A hero could be someone sitting next to you, packing the next batch of relief for typhoon survivors.
And why not, Karmela Lagang said, “as long as he emulates selflessness and the desire to contribute to his society, anyone could be just a Bonifacio.”
As the nation commemorated the 150th birth anniversary of Andres Bonifacio, a group of artists put together a mobile exhibit to extol the life and works of the hero who sparked the Philippine revolution.
Ironically, not a single portrait of the iconic freedom fighter was mounted among 32 other photographs in the exhibit dubbed “Locating Bonifacio.”
“That makes this (exhibit) different. It’s not just about (Bonifacio) but his ideals in the people at present times,” said Lagang, spokesperson of the Southern Tagalog Exposure (STEx), an alternative artists’ collective.
Who, where, how
The STEx, together with other progressive artists’ groups, Artists’ Arrest and the University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB) Zoom Out, launched the exhibit on Nov. 4. The show was later moved to SM City in Calamba City in Laguna; Polytechnic University of the Philippines in Sta. Mesa, Manila; Colegio de San Juan de Letran in Laguna; and in UPLB.
A “replica” exhibit was opened for a week at the municipal hall of Maragondon town in Cavite, where Bonifacio and his brother Procopio were tried and executed in 1897.
The pictures taken by 20 seasoned street photographers, among them Alex Baluyut, Luis Liwanag, Ray Panaligan and Al Benavente, were grouped into three categories—portraits of people named after Bonifacio, monuments erected for the hero, and snapshots of “social movement.”
“That’s the difficult part: choosing the people we featured,” Lagang said of the individual portraits. Among them were the likes of martial law activist and director Bonifacio Ilagan, as well as “ordinary” people, like Bonnie Ruiz, a 27-year-old cultural worker born on the eve of Nov. 30.
“We didn’t just want anyone named after Bonifacio but those who live up to his name,” Lagang said.
The “social movement” depicted political rallies, some tracing back to the anti-US movements in the ’80s and ’90s to the more recent, “Million People March” against corruption in the government.
Another, titled “Ka Cleo,” was a picture of woman and the muzzle of the rifle she carried. The caption said the woman was a mother and a member of the New People’s Army who believed in “the significant role of women in creating history.”
More questions
While curating, Lagang said the group facilitated historical and political discussions, especially among the students who visited the exhibit. The most common question thrown to them was how Bonifacio stayed relevant 150 years later.
Was he located, after all? “Yes. Have we not just seen it after Supertyphoon ‘Yolanda’? The collective mass action to help other people,” Lagang answered.
She said the exhibit, as they hoped for, sparked more questions and discussions “on things we don’t normally chat about.”
The challenge “was to keep these stories alive lest we let the heroes die with them,” she said. Maricar Cinco