Filipino kapwa reigns anew

Most Filipinos have a genuine tendency to share everything they have — from a simple snack or a drink offered to a complete stranger, or the best room in one’s home to an invited house guest, this all comes from the heart. This forms the essence of the word kapwa.

Loosely translated as fellowship, neighbor, or even kindred, kapwa has become a core tenet of the Filipino culture and has somehow been a constant fixture in our DNA.

Katrin de Guia, author of the eye-opener Kapwa: The Self in the Other and wife of National Artist for film Kidlat Tahimik, once said that “once you learn about kapwa, you’ll see it all over Filipino culture.”

As one of its activities for the 50th anniversary celebration of the Ayala Museum, the institution now spotlights Nueva Ecija-based visual artist Joshua Limon Palisoc, with the mounting of Dambana ng Kapwa: Indigenous Spirituality as Resistance from Colonialism.

Palisoc grew up surrounded by discarded materials such as wood, plastic, glass and metal as they ran family business junk shop. His creativity was sparked and later developed, as he always tried to create prototypes from these thrown out scraps. He was exposed to superstitions and belief in the divine.

“These beliefs are a natural part of everyday life here in the province. Also because of pop culture — from the films we watched when we were young, like horror films — which incorporated a lot of myths, local myths and folklore,” he expounded.

Dambana ng Kapwa serves as a tapestry of animist, Hindu, and Roman and folk Catholic spiritual symbols in a marriage of foreign and indigenous cultures. But what inspired this movement?

“It was actually a form of rebellion. Folklore and mythology are supposed to be a part of our spirituality. But because of pop culture, these got reduced into horror, to entertainment. It was a deep-rooted infliction. It was a decision for me to bring back the spirituality in folklore and mythology,” he admitted.

Each of the six distinct sculptures is created from stainless-steel wire frames with light-emitting diodes. The results are open works, where one can see the components, thereby removing the wall between the inside and outside, literally and figuratively.

They are scattered around the Ayala Museum Front Plaza, and passersby may view this from a distance. It is set up like a dambana, a sacred space where the spiritual and material worlds overlap. In an oval shape, the installation is a reference to the balangay, a water vessel used for trade and warfare and believed to be the origin of the word barangay, which pertained to the villages of families onboard the boats.

The dambana focuses on three aspects of existence — individual, social, and natural, represented by diwatas. Each piece has a color, which is a direct ode to and inspired by Barangaw, the Visayan war god of the rainbow, and the Buddhist concept of chakra, which are specific areas of the body where one can channel psychic energies.

Kalikasan: Inseparability from Nature features Ugat, or nature spirits from whom we seek permission before human intervention in nature. Its chakra is red in the roots.

Another is Yawa, the forgotten feminine divine warrior, who symbolizes primal instincts demonized by the norms. Her chakra is located in the sacral region of the hipbones, in orange.

Kapwa-Tao: Harmony and Oneness with Other People refers to the Ina, the divine maternal figure. Its chakra is green in the heart.

One more is Tayo, which is twin figures sharing the same entrails, an ode to the Filipino expression, “Magka-dugtong sa bituka.” Their chakra is the third eye, in indigo.

Sarili: Reviving One’s Sense of Humanity refers to Ginhawa, the relief with one’s body, mind and spirit. Its chakra is blue in the throat.

One more feature is Tagapagligtas, touted as a return to the authentic self as we discover ancestral knowledge. Its chakra is located in the solar plexus, in yellow.

Each piece has a poem in Filipino/Tagalog, which adds to the entire contemplative experience. I suggest you drop by near sunset to fully experience the setup with bright colored chakra lights amidst a gentle breeze.

Palisoc hopes that Dambana ng Kapwa offers “a communal space for reflection, reclamation and healing.”

With the support of Wilcon Depot, the exhibit is part of the Ayala Museum’s OpenSpace, a public art program which began in 2015.

¡Viva, Ayala Museum!

¡Enhorabuena, Joshua Limon Palisoc!

Dambana ng Kapwa: Indigenous Spirituality as Resistance from Colonialism runs until 1 December at the Ayala Museum Front Plaza in Makati City.