Three Events for the Love of Art this Weekend

BECAUSE the Love Month is also Arts Month in the Philippines, let’s dedicate February in appreciating the ever-struggling but hopefully growing arts scene in the Philippines. Here are three of the most exciting events in performing arts that we can all watch this weekend.

1. Relive vaudeville in Mt. Makiling

As part of the official and month-long Arts Month celebration spearheaded by the National Commission for Culture and the Arts, “Bantayog: Bata, Banta, Bantay, Tayo, Tayog” will be staged by theater group Sipat Lawin on February 12 at the Bulwagang Sarimanok of the National Arts Center on Mount Makiling, Laguna.

In a press release from NCCA, Bantayog is a devised theater production taking the form of vaudeville comprised of two parts. Part one, on fiction, features scenes from Chris Millado's Ilokula and Buwan at Baril, Rolando Tino's May Katwiran ang Katwiran, and F. Sionil Jose's Pragres. Part two, on life, features scenes devised by (Philippine High School for the Arts) Grade 9 and 10 students based on interviews, documents and data gathered about and from actual victims/survivors and witness of history.”

Screenings are at 1:30 pm and 7 pm. It’s a pay-what-you-can production.

2. Exploring the body in Makati

Also ongoing this month is the innovative and often provocative FRINGEManila Festival. Take for example this year’s XYZeries of Pineapple Lab. Happening at 8 pm tomorrow at the gallery, it premieres Manila-based Brazilian artist Eidglas Xavier's "Contagion."

“Contagion is a piece that examines the distance between the body and it's self. Seeking to pull away from the structure of a performance play, Xavier explores the body and its needs - outside of narrative space or time, outside of a reliance on words or even symbols. Stripping everything else away, Contagion asks the question: what happens when the body of the performer seeks to perform nothing but the body?”—as described Pineapple Lab.

For tickets, priced at P250, visit Ticketworld Manila.

3. #SiningSinta at Cinematheque Manila

In celebration of the Arts and Love Month, the Cinematheque CentreManila of the Film Development Council is holding the 7-day “Sining Sinta” festival of love-themed indie favorites. It opened in February 8 with the gala screening of “Ang Babae sa Likod ng Mambabatok.”

The festival continues this weekend with the following screenings: Saturday: Ligo Na U, Lapit Na Me at 3pm, 1st ko si 3rd at 5pm, Sana Dati at 7pm; and Sunday: A Lotto Like Love at 3pm, Mga Alaala ng Tag-ulan at 5pm, Ang Nawawala at 7pm.

Admission fee for all films are P100.

So what’s your pick? You let me know by commenting below.