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I am in Bagio in the Philippines. It is a town in the mountains, 250 km North from Manila. I arrived a few days ago and I decided to come here because Baguio is a well-known place for healing. Many Filipino healers live around here.
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Yesterday I decided to visit a traditional artists village called Taw-Awan.
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It is an artist community village in the mountain, where there are traditional Ifugao and Kalinga huts. There is beautiful nature all around ! It is a kind of organized forest garden.
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…The artists’ works of art are exhibited in the nature and inside the huts. Through their art, these artists share the traditional cultural heritage of the Cordillera people – the mountain area in which Baguio is located.
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I walked around, up and down, in and around the huts.
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…I went to the coffee shop to taste a typical mountain limonade with honey, sat in the sunshine to wonder at a traditional danse and music show.
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I really loved it ! I loved the freshness of the air, the fact that I was the only Western traveller, the green flourishing nature, the traditional music and danse and costumes, and most of all… I loved the beauty of the works of art.
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I loved the artistic universe that it pictured.
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…And I am experiencing something really interesting and great in terms of perception of the world… After a few months far away from normal life and work reality, I feel that I am really developing my connection to my emotions and to my heart.
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I learn to use less my mind and more my heart.
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While I go through this journey and exploration, I feel more and more touched at the level of the heart and the emotions.
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It is as if I had activated a new antenna in my body. It took such a long time ! 5 months. I am going through this « unlearning and relearning process ».
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Yesterday, I somehow took a bath of art.
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Today, while I am writing, it appears to me that art is a wonderful revealer of this emotions-connection process.
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I like to use this image I discovered from Thomas d’Ansembourg : I am « travelling across the longest distance in the world : the distance between the mind and the heart. »
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As I was saying, I felt very sensitive about the beauty of the Tam-Awan works of art and what they were about.
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They were about Nature and human beings. About the relationship between human beings and Nature. About rice terraces. About the representation of abundance and fertility. About symbols – like the lizard. About divine feminity and masculinity. About divinities. About rituals.
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…I loved the landscapes, the portraits of people. The colors, the technique. Not every work of art. But many of them. I felt deeply touched.
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It was like going back in time, and in the same time the messages seemed so connected to the present.
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It brought me back to a time – a kind of golden age – where human beings were more respectful of Nature. When they were more connected to their food, their environment, their community, themselves. When there was more gratitude for what the universe provides. When there was more awareness of life and death. A time when there was an awareness of the sacred dimension of life.
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And actually, I realize that in the Philippines I feel much more in touch with this, because the country is much less developed than the Western world and a lot of people are farmers.
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I see people working in the fields.
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I see people carrying mountains of coconuts. I see people in the street selling oranges. I see fishermen carrying the catch of the day. I see rice fields and I I have all the time to wonder at the fact that it takes months for a grain of rice to be ready to be eaten by human beings…
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At the Enchanted Farm, I felt connected to the reality of earth, growing crops, the time Nature needs to provide fruits… At lunch time, some of the social entrepreneurs and volunteers would speak about their morning activities : it was about slaughtering chickens, checking if ducks are still laying eggs, worries about the goat having a cold, making sure there is food for the silkworms…
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I planted lemongrass in the early morning with the very joyful and courageous Tita Jo – very hard work !
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What a contrast for me ! I am very intellectual, I love evolving in a world of concepts and ideas, connect and share with people. This experience helped me to get in touch to this very important reality of matter (la matière).
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But let’s come back to our wonderful Tam-Awan village !
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I was about to leave when I noticed a last room that I had not seen. I went there and started looking at the paintings. A Filipino man came into the room and walked towards me. We started to talk. He was an artist from the community. His name was Art. We shared about his art, his activity as an involved artist, and the messages he wanted to convey through his work.
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…We had an immediate connection, because the topics we shared about, as they related to his work as an artist, were quickly deep. Protecting the environment, spiritual vision of the world, valuing abandoned beauty, hidden urban realities, mountain traditions.
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He showed me around the places I had not seen (I could have a look inside the traditional huts where travelers can spend a night), told me about the organization of the artists community and the events happening in the village, explained to me things that I had not understood or perceived.
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He offered me to bring me to his mentor’s art studio.
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So we took a taxi and went there.
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We walk in small streets where there are both houses and places where people raise pigs (!!). And we reach a colorful house. It is both the house and the studio of Jordan, Art’s friend and mentor.
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Downstairs, I meet Jordan’s wife and his grandson Magnus.
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We go up. This really is an artist house ! There are works of art everywhere and the walls are colorful.
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I do not even know where to look, there are fascinating works of art all around… I love it.
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We go on climbing stairs.
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And reach the terrasse ! This place is absolutely wonderful.
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It is blue, and there are paintings and creations everywhere !
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And all around, we see the mountains. What a magic place to work !
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I meet Jordan.
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Jordan is a joyful and welcoming man. He is a talented artist that conveys the Cordillera cultural traditions through his work. One of his specificity is to use magnifying glass in his creation process. Jordan is also the President of the community of Tam-Awan artists.
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We start talking. Jordan offers to prepare coffee. He has just arranged a beautiful special place on this art studio – terrasse to cook and boil water.
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Jordan and Art show me around, I ask questions about their work.
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It is traditional art from the Ifugao culture.
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And again, I find it wonderful, because of the density of heritage and culture that it carries, the stories it tells, the authenticity and the passion in the work.
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There are painted skulls of carabao (buffalos), recycled material, painted bamboo and wood, so many different objects, totems, chairs made of tires…
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And plants, and flowers everywhere.
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He and Art talk to me about the challenges they have to earn money thanks to their art creation activity – as artists, they are not really into business development or marketing… They tell me about big events that they are preparing, voluntary work the community does to contribute to develop the beauty of Baguio (which needs to be developed), workshops they organize for children, funding they need…
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I share with them about the crowdfunding platform Kickstarter and the powerful creative sphere digital market-place Fiverr… tradition meets modernity, art meets technology, right ?!
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Later on, we share about the Filipino culture, about the strengths of the country, and the drawbacks (they mention the crab mentality for example – people not willing their neighbour to succeed). We speak about the way the society is evolving, and the space that there is and will be in the future for cultural and spiritual Cordillera traditions. We speak about religion, the importance of Christianity in the Philippines.
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Wonderful conversation !
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Around 6, we take a jeepney (unique colorful and decorated jeeps that are used for collective transportation) with Art and go to the center of Baguio. He brings me to a very nice café/restaurant called Oh My Gulay ! (which means : Oh My Vegetables !) which is like a garden. It is the inauguration of an exhibition of a group of artists Art belongs to. There are also art performances, and music.
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Very nice moment !
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And that was the end of my wonderful unexpected day of discovering the Cordillera tradition artists and creations… And also my last day in Baguio.
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« A bon entendeur salut » / « A word to the wise is enough » …
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My new friend Art has already travelled to Thailand and India to do workshops and develop his network with artists.
He would love to broaden his horizons, so do not hesitate to contact him :
Art Lozano – Tam Awan village in Baguio
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And Jordan shared with me the link of a 10 minutes documentary in which he appears.
His facebook page : https://www.facebook.com/TamawanVillage?fref=ts
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Art, Jordan, thank you ! And all the best to you !
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