UP Diliman Arts and Culture Festival 2024
The UPD ACF 2024 carries the theme, “Pamamalagi at Pamamahagi,” continuing the narrative/s of placemaking (pagsasalugar) depicted in UPD ACF 2019, which highlighted processes of habitation in Diliman as a community “settled” intoits new space. “Settling” is the process of establishing oneself securely in place, of coming to a desired position and becoming stable or permanent. However, “settling” also involves disruption. Settling into Diliman meant the expansion of the campus and entailed the reorganization of space and the environment as well as forms and relations of habitation. This was soon followed by the expansion of the frontiers of knowledge and the scope of our academic engagements.
After 75 years, we reflect on the unwavering commitments of the University as well as the forms of disruption that have transpired in this act of settling (pamamalagi). At the same time, the Festival highlights the ways by which the University has, and continues to, nurture and at the same time disrupt knowledge within and beyond the UP community—pamamahagi–challenging dominant and normative paradigms in the sciences and the humanities, and transforming standardized modes of learning, discoursing, and placemaking, towards a more humane, just, safe, and progressive society.
The activities and events that will be part of the Festival are initiated by UPD-OICA, academic units and student organizations in UP Diliman. They will present, in a variety of creative ways, how the University, in its 75 years of settling in Diliman, nurtured the academic and artistic growth of individual members of the University community, cultivated organically formed social relationships, rituals, and practices that now constitute the living heritage of the University, and created a historically meaningful built environment by and for its diverse inhabitants and the communities beyond.
OPENING PROGRAM
Pamamalagi at Pamamahagi: 75 taon ng UP@Diliman
Venue: UPD Carillon Plaza
Date: February 29, 2024
The Opening Program launches the Diliman Arts and Culture Festival 2024 through presentations / performances that depict the development of UP Diliman, 75 years into its settlement (pamamalagi) in Diliman and into its role as a transformative force in Philippine society–disrupting and innovating by challenging norms, dominant paradigms and tendencies towards complacency.
The venue of the Opening Program is a nod to the University’s service to the nation. During the Martial Law years, it was used as a watch tower, alerting the UP community of the arrival of police forces through the ringing of the bells. By holding the Opening Program in this space, we celebrate and reiterate UP Diliman’s commitment to keeping the memory of the dark days of the country under Martial Law alive, thwarting any attempts at erasing its significance in the social and political history of the country.
ROVING EXHIBIT
Ugnayan: Mga Kuwento ng Talaban sa Pamayanang UP Diliman
Bulwagan ng Dangal University Heritage Museum | Office for Initiatives in Culture and the Arts
12-22 Marso 2024
Palma Hall Lobby, Benitez Hall Lobby, UP Academic Oval
14-28 Mayo 2024
Quezon City Hall
DOCUMENTARY / ETHNOGRAPHY
Ang/Mga Komunidad ng UP Diliman
This project continues the work that was started in the field research component of Diliman Arts and Culture Festival 2019 Lupang Hinirang Project, which focused on the process of ‘placemaking’ in UP Diliman. It will develop further themes that emerged from the ethnographic research in 2019 (which mainly focused on the growth of academic community in UP Campus), by building on existing research material, including those relating to non-academic communities in the campus. This project is intended to illuminate the people, spaces and places in the campus margins whose histories and social lives have been obscured by dominant narratives about “UP”.
The output of this project is a 30-minute documentary and a calendar series which will feature stories of life outside of academics inside the University.
MINI CONCERTS
HIMIGSIKAN
Date and Venues:
March 19, 2024, 5:00 PM | UP Manila College of Arts and Sciences Little Theater
May 2024, 5:00 PM | TBD
July 5, 2024, 5:00 PM | TBD, UP Diliman
‘Himigsikan’ has been a staple of the Diliman Arts and Culture Festival since 2010. It is intended to give a platform for the university-based performing groups to exhibit their artistic virtuosity to the general public. In observance of the 75th year of the transfer of the Oblation from the UP Manila campus to Diliman, there will be three Himigsikan events, somewhat tracing the path of the Oblation to its new home in Diliman. The first will be held in UP Manila and will feature local performing groups from the UP Manila campus.
