59th Venice Arts Biennale Puts Pre-Colonial Filipino Heritage on Spotlight

Taking cues from the rich Cordilleran heritage of weaving and chanting, the Philippine representatives at the 59th International Art Exhibition, la Biennale di Venezia, mount a grand contemporary exhibition with visual art, textiles, and sound as media

Opening publicly on April 23, the Philippine Pavilion located at the Arsenale di Venezia takes art lovers to a whole new level of experience for the Venice Arts Biennale. Entitled, "Andi taku e sana, Amung taku di sana", which translates to "All of us present, This is our gathering" is an immersive installation art that celebrates the longstanding heritage of Filipino weaving and chanting.

Originally conceived by visual artist Gerardo Tan and ethnomusicologist Felicidad A Prudente, the exhibition translates the music of the Madukayan Kalinga ethnolinguistic group from the Cordillera highlands into visual art in video and textile materials, through the hands of weaving artisan Sammy N Buhle from Ifugao. First seen in Vargas Museum at the University of the Philippines Diliman in 2019, the initial exhibition eventually developed to a larger scale through curators Yael Buencamino Borromeo and Arvin Flores, making it worthy to be this year's representative of the country for the Venice Biennale.

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The exhibition title is derived from the opening lines of a Sogna, a chant performed by the Madukayan Kalinga prior to a peaceful dialogue among the members of the community. Tackling commonality among people, the importance of peace and harmony in community-building, and the possibility of bridging different forms of art, the exhibition explores cultural expressions of both traditional and contemporary forms.

Tan's Speaking in Tongue, a two-channel video installation showcases the translation of a traditional chant into a performative painting using squid ink as a medium. Buhle's Renderings series features the notations by Prudente of the weaving sounds from different parts of the country translated into textiles, also documented on video and audio.

Photo 1 of 3 Sammy N Buhle, Felicidad Prudente, and Gerardo Tan, "Rendering 3 (Metro Manila-Ifugao)"

Photo 2 of 3 Sammy N Buhle, Felicidad Prudente, and Gerardo Tan, detail, "Rendering 1 (Iloilo-Ifugao)"

Photo 3 of 3 Sammy N Buhle, Felicidad Prudente, and Gerardo Tan, detail, "Rendering 7 (Abra - Ifugao)"

"The act of gathering and of being present as a community manifests a collective consciousness of reaching a common aspiration, despite differences in interests and views," as stated in the press statement of Philippine Arts in Venice Biennale (PAVB). The PAVB is a collaborative undertaking of the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA), the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) and the office of deputy speaker and congresswoman Loren Legarda.

"'All of us present, This is our gathering' is an exhibition that involves an interdisciplinary approach to transmitting culture with sound and textile, weaving the customary and the contemporary across the archipelago. It presents a highly mediated process of generating sound, performance, image and object by conveying the production and translation of the source cultural sounds of chanting and weaving into notations, visual art and textiles," the statement wrote.

Photo 1 of 3 Video still of Gerardo Tan's "Speaking in Tongue"

Photo 2 of 3 Sammy N Buhle, Felicidad Prudente, and Gerardo Tan, sound transcriptions and drawings

Photo 3 of 3 Felicidad Prudente and Gerardo Tan

The curators Borromeo (Lopez Museum and Library) and Flores (Artery Art Space) shared in an exclusive interview with Tatler that when they saw the pioneer collaboration of the artists which was then called "Visualising Sound," its relevance to the current global crises and how we address it adds depth to it, not to mention that it would look far better in a bigger space.

Working on the project for about two years, the artists and curators resorted to virtual means to communicate with each other remotely as the COVID-19 quarantine measures posed challenges to them. Thankfully, the artists were able to do their immersions prior to the pandemic.

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With much tenacity, as well as help from other artist-friends they have tapped, the team was able to produce pieces that would give visitors an enveloping atmosphere when they enter the Arsenale and appreciate heritage traditions that resonate with other foreign cultures. The exhibition opens new doors for these age-old traditions through the artists' unique contemporary take on them. Moreover, it reintroduces to the people a paradigm of a community governed by peace, harmony, and fellowship—some of the qualities that matter the most in this period of our continuous history.

The 59th Venice Arts Biennale will have its vernissage on the 21st and 22nd of April. It will be opened publicly on April 23 and will run until November 27.

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Enter a Multi-Sensory Filipino Exhibition at the 59th Venice Arts Biennale