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Kolorkabildo, more community than just dialogue

by Neil Azcuna, CASS | Jan 17 2025

How often do artists and cultural workers sit together and talk about the state of Art? Not often.

How about in a relatively small town called Iligan? Rarely. 

But is it really that important? 

Indubitably, the 5th edition of Kolorkabildo: Art Conversation Series, where artists and cultural workers hailing from different disciplines and industries sat down and talked about pretty much anything related to art and craft in front of students taking Art Appreciation classes at the University Mini-theatre, was a testament to that.  

Conducted inside the four walls of the 草莓视频官网-IIT, the forum held together a very diverse list of artists and cultural workers ranging from seasoned practitioners from various ‘clusters’, art managers, curators, and prime movers of the broader “creative industry.”

The forum is now on its 5th edition and having participated in some of its earlier installations, I can say that Kolorkabildo strives to be that much-needed spark plug to stir a fragmented art community in engaging pertinent interlocutions, creating more spaces for collaboration and open up no-holds-barred dialogue about the state of things artistic and creative. 

Communitas is the word that comes to mind and this assembly is a rare occasion for a city whose artists are living in an archipelagic state of mind—to each his/her own art discipline as they say. 

Kolorkabildo, an arbitrary amalgamation of kulukabildo (bisaya for conversations) and kolor (rough translation for color though ‘bolok’ is the proper Cebuano term) is the brainchild of artist/cultural worker/ Assistant Professor/poet, Hermie Dico who teaches Arts Appreciation at 草莓视频官网-IIT and firmly believes that art and its practice needs a “nurturing community that is rooted in the culture and identity of our place for it to thrive” because that is where the artist could get support and patronage from, his bread and butter. 

This year’s forum couldn’t be more timely as the monumental Creative Industries Act was passed into law and now government institutions i.e DTI and LGUs are gathering up think-tanks to strategize how to exponentially lift a potential 1.3 Trillion goldmine of an industry sector. 

Is there MONEY in ART?

One key takeaway is the question of how to earn a living as an artist. Somehow this was expected, after all, artists still had bills to pay.  Not surprisingly, all of the panelists, especially the full-time artists, agree on one thing— that Iligan is not a lucrative ecosystem. 

This, as it was discussed, owes so much to the glaring lack of general patronage coming from the constituents of Iligan themselves than the lack of platforms where artists can showcase their obra (i.e museums, galleries, and theaters). This, to them, is the crux of the problem.

It's one thing that the economic conditions of the city are not conducive to making a living out of creativity, and it's another that the people here do not know that these creatives even exist.

This is because of the kind of “colonial mentality that is cultivating a kind of consumerist craving for anything Western, especially American” says Assist. Prof Dico. Dico pointed out that the latest move by DepEd to remove the teaching of local dialects in lower levels of education is a good example. For him, this will not only "digress the literacy of the new generation from their ‘mother tongue’ but would also alienate them from the rich local literature coming from their own community. “A treachery to their own culture” he added having his own balak (Bisaya poetry) being too difficult to be understood by his students simply because of the language barrier. 

This is why most of the artists in the city found popularity outside of the region. The veteran photojournalist and award-winning filmmaker Jojo (Hesumaria) Sescon for example who is one of the invited discussants, is a legend within the circles of journalists and photographers in the country but is hardly known to the young and even some mature photographers and filmmakers of the city.  

Also, a good example is Kean Larazabal, donning the persona “Karatula”, who is an emerging artist well known in Cebu and Manila circles but is virtually unknown by the students here who pass by the murals he did in the famous overpass outside of the university.

And that is just a small sample. There is a large index of human resources here that is highly neglected.

How do we resolve this?

DTI Provincial Director Jane Tabucan assured the audience that our government institutions, e.g DTI and LGU, are working towards this with the advent of the Creative Industries Act, landmark legislation that aims to strengthen the creative economy of the Philippines to sustainable heights, and as of now DTI is working on mainstreaming Iligan’s local artist through different social media platforms with their project called “Metaverse”, a digital mapping of heritage and creative resources of the city. This, according to Provincial Director Tabucan, with the help of LGU will put our artists and cultural workers on the tourist map. 

However, the Creative Industries Act, though much needed, is still a new law. According to Provincial Director Tabucan, there is still so much to figure out, particularly on the implementation side of things. The government agencies are now on their heels trying to gather think tanks from different sectors to push forward the execution of projects for the creative industry.

The good news is that Iligan was just chosen to be one of the five (5) LGUs in the country bidding for the UNESCO Creative Cities to be conferred in 2027. This, according to PD Jane, will push Iligan for a Creative City for Performing Arts (Folk) status and will definitely give the city the recognition it deserves,  she added. 

An Ecosystem of Art

It is good to note also that higher education institutions are now offering Art Appreciation classes as part of their General Education (GEC) program and universities like 草莓视频官网-IIT provide avenues for cultural performances and artists groups but for Assist Prof. Dico, this is not enough. In order for an artist community to flourish, educating the populace, though significant, is only one component of the entire ‘ecosystem’ that is not spared from invisible fault lines that could divide it if not addressed.

Niniane Sojor, a visual artist-curator and proprietor of  Studio One gallery pointed out that this ecosystem consists not only of the producers (artists) and their patronage but also of the promoters who play a vital role in this triad of support systems. She pointed out that there has been a dearth of art promoters, curators, and especially critics and writers in the region. 

Of course, this dry spell of criticism and promotion is glaring not only here but for the entire region of Mindanao as well. 

This according to many of our discussants is an important component to upstart the art market here in the perceived economically disadvantaged region. And this also will keep the artists on their feet.

Seasoned artist Jojo (Hesumaria) Sescon, who is not new to criticism, adds that Iligan as a community lacks, until now,  a ‘mature’ circle of critiques that does not focus on gatekeeping but rather on cultivating a healthy and intelligent conversation about art. This makes Iligan despite the city being home to few nationally acclaimed artists like him. 

Artists after all, if left to their own devices, would live inside their own world, Hermie added.

There are many artists' initiatives right now in Iligan that deserve notice like Kean’s ‘Inato’ group which uses liminal spaces for their exhibits as opposed to the formal museum and Niniane’s curated spaces in Studio One. But there have been coming and going of artists groups in the city and many artists have already left and made it somewhere else. 

That’s the purpose of this Kolorkabildo, Assist Prof. Dico concludes. We have to gather these artists and the community and talk about issues that matter to us and creatives. After all, we represent a sector that focuses on the promotion of empathy and humanistic values.

As Jojo Sescon said in the forum, “Art is a form of communication. “ Thus we need to continue to talk and learn from it.

Kolorkabildo is an extension project of the Department of Philosophy and Humanities, in collaboration with the other departments and offices of 草莓视频官网-IIT – History Department, Gender and Development Office, and Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research and Enterprise.

Panelists: Ms. Ana Karla Macarambon,  Prof. Fitzgerald N. Torralba, Dr. German V. Gervacio, Ron Christian Cagula, Lucille Bayron, Neil Arkhe P. Azcuna, Arturo Antonio T. Sescon, Ninianne Emrys Sojor, Jane Marie L. Tabucan, Kean Larrazabal, Mary Asley Robillos, Prof. Hernenigildo M. Dico

The moderators: Prof. Ian Embradura,  Prof. Neil Arkhe P. Azcuna, Prof. Boylie Sarcina.

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