Ang sabi nila: Unity.
In 𝗞𝗮𝗹𝗮𝘀/𝗔𝗸𝗹𝗮𝘀: 𝗣𝗼𝗹𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗸𝗮𝗹 𝗮𝗻𝗴 𝗣𝗮𝗴𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗵𝗮𝗹, we shall let the powers know that we can break away from their lies.
Get ready for a Performance Art exhibition for the ages. Tara na sa Gravity Art Space on Sep 30, 2022, 6 to 8 PM, at tayo’y kumalas! This event is open to the public.
Performance is an act of resistance. As artists Bohovee, Bucho Cabras, Floyd Scott Tiogangco, and more will show us, through it, we can build our own narrative: one that honors our freedom and dignity, and that dreams of the Philippines as a space where all of us can express ourselves freely.
The Artists
Akira Liwanag is a photographer, videographer, and an artist based in the Philippines. He has directed and edited a number of music videos including Johnoy Danao’s hit “Ulan.”
He has shown early interest in photography with his international exposure at age 16 as the Philippine youth delegate in the field of photography for the 2007 ASEAN Youth Camp in Indonesia which was sponsored by the National Commission for Culture and Arts.
Liwanag finished film workshops at the University of the Philippines – Diliman and was one of the chosen photography scholars in the prestigious Angkor Photography Workshops spearheaded by international and renowned contemporary photojournalists in Siem Reap, Cambodia. He also attended a documentary photography Masterclass by a seasoned photojournalist Alex Baluyut.
Bucho Cabras, a performance artist and an occasional traditional visual artist based in Las Pinas, has been experimenting on the limits of the body, pain, and the senses to examine the audience’s immediate perception and feeling around the themes of social structures and constructs vs the self.
Ms. Camille Cabatingan is a practicing artist from Quezon City, Philippines, and is also a Visual Arts faculty at the De La Salle University Integrated School, Arts and Design Track Unit.
She graduated magna cum laude from the University of the Philippines-College of Fine Arts, where she took up Sculpture as her major. Her artworks gravitate toward biomorphic forms which revolve around the themes of feminism, healing and renewal using different kinds of media and techniques, often combining different art processes such as painting, sculpture installations and performance art. She participated in international and local art festivals and exhibitions in different art spaces, notably in GSIS Museum, Tin-Aw Gallery, Art Informal Gallery, Ratchadamnoen Contemporary Art Center-Thailand and Tokyo’s National Art Center among other creative venues.
Floyd Scott Tiogangco is a Filipino queer writer and artist. Their art and activism earned them recognition as the Most Outstanding Young Human Rights Defender in Amnesty International’s Ignite Awards for Human Rights 2018. Floyd is one of the writers of the 2019 iWant Original Series, ‘Manilennials,’ and a collaborator-contributor for the UK-published book, ‘Queer Asia: Decolonising and Reimagining Sexuality and Gender.’ They were also a fellow of Ricky Lee’s Scriptwriting Workshop under Spring Elms and a graduate of Jun Robles Lana’s Cine Panulat Screenwriting Lab. Their one-act play ‘Pilot Episode’ was virtually staged at the Virgin Labfest 16 held annually at the Cultural Center of the Philippines in 2020. Their performances and installation works have been exhibited at Karnabal Festival, SIPA International Art Festival, and Pineapple Lab, among others.
Floyd was an Academic Fellow of the 2021 Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative (YSEALI) for the Civic Engagement cohort at Kennesaw State University and a recipient of Para Site’s NoExit Grant for Unpaid Artistic Labor-Philippines 2021. They are a co-founder of the consultancy group The Equity Collective and currently DAKILA’s PR Manager.
Si Istifen Dagang Kanal ay isang non-binary performance artist, walang permanenteng lugar ng tirahan, paikot-ikot lang siya sa Maynila – isang dagang kanal. Ang kanyang mga likha ay kadalasang umiikotsa naratibo ng mga bakla at mga kabaklaan. Naging Punong tagapamahala siya ng Sining-Lahi Polyrepertory mula sa Politeknikong Unibersidad ng Pilipinas, ngayon kasalukuyan siyang miyembro ng Concerned Artists of the Philippines (CAP) at bilang ekstensyon ng adbokasiya at kabaklaan siya ay kabilang sa HIV and AIDS Support House (HASH) bilang CBS Motivator.
Bilang baklang kwentista ang kanyang katawan ay laging midyum para sa kanyang mga tanghal, naniniwala din siya na ang mga kwento ng komunidad ay dapat na naririnig at itinatanghal para sa mga komunidad.
Martin de Mesa a.k.a. BOHOVEE (born 1987), a Filipino Queer contemporary artist who uses a variety of media such as performance art, video, figurative drawing/painting, and installation.
Over the years, he invented a grand persona named “Bohovee” (a Seductress/Queer Enchantress), who has been developed as an incredible “Force behind the power” (Diana Ross’ album title) and through manifold variants/character versions. His works were presented in Art Stage Singapore, Taiwan International Video Art Exhibition, Dadaocheng International Arts Festival in Taipei, and at the P-Noise Festival in Copenhagen, Denmark. De Mesa received his BFA from the University of the Philippines and received a fellowship grant from the Skowhegan School of Art in Maine, USA.
Jef Carnay is a Filipino Visual / Performance artist and Curator: practicing since 1999, exhibited and performed his works in local and international art galleries, museums, alternative spaces, art events and festivals (Philippines, Germany, Canada, Cambodia, Singapore, Indonesia, Netherlands, UK). Curated local and international live art performances and exhibitions. Participated in international artist in residency programs. Board of Trustees of FILVADRO Filipino Visual Arts and Design Rights Organization a collective management organization for visual arts and design: Core Member of “TutoK” (artists initiative). Convener of the art event “Bulong” a night of poetry, songs and other performances. Director/Curator of “Hostile Creatures” an art happening that features performance art practitioners. Member of the band “earthfishfish”.
MRS. TAN is a by-product of the need for political expression, and the want to make a creative statement. She transcends boundaries that limit the art of drag by elevating the vapid, and normalizing the off-kilter. These binaries are what has created a body of work with solid foundations, but is also open to growth.
Nerisa del Carmen Guevara is an Associate Professor at the University of Santo Tomas, where she teaches Creative Writing and is a Resident Fellow of the Center for Creative Writing and Literary Studies. She is the author of Reaching Destination: Poems and the Search for Home (UST Publishing House, 2004). She was the recipient of the Carlos Palanca Award for Poetry and her poetry has been featured in various international publications and anthologies, including Cha Asian Journal (Hong Kong, 2018); The Achieve Of, The Mastery: Filipino Poetry and Verse from English mid-90s to 2016 (Manila, 2018); The Comstock Review (New York, 2018); Tomas Journal (Manila, 2018, 2019); and Voice & Verse Poetry Magazine (Hong Kong, 2020), among others. Her performance art “Elegies” and “Infinite Gestures” which she presents as poetry in space have been exhibited in PERFORMATURA (Manila), SIPA International Art Festival (Philippines), Biennale Jogja Equator V (Indonesia), LAPSody (Helsinki), and Grace Exhibition Space (New York), among others. She was the Early Career Researcher of GlobalGRACE WP4 and the Director of an LGBTQIA Virtual Artistic Residency GlobalGRACE Ph AiR for 2021.
Roxlee is a Filipino animator, filmmaker, cartoonist, and painter. Considered by many to be the godfather of young Filipino filmmakers, Roxlee is best known for creating Cesar Asar with his brother, Monlee. Apart from the Lee brothers is their nephew Topel Lee, an audiovisual director of GMA Networks.
Lee began as a cartoonist, first contributing cartoons to Jingle Magazine. Shortly after, he created the comic strip Cesar Asar for Manila Bulletin in collaboration with his brother, Monlee, from 1980 to 2000. Lee is one of the founding members of Animagination, which has now evolved into Animahenasyon and Sinekalye, a group of filmmakers taking the films and music into the street. His surreal humor, edgy approach, and originality have been praised by many critics. In the 1980s, his works were done in super-8 film, divided between hand-drawn works like The Great Smoke and pixelated live action pieces like Juan Gapang. Although he has not worked in the animation industry, Roxlee’s independent approach to filmmaking has influenced a generation of younger animators, many of whom took up courses at the Mowelfund Film Institute in the 1980s and 1990s. Additionally, he has amassed a cult following in places like Western Europe, Japan, and Singapore. Lee is also into oil painting and has recently finished a book titled Cesar Asar in the Planet of the Noses, a collection of his cartoons and short stories.
