(FEB 6)鈥擯ublic performances were simultaneously staged at 3 p.m. on Feb. 1 in four different locations at the 吃瓜论坛 (UPD) to open this year鈥檚 3-month Festival of Culture and of the Arts.
Taludturan: Poetry of the Body is a series of performances inquiring into encounters of the body vis-脿-vis several concepts of beauty, love and desire, revolt and death. The performances are in tune with the Festival鈥檚 theme of Kat(h)awan: Bodies, Culture and Society, which seeks to answer the question 鈥淲hat do we mean when we talk about bodies in Philippine culture and society?鈥
At the Melchor Hall lobby, 鈥淓ncounter: Glimpses of Beauty鈥 featured dance artist PJ Rebullida and Jose Buencamino on percussions. They interpreted the Filipino translation of Octavio Paz鈥檚 鈥淗aplos鈥 and Cirilio Bautista鈥檚 鈥淭ula ng Katawan,鈥 engaging and confronting the audience in their exploration of how bodies change and are changed by others through what they see and touch.听听
鈥淧art 2, Exchange: Poems that Love/Make Love,鈥 was performed at the UP Shopping Center. The show featured Bunny Cadag and Buboy Raquitico, with Jacques Dufourt on percussions, who performed a piece inspired by Ronald Baytan鈥檚 鈥淗e who sleeps in my lap鈥 in a poetic choreographic performance of the politics and the shifting power relations of two bodies in the process of falling in, being in, and making love.
Meanwhile, students at the Palma Hall lobby witnessed a rousing performance from artist Boyet De Mesa, musician RJ Balledos and theatre students Roger Federico and Nico Varona. In Conflict: Body in Revolt, De Mesa and his collaborators created an embodied image of pain, suffering and collective anger as they interpreted Pete Lacaba鈥檚 鈥淚n Memoriam鈥 as homage to victims of Martial Law during the Marcos administration and of the recent extra-judicial killings. The performance included the element of Day-eng鈥 a funeral chant from the Kankana-eys of Benguet, according to Federico, co-dramaturg and performer.
Lastly, performance artist Nerisa Del Carmen Guevara illustrated, for the probing audience at the College of Mass Communication Lobby, the (in)visible connections of living and/or dead people through seemingly endless red strings she made use of in her performance of Infinite Gestures: Red Strings of Fate (Connections). The work is part of her Elegy Series she considers as 鈥渂ridges and gestures for the beloved on the Other World.鈥
Taludturan: Poetry of the Body will again be staged on Feb. 8 and 15 in different locations of the same four venues. On Feb. 21 and 22, the final performances will be at the Asian Center at 1:30 p.m.
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