DEC13_SUPERDUPERFINAL

the abundance of murals that dotted the city’s scape (courtesy of,
among others, corporate giants with deep social responsibility and
equally deep pockets like Ayala and Megaworld), VIVA ExCon
Iloilo encouraged delegates to view these either through a bike or a
jeepney tour.
As articulated by the design of the biennale’s souvenir T-shirt, the
delegates were invited to embrace (Hakus) the arts of the island
as entertainment galore was provided from the first night at the
University of San Agustin auditorium where visitors were treated to
an evening of Ilonggo songs, dances and drama (that left many of
us, Bacoleños green with envy for not knowing our culture better)
to the last night where the award-winning chorale of John B. Lacson
Maritime Foundation University serenaded the visitors with a select
repertoire during the farewell dinner at Casa Real hosted by Mayor
Jed Mabilog who personally welcomed the delegates.
Ilonggo hospitality was likewise extended by the provincial
government when Governor Arthur Defensor opened the doors of
his home to a dinner where visual artist Ed Defensor stood in for
his absent brother.
Pavia abstract sculptor Timoteo Jumayaw reigned alone the next
night at the Iloilo Museum in a retrospective of his works while
fellow visual artists shared the limelight with other Garbo awardees at
the Casa Real. Two of them were from Cebu: Antonio Alcoseba and
Javy Villacin, one from Iloilo, Alain Hablo and one from Bacolod,
Manny Montelibano. On the other hand, Ilonggo filmmaker Elvert
Banares and Canadian-based film animator Alex Exmundo raised
the host city’s win to three while Tacloban claimed the lone female
awardee in teacher/artist Dulce Anacion.
The book fascinated Peter no end because like most Western Visayans,
he believed in the veracity of the Maragtas. Convinced of a Visayan
“birth of the nation” tracing its roots to the Madjapahit empire,
Peter bought wholesale the account of the mass migration from
Borneo to Panay of our Visayan ancestors and the barter of Panay
from the Ati chief Marikudo. For the artwork Peter and Moreen
conceived of a sculptural structure consisting of bamboo splints
and rattan in the shape of a jar evoking the Manunggul jar with its
concept of navigating another world but capped this with a sailboatlike
structure that alluded to the caracoa or the Western–Visayan
warship which was manned in the olden days by the artist who
as navigator determined the direction of the trip. The installation
aimed to evoke a time when the artist as the multifaceted babaylan
played a central role in society not just as” keeper and transmitter of
racial memory” or as adviser or counselor the way Bangotbanwa in
Shri-Bishaya did to Datu Sumakwel but as “healer, historian, artist,
ritual-producer, priestess, proto-scientist and mediator between the
material and spiritual world.”
As VIVA ExCon moved from two highly urbanized cities to a less
urbanized one, its focus shifted to the rural which the organization
admitted had been neglected. Consequently, aspiring to return to
its roots, VIVA ExCon Capiz reimagined the rural as the source
of inspiration articulated by the lullaby Dandansoy. This nostalgic
theme was faithfully carried out from the opening ceremony
where a Panay Bukidnon chanter arrayed in traditional panubok
performed a ritual to bring good luck to the conference /exhibit
down to an exhibit entitled Bulad at Baybay Beach, Roxas City by
Karay-a Koliktib (Pearl Diano. Alexander Espanola, and Brian Liao)
which refers to the humblest fare in Western Visayan cuisine that
cuts across all linguistic groups: Ilonggo, Akeanon, Karay-a.
My recollections of the 2014 Iloilo VIVA ExCon are colored by
the fact that I came both as participant as well as observer, having
teamed up with two young, talented artists: James Peter Fantinalgo
and Moreen Austria with whom I worked previously in a sculptural
exhibit entitled LAWIG which opened May 19, 2016 at the Cultural
Center of the Philippines. The show explored the search for roots
inspired by my first book History and Society in the Novels of
Ramon Muzones (2001).
On the other hand, our entry for the Iloilo VIVA ExCon took its
cue from award-winning Hiligaynon novelist Ramon Muzones’
recasting of Monteclaro’s controversial Maragtas which he entitled
Shri-Bishaya, whose translation into English I did the year before.
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The Panay Bukidnons likewise took center stage in Liby Limoso’s
Conjunctions of Meaning and Place at the Water tank Museum where
the face of Manlilikha ng Bayan Federico Caballero was projected
on the wall as his chanting of the Panay epics or sugidanun (now
taught at the School of Living Traditions) was played. Reinforcing
the nostalgia for the past also at the Water Tank Museum was a
tribute to pioneering artists, a number of them with unfinished
degrees, who laid the groundwork for visual arts in Capiz. Among
these were: Lino Villaruz and Ricardo Lauz, founders and initiators
of the Art Association of Capiz, the oldest and largest art group
in the province; instructors Arcadio Apolinario, Nelson Sorillo and
archetypes: Terry Gavino and Mike Cartujano.