The third Himigsikan will be held at UP Diliman, and as the last UPD-OICA-initiated activity for the Festival, this event will have two parts. The first part will be the viewing of the 30-minute documentary and the launching of the calendars with some performances from performing groups within UP Campus. The second part is the open-mic show featuring performances from UP alumni. To build momentum for this event, publicity materials will be generated for various social media platforms.
PROJECTS/INITIATIVES FROM OTHER UPD UNITS
Digitization and Performance of Asian Music Arranged for Guitar Ensemble
by Lester Demetillo
College of Music, UP Diliman
27 June 2024, UP College of Music Mini Hall
Project Abstract
This project aims to digitize the works of Maestro Lester Demetillo, a distinguished Filipino guitarist and pedagogue who transcribed and arranged countless works for the classical guitar ensemble from both local and foreign music, greatly contributing to the history and practice of classical guitar in the Philippines. His hand-written works will be encoded in batches of 10 – 15 pieces and each batch will be performed in a dedicated guitar ensemble concert as a means of promoting Filipino classical guitar music while honoring the legacy of Lester Demetillo, who rose to prominence when he founded the UP Guitar Ensemble in 1982.
Event writeup
The project Digitization and Performance of Asian Music Arranged for Guitar Ensemble by Lester Demetillo will conclude with a concert featuring the first batch of encoded works transcribed by Maestro Lester Demetillo consisting of eight Filipino works and five traditional works from our neighboring Asian countries, namely Indonesia, Japan, Korea, China, and Thailand. These works will be performed by the project team, the UP Guitar Ensemble, heading this initiative who were all former students of Maestro Demetillo in the University of the Philippines. The concert will be held in the UP College of Music Mini Hall on 27 June 2024.
Appreciating UP Diliman’s history and culture through QR codes
Asian Institute of Tourism, UP Diliman
Event Schedule: April to July 2024
Venue: Academic Oval
Signages with QR codes will be installed in front of the buildings and artworks around the Academic Oval. There will be two QR codes in each signage: one QR code in text format for the description of the buildings (e.g., history, architecture, purpose, etc.) and another QR code in audio format. These signages will enable the public to gain information about the buildings using the QR code scanners in their mobile devices and do a self-guided tour. The QR codes in audio format will allow the visually impaired individuals to appreciate the buildings, thus promoting inclusivity (under Goal 10 of the Sustainable Development Goals). Overall, the project aims to contribute to SDG 11 (Making cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable) through the promotion of history and culture.
Balik Yapak sa Panahon ng Paglipat
Asian Institute of Tourism, UP Diliman
Event schedule: April- May 2024
Venue: UP Diliman Campus
The Lakad Gunita Walking Tours 2019 is the inspiration of this project. Balik-Yapak is the revitalized version combining the former #lingon focusing on the appreciation of the twin buildings Malcolm Hall and Benitez Hall, Melchor and Palma Halls and other buildings that were first in existence during the transfer from Padre Faura to Diliman, around the UP Academic Oval.
As we walk to these historical edifices, earlier art forms—paintings, installations, sculptures, etc. which were featured in #hanga will be incorporated in the narratives.
All Mondays of April to May 2024 will be set as tentative Balik-Yapak days. Morning tours are preferred. This is to take advantage of the cooler hours of the day. Select AIT Students will be trained and designated as TOUR ESCORTS and GUIDES.
A revitalized brochure will be printed and distributed to participants who will avail of the free walking tours. Publicity materials will be shared on different platforms and sites to promote the walking tours to the public, especially the alumni of the university who appreciated the 2019 Lakad Gunita the most.
HOM[e]AY ng Pangarap: HOMage to the UP Dreams of palAY farming families
UP College of Architecture, UP Diliman
February – May 2024
Atrium, Building 2, UP College of Architecture
The UP College of Architecture (UPCA), in its participation in the UP Diliman Arts and Culture Festival 2024, proposes to implement the “HOM[e]AY ng Pangarap: HOMage to the UP Dreams of palAY farming families”installation. This aims to highlight the parallelism between UP’s flagship campus and Oblation’s journey, transitioning from its roots in Manila to its present domicile in Diliman, and the profound narratives of students from families of migrant rice farmworkers who have marched its hallways and avenues. The installation explores the relentless struggles of farmworkers to send their children to the state university and their sacrifices that are traced with blood, sweat, and tears amidst challenges of marginalization, globalization, and societal apathy.
Set against the UPCA Atrium, the exhibition features an immersive land art installation. Inspired by the mosaic of rice fields, intersected by a path leading towards the UP dream, the installation aspires to be a visual testament to the intertwined aspirations and sacrifices of the institution and the families it serves.
Gardens and Homesteads: Reflections on a museum’s holdings
UP Jorge Vargas Museum and Filipiniana Research Center, UP Diliman
Event schedule: February to July 2024
Venue: UP Jorge B. Vargas Museum and Filipiniana Research Center (UP Vargas Museum) and surrounding grounds
Gardens and homesteads: Reflections on a museum’s holdings charts the journey of the Vargas Museum collection from Jorge B. Vargas’s family compound in Mandaluyong to its subsequent relocation to a museum inside the University of the Philippines Diliman campus. This public program will take place from February to July 2024 with workshops and collaborative components with cultural workers and food justice advocates, artists, the museum staff, and those from other UP Diliman units, non-government organizations and neighborhoods inside the Diliman campus. These activities aim to widen the breadth and reach of the UP Vargas Museum’s public programs through community initiatives and contribute to approaches to more sustainable and equitable food production and distribution in an urban context.
Contact information: vargasmuseum@up.edu.ph or message us on Facebook,
https://www.facebook.com/vargasmuseum.upd
Bulan at Karawitan: Moonviewing Festival
UP College of Music Department of Musicology, UP Diliman
Event Schedule: May 23, 2024
Venue: TBA
Inspired by the moon-viewing ceremonies practiced in Japan and other parts of Asia, the UP College of Music Department of Musicology intends to organize an open-air concert with the objective of nourishing a sense of returning to safe outdoor concerts while incorporating traditional and organic elements. Moreover, as the performing arm of the Musicology Department, the UP Tugtugang Musika Asyatika (UP TUGMA) aims to instill and develop a deeper understanding and interest in Asian musical traditions among its audience base and to raise the banner of Philippine music in the international community.
Link to online streaming platform: https://www.youtube.com/@UPCollegeofMusicOfficial
ATMOSPHERES: UGNAYAN @ 50
UP Center for Ethnomusicology in collaboration with Department of Music Education,
College of Music, UP Diliman
3 May 2024, 1:30-4:30PM / UP Center for Ethnomusicology Library / TALK
5 May 4:15-7:00PM / UP College of Music Front Lawn / PERFORMANCE
This is a restaging of Jose Maceda’s composition for radio airwaves, known as Ugnayan, in celebration of the 50th anniversary of its premiere. The work is composed of 20 music tracks that will be played from participants’ mobile phones from an online channel. The whole composition could then be heard by listening to various tunings during the restaging day.
The project hopes to unburden the piece of the shadows of 1970s Marcos propaganda that strains most art produced during that era; and refocus on fostering the idea of community in performance —musicking as a communal activity that shapes the people, which is methodologically congruent with Maceda’s composition practice, and to respond to his provocation to think of how we will respond to music if it is aided by superintelligent computers (1988).
Online platform:
https://www.facebook.com/upethnom
https://www.facebook.com/upcmu.mued
Contact info for audience inquiries
Roan May Opiso or Jon-Philip Noveras
rdopiso@up.edu.ph / atmospheres.ugnayan50@gmail.com
(02) 8981-8500 loc 2626
PasaFest 2024 – Panunumbalik
Ipil & Yakal Residence Halls – Office of Student Housing
2 March 2024, 3:00 PM
Ipil & Yakal Residence Halls (“Narra Ruins“)
Pasalubong is a cherished Filipino tradition of gifting souvenirs upon returning from a journey. Originating in Kalayaan Residence Hall in 1999, Pasalubong Festival (PasaFest) evolved from a simple table of shared gifts to a vibrant cultural exchange organized by freshman residents. Initially food-centric, PasaFest now showcases diverse regional treasures, fostering cultural understanding and an inclusive dorm community. The 2024 theme, “Panunumbalik,” signifies the festival’s revival post-pandemic hiatus since 2020. It aims to reconnect with its roots and honor the authentic spirit that birthed this celebration while commemorating PasaFest’s evolution and significance to the University dormitory community.
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61556139757809
Tampat Pag-addatan Sahaya: Place, Tradition and Light
Asian Center, UP Diliman
15 May 2024 – Lecture Demonstration and Exhibit Launch
15-29 May 2024 – Exhibit is officially open to the public
GT-Toyota Asian Center Auditorium & Lobby, GT-Toyota Asian Cultural Center
The Asian Center presents “Tampat Pag-addatan Sahaya: Place, Tradition and Light,” a series of lectures, performances, and photo exhibit highlighting the role of UP Diliman as a space for indigenous and marginalized cultures to be expressed.
Building on its history with the Pesta Igal series which celebrates Sama Bajau music and dance, the Asian Center aspires to share experiences, insights, and narratives, and to advocate for the enduring presence of diverse identities and expressions in the University. As a culmination to this project, the Asian Center opens a free photo exhibit on pansak dance movements of the Sama Bangingi.
Bulwagan ng Dangal 15th Anniversary Short Documentary
Bulwagan ng Dangal University Heritage Museum, UP Theater Complex, UP Diliman
Event schedule: 18 June 2024
Venue: Virtual
In its fifteenth anniversary, the Bulwagan ng Dangal University Heritage Museum will release a video that will trace its history from its beginnings as a Centennial project to what it is today as a dynamic platform for various modes of display and discourse. This sketches the museum’s shift from being a space that reared a more institutional notion of “heritage,” towards being a more participative venue for identity construction and presentation, and alternative historicization of its communities. It also highlights how the concept of “heritage” is mediated by the nature of the university as an academic institution, and the vision for UP as the state university.
Streaming platforms: Bulwagan ng Dangal University Heritage Museum Facebook
Contact information for audience inquiries: bulwaganngdangal.upd@up.edu.ph
Liwanag ng Diliman
UP Diliman College of Mass Communication Department of Broadcast Communication – DZUP
1-5 July 2024 – broadcast/ live streaming of episodes
8-31 July 2024 – Release of video release and website articles on DZUP digital platforms
Liwanag ng Diliman is a DZUP multimedia project that aims to encapsulate the spirit of “Pamamalagi at Pamamahagi”, bridging the University’s deep-seated historical roots with the dynamic sharing of knowledge. It will be produced not just for radio broadcast, but also for distribution on DZUP’s digital platforms, including the publication of website articles and vertically formatted video reels designed for a wider online audience engagement. The project will delve into key themes reflective of UP Diliman’s essence and contributions – UP and the Diliman Commune, UP as an Environmental Oasis in the Metro, and UP as an Artistic Space.
Link to online platforms:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dzup1602am
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@DZUP1602am
Website: https://dzup.org/
Contact information:
Email: dzup@up.edu.ph
Facebook messenger: https://www.facebook.com/dzup1602am
International Federation for Theatre Research Annual Conference 2024: Our States of Emergency: Theatres and Performances of Tragedy
Department of Speech Communication and Theatre Arts, UP Diliman
Event Schedule: 15 – 19 July 2024
Venue: Melchor Hall, KAL-IBG Theater, Film Center in UP Diliman; Metropolitan Theater of Manila
Through an IFTR conference dedicated to Our States of Emergency, the University of the Philippines initiates a collective gathering where artists, practitioners, academics, researchers, and scholars of theatre and performance can discuss the circumstances and consequences of past, present, and prospective tragedies that we have been variously suffering and living with. This conference invites a re-imagination of tragedy as a social experience and an aesthetic encounter that relates to but importantly exceeds classical, Aristotelian legacies. It welcomes revaluations of theatrical and performative forms—intercultural performances, melodramas, musicals and mega-musicals, avant-garde practices, and post-dramatic productions, to name a few—that depict the broad spectrum of human suffering. It offers an opportunity to re-examine how tragic moments constitute and, in turn, are constituted by the fields of theatre and performance studies. It seeks to encourage discussions on how tragedies come about on the stage, in artistic and social communities, in history and society, in cultural industries and organizations. It intends to bring together those who confront assorted tragedies in everyday life and those who make sense of the depths of the darkness where we may find ourselves situated, albeit to different, varying degrees. All in all, it hopes to locate the intersecting modes of survival and resistance, the creative means to imagine the world anew, as well as the sympathetic and sensitive modes of sharing, structuring, and saving the world from planetary destruction.
“De/Centering Southeast Asia”: 5th Biennial International Conference of the Consortium of Southeast Asian Studies in Asia
Center for International Studies, UP Diliman
Event schedule: July 18 – 20, 2024
Venue: Asian Center, University of the Philippines Diliman
“De/Centering Southeast Asia”: the 5th Biennial Conference of the Consortium for Southeast Asian Studies in Asia (SEASIA), set for 18-20 July 2024 in Manila, aims to provide a platform for scholars, policy experts, and practitioners in the region and beyond to share their research, experiences, and concerns toward promoting community-building and a deeper sense of shared future in the midst of the rapidly changing geopolitical and economic architecture at the regional and global levels. The theme interrogates the dominant narratives and perspectives historically centered in the “West” and highlights the diverse and complex experiences, histories, and cultures of the region, as told by Southeast Asians themselves.
Streaming platforms (if applicable): https://www.facebook.com/SEASIA2024
Contact information for audience inquiries:
Conference Secretariat: seasia2024.upd@up.edu.ph or at +63 962-3771709 (available on WhatsApp, Viber, Kakao Talk, and LINE)
SAYAW NG KATATAGAN
College of Human Kinetics, UP Diliman (with the Research and Creative Work Division, U.P. Resilience Institute)
February to July 2024
Quezon Hall, U.P. Diliman
The College of Human Kinetics, in collaboration with the College of Arts and Letters, College of Music, and the Research and Creative Work Office of the UP Resilience Institute, aim to “settle” resilience or “katatagan” into a space that is enduring of boundaries and limitations. Thus, a “pamamahagi” or a “reaching out” from the reactionary attitude to disasters towards resilience as a way of life; a reaching out from the confines of concepts into lived performances; and a reaching out from the Diliman Community and beyond, are the objectives of a disaster preparedness campaign that mobilizes different UPD artistic groups. An earthquake drill that is elevated to a community performance and flash mob shall launch the curriculum-based and community-led program for disaster preparedness and shall usher in the “gawi ng katatagan” – resilience as a lifestyle.
Para sa karagdagang impormasyon, pumunta lamang sa https://bit.ly/UPDACF2024 o i-scan ang QR code. Maaari ring makipag-ugnayan sa amin sa opisyal na FB page ng UPD-OICA o mag-email sa specialprojects_oica.upd@up.edu.ph. Kita-kits!
