82 ‘bul-ul’ bring local beliefs to exhibit

ARTIST Kawayan de Guia and the 82 bul-ul bound for a Singapore exhibition. RICHARD BALONGLONG/INQUIRER NORTHERN LUZON

BAGUIO CITY—It was an eerie sendoff party held here on Monday.

The black pig had been killed, examined for omen (it was good) and the blood showered on the 82 heads encircling the “mumbaki” (native priest or ritual leader).

Then Boh-or, the mumbaki from the village of Bukiawan in Hungduan, Ifugao province, performed the “tiwtiwong” prayer which called for safe passage and for the “amammangao” and other bad spirits to get lost.

“You can see your house. You know you’re going there but just can’t find the familiar way. Before you know it, it’s been hours,” said artist Rocky Cajigan about the effect of the amammangao.

In some cases, it would take days or even years before one finds his way home.

The 82 heads are going to the 2013 Singapore Biennale in October. These 164 steady eyes belong to bul-ul (wooden rice granary guardians) