26/09/2025
๐๐ก๐ฒ ๐ฐ๐ ๐๐ก๐จ๐ฎ๐ฅ๐๐งโ๐ญ โ๐๐ซ๐๐ฌ๐๐ซ๐ฏ๐โ ๐๐ฎ๐ฅ๐ญ๐ฎ๐ซ๐
The open forum session of the first day of MinArt Talks was made lively by discussions on the need to keep cultures dynamic.
Members of the audience were startled by speaker Steven Fernandezโ pronouncement that โwe must not preserve culture.โ One audience member asked for clarification on this, as it went against their cultural education.
โLook at your own clothes, why are you not wearing Baro at Saya or Patadyong?โ asked Steven Fernandez in response, explaining how cultures need to adapt their elements to the changing times and environments in order to survive.
Speaker Teng Mangansakan used a different metaphor โ cellular phones. โBack then the Gador was considered the marker of prestige. Now we flex the latest model of phones. Would you flaunt a Gador on Instagram in order to show you are rich? In the future, the new phone you are flaunting now will also be considered buki.โ Speaker Bing Cariรฑo mentions as a good demonstration of the need to evolve one phone brand, which originally dominated the market but which has now all but disappeared because it failed to adapt.
Underlining the spirit of rebellion he mentioned in his talk on Bangsamoro art, speaker Teng Mangansakan pointed out that there is innovation even in the traditions, with weavers of the Maguindanaon Inawl for instance now experimenting with new colours. He also pointed out that many traditional communities are now exploring new, non-traditional media like film (something he himself, a Maguindanaon, is involved with).
It is Teng who points out that the audience seems to be dealing with a faulty lexicon. โPreservationโ as the audience members mean it is to maintain traditional cultural elements, but Stevenโs use of it underlines the counterproductive tendency of many institutions to stifle evolution and insist on keeping things as they were imagined to be in the past. โTo preserve culture is to put it inside glass in a museum,โ said Bing. โInside that glass, culture is dead.โ โYou do not preserve culture,โ reiterated Steven, โyou strengthen the fibres of its integrity in order to keep it alive.โ Moderator Karlo Antonio Galay David quoted Gustav Mahler to sum the thought, โ๐ก๐๐๐๐๐ก๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐กโ๐ ๐๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐ ๐กโ๐ ๐๐๐๐, ๐๐๐ก ๐กโ๐ ๐ค๐๐๐ โ๐๐ ๐๐ ๐กโ๐ ๐๐ โ๐๐ .โ
Another question thrown at the speakers that generated considerable discussion is on three elements of art taught to the audience member (a student): intention, ex*****on, and reception. The audience member asked if an artwork would still be considered art if one of the elements is missing. The speakers all agree that the only concern of the artist is to create, with how artworks are received (if it is to be understood at all) ultimately up to an audience, if there is one.
Steven draws from his experience as theatre director and shares that often, the audiences play a bigger role than we give them credit for in the shaping of a performance. Teng too shares his experiences as filmmaker, and how he often finds himself surprised that certain audiences receive the artworks well. Bing sums up the point by telling the creative to relax, because often all three elements are already in the artwork, which should be allowed to take on a life of its own.
When asked to give his own assessment of the future of indigenous art (mirroring the conclusion of Tengโs talk), Bing shares his experiences working with traditional weaving communities and how there has been a shift in the system of patronage from the indigenous political structure to collectors and cultural institutions. This shift has ironically stifled the evolution of indigenous arts, as these new patrons often insist on that โpreservationโ that the audience members are also insisting on.
This is echoed in Tengโs experience in Lake Sebu, where excessive bureaucracy ostensibly meant to โpreserveโ the heritage site has instead stifled efforts like his to breathe new life into it with art. He warns that the danger of this excessive gatekeeping is that unscrupulous creators would simply perpetuate easily accessible distortions.
This point on outsiders taking part in a communityโs process โ itself subject to a question โ further underlined the need to empower communities to harness art to stimulate dynamism for their cultures.
Speaking of his experience directing Teatro Ambahanonโs Tnalak (which was performed in the Gala), Bing shares that it is often outsiders who are more conservative and resistant to innovation compared to communities. Teng shares the unique perspective of a Maguindanaon filmmaker attempting to make a film about a neighbouring culture, the Teduray. Responding to one of Tengโs experiences of a non-Moro filmmaker branding his own work as โBangsamoro film,โ Steven emphasizes the need to disclose provenance and intent. The question of what is โauthentic,โ he pointed out, is much more nuanced that is apparent: an artwork by an outsider may be considered derivative when speaking in terms of the source culture, but to the outsider artistโs own cosmopolitan milieu such an artwork would be part of his own authentic taking part in his culture.
The first day of MinArt Talks triggered shifts in the paradigms of many, and speakers and audience members alike all ended up emphasizing the empowering nature of art to transform cultures.
๐SM Cinema 2, SM Lanang, Davao City
