DEC13_SUPERDUPERFINAL

On Seeing the Kalibutan
by Liby Limoso
In 2018, I worked on Conjunctions of Meaning and Place for
VIVA ExCon Capiz. It was during my research on the present-day
places that were the settings of the stories of the Sugidanun (Pan-ay,
Halawod, Madya-as and Kanlaon) as well as my exposure to the harsh
realities being faced by the people in these areas that prompted me
to choose themes that revolve on surundon or heritage. It is quite
ironic that the people of these spaces that supposedly set the stage
for the stories of grandeur and heroism are and have been subject to
poverty, landlessness, displacement, and oppression – dehumanizing
conditions which have deprived them of any opportunity to look
back, much less appreciate, this heritage which is also rightfully
theirs. Such contradictions also exist in the structures that represent
colonial heritage, as it is from the people’s invisible labor that these
representations are built by. It is from these images that I have begun
to ask myself: for whom is this art that we do, this kalibutan that we
try to make sense of?
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The art scene in Panay Island and Negros, young as it may be, is
full of potential. Like seedlings in a garden, it is in need of constant
cultivation and nourishment for it to grow well and bear fruit. The
repository of tangible and intangible cultural heritage that has been
handed down from generation to generation and the fusion of
indigenous elements and colonial themes through the phenomenon
of transculturation offers a variety of good seeds. While most of our
artists and audiences are still in the realist and expressionist phases,
still yet to digest and appreciate the plurality of contemporary
artistic expressions, the scene has nevertheless experienced a radical
transformation. The presence, for example, of Rock Drilon in Iloilo,
Norberto Roldan and Marika Constantino in Capiz and other
young returning artists has energized the scene in Panay Island
in the past eight years. Meanwhile, collector Edwin Valencia has
partnered with Megaworld Corporation to exhibit his collection at
the Iloilo Museum of Contemporary Art. Moreover, the provinces
of Iloilo and Capiz have hosted the two previous VIVA ExCons,
with Antique being groomed to host the next.
At first glance, an explicit element in the art and cultural scene of
Western Visayas, particularly in the centers of Iloilo and Negros, is
the predominance of colonial heritage – from the Baroque churches,
mansions, estates of sugar barons, literature, to the performing arts.
The grandeur of this heritage, which is highlighted in tourism as
well as in academic circles, is the product of societal and historical
forces. Iloilo City, was once named the Queen City of the South;
the cultural, academic, commercial, and political center of the
Western Visayas by the mid-19th century during the zenith of the