organization by individuals who may be labeled as spark plugs.
For Davao and environs, sculptor Kublai Millan takes the lead in mounting visual art exhibitions on a consistently ambitious scale. Known for his familiar landmark sculptures in Davao City, starting with the giant durian that welcomes flight arrivals, Millan is the president of Lawig-Diwa, Inc. and chairman of the Organizing Committee of Mindanao Art.
As recorded in the latest issue of the Santelmo quarterly art and literature journal, the 5th Mindanao Art he supervised counted over 500 artists and a thousand artworks, murals and installations exhibited at SM Lanang in Davao City last October. Thirty galleries from the five administrative regions of Mindanao and two from Manila participated. The largest-ever assembly of Mindanao artists was organized by Lawig-Diwa Inc. in collaboration with the NCCA and with the support of SM Lanang.
Kublai started the Mindanao Art Fair series in 2019 “in recognition of the need for Mindanao artists to step up and become key players in the Philippine art scene while ensuring that they remain rooted in their identity as Mindanaoans.” In addressing the latest art fair theme, “Resonating and Reverberating,” mentoring programs reached out to hundreds of young artists from Davao de Oro, South Cotabato, North Cotabato, the Caraga region, and General Santos City.
It isn’t only lumad or natural-born Kagay-anons who bring honor and prestige to the city, but those too who have made the city their home.
Kublai Millan stressed: “The vision is to embed into the consciousness of each artist and each member of the audience an art genre that is truly Mindanao, deeply rooted in the identity of the land and our people, the culture, and the landscape, both past and present. By bringing forth that uniqueness in all of us and of all regions, we communicate to the world of art at the soul level.”
In Cagayan de Oro, journalist Mike Baños keeps us abreast on how the City of Golden Friendship continues to host local and expat artists who call it home, while excelling in various arenas of creativity.
Running till Jan. 30 is the art exhibition, “Interlocal/Transregional: Terrains of Practice,” featuring the works of Kagay-anon artists who studied at the UP College of Fine Arts in Diliman. Baños writes that “it isn’t only lumad or natural-born Kagay-anons who bring honor and prestige to the city, but those too who have made the city their home.”
Writer Arlene J. Yandug from Maramag, Bukidnon recently won the National Book Award for best book of poetry in English with Coming Home to the Island: Poems. She’s the current manager of XU Press, and concurrently chief editor of Xavier University’s journal, Kinaadman.
Making waves in the international music scene are two expat professors from the Liceo de Cagayan University’s Conservatory of Music, Theater and Dance. Horst Hans Bäcker, named one of the world’s Top 3 Classical Music Composers in the much-delayed 2022 WorldVision Composers Contest, moved with his family to CDO “to create a music curriculum of European standard.” He has also been involved as a guest conductor of the Classic Youth Orchestra in Cebu and as principal conductor of the Cagayan de Oro Symphony Orchestra. The Romanian-born maestro’s colleague, Professor Cipriano M. de Guzman Jr., became the first Filipino opera singer in the last 16 years to perform in an Italian opera, at Teatro Savoia in Campobasso, Italy. He teaches voice and theater at the Liceo de Cagayan University.
In cinema, Joe Bacus, a lumad Kagay-anon, won multiple awards in the 30th edition of The Filipino Arts & Cinema International in San Francisco, USA with the full-length film Markado: The Moon Devourer. His team also held the Cine de Oro Film Festival IV last December at Karumata, Macasandig and Limketkai Cinemas, with Toni Cañete winning the Golden Giant Fish Award for Best Film in the main competition (for Kagay-anon filmmakers). The Reuben Canoy Lifetime Achievement Award was posthumously given to film historian, curator and archivist Teddy Co.
CDO hosted the National Historical Commission of the Philippines’ 2023 National Conference on Local History and Heritage (NCLHH) last August. A highlight of the closing plenary was the launching of CDO Congressman Rufus B. Rodriguez’s new book, Cagayan de Oro-Misamis Oriental-Camiguin History Trail, which lists 37 historical sites in the three locations.
Iloilo City has been enjoying a creative outpouring with its numerous artists and the support of local government and private sponsors. The pioneering successes of poet-writer Peter Solis Nery and painter Rock Drilon help this along. Both are from Dumangas, where Drilon has re-established home—that’s also a busy studio where his art continues to inspire other Ilonggos.
The irrepressible Peter Solis Nery—poet, playwright, fictionist, filmmaker—recently attended the Palanca Awards night as a winner and Palanca Hall of Famer. He could have won a fashion prize, too, as the most stylishly dressed winner onstage. Back home, Nery continues his annual efforts to collect worldwide donations to the Peter’s Prize Fund, which he matches to award winners in his privately organized contests in literature (including Hiligaynon love poetry) and filmmaking.
This has gone on for over a decade. Some donations also help support his other charities involving athletes/runners and jail inmates, among his “passion projects.” For the last three years, the 22-time Palanca winner has also conducted the Peter Solis Nery Foundation International Film Festival at Cinematheque Centre Iloilo.
In Bicol, Kristian Sendon Cordero’s untiring efforts as a poet, fictionist, translator and filmmaker have also led to creative directorship of his own Savage Mind: Arts, Books & Cinema bookshop in Naga City, where he remains the OIC of the Ateneo de Naga University Press. An eminent collector of literary prizes for poetry and translation in Filipino, Bikol and Rinconada, he was named a TOYM 2022 awardee, and has been a member of the National Book Development Board. His latest curatorship has been the recent publication of Londoner Gene Alcantara’s translation into Filipino of Russian poet Anna Akhmatova, Mga Awit sa Huling Pagkikita.
Also in Bicol, the award-winning author Abdon Balde Jr. remains prodigious at 77. The poet laureate of Oas, he has published short stories, essays, poems and novels in English, Tagalog and the languages of Bicol. His latest title is OAS: Mga Sanaysay, while a recent, inimitable excursion into yet another localized literary form is his version of the limerick, which he calls “Tulangangas o Tulang Angas.” A sample is “Ang Monay ni Mona” —“Ang monay ni Mona mabenta sa plaza/ Magandang dalaga pero may anak na;/ Maagang pumatol/ Sa gwapong nambudol./ Malimit ang ganda, perwisyo ang dala.”
In Cabanatuan City, Gromyko Semper helps spearhead an art community in Nueva Ecija, the Balaraw Art Collective. On Jan. 5, “Mekus: Ang Malatornadong Group Show” starts at the Diwa ng Tarlac Museo, featuring the works of the Novo Ecijano art group and Tarlac’s Tanglaw Artist Program. Meanwhile, Semper has also been busy fundraising for an artist residency at Macgown Artist Retreat and Studios in Starkville, Mississippi this coming April. The residency has been offered him, but he has to help defray the cost of shipping his works, which will then be reimbursed.
Thus he has posted (on FB) artworks as part of his Art Sale Challenge. Complementing this column should be his sample piece, “Ang munting hiling ni Jabi,” ink on paper, 9x12 inches, at P6,000 besides shipping.
We have countless other creative spark plugs outside Metro Manila. Of course there’s Baguio, with the BenCab Museum, Mt. Cloud Bookshop, and the art projects and venues initiated by the city’s other National Artist, Kidlat Tahimik, and his scions. But then Baguio has always been Manila’s alternative art hub, especially since the formation of the Baguio Arts Guild in 1986.