Artists to stage 'Markets of Resistance' in Baguio

In the age of consumption and struggle to assert indigenous identity, the Institute for Heritage, Culture and the Arts in the School of Fine Art and Design at the Philippine Women's University(PWU) and AX(is) Art Project have collaborated to stage Markets of Resistance, a visual and interdisciplinary trade-barter exhibition that features painting, photography, media installations, mixed media works, Zines, performances and a spoken word event.

From October 25 to November 9, the Baguio City Market will turn into a market for art. "The market is where you see life," the event's head organizer Angel Velasco Shaw of PWU School of Fine Art and Design explained at a press conference promoting the event.

"It is where culture is, where life thrives. You feel a sense of people." The project, Shaw said, looks into the question "How have the people in Baguio merged their cultures and histories in a traditional sense and contemporary sense?"

The exhibit opens on the afternoon of October 25 with an opening ritual. Baguio City Treasurer Alicia Onoza is the invited guest speaker. The opening of the barter and trade and site-specific installations at the different stalls will follow. Among the installations is artist Kawayan de Guia's "De Liberating", which will be propped on top of the Rillera building. A "Kapwahan at Kwentuhan" will take place in the evening at the Victor Oteyza Community Art Space or VOCAS.

IPoetry, a poetry performance and readings event celebrating Indigenous Peoples' Month, will happen on October 26. Performers and readers at the event are members of writing and poetry groups such as the Ubbog Cordillera Young Writers, Monday Poets, Baguio Writers Group, Pedantic Pedestrians, and Gumil. IPoetry will start at 3:00PM at Hangar Market, Block 3.

Another activity is the IP in the Souvenir exhibit which will open in the evening of October 26 at the Katipunan RestoArt. The exhibit aims to shed light on "iconic and yet every day pieces found in the stalls across the souvenir shops in the City of Baguio". While the exhibit is ongoing, lectures by journalist Frank Cimatu ("Agsaok Man!") and anthropologist Padma Perez ("Markets") will be given as well as a screening of a short film by Yeoh Seng Guan called "God, Balut, and Ice Cream".

From October 27-November 9, the barter and trade continue with different scheduled activities. Artworks will be sold not in the traditional form of monetary exchange but instead through negotiation between buyer and artist about what they deem to be the artwork's equivalent value in goods that meet the artist's daily needs in life (e.g. food, clothing, houseware) which the buyers must purchase themselves and give to the artists in exchange for their work.

Participating in the art show are PWU SFAD students, Baguio and Manila artists, poets, scholars, and cultural community workers. (PIA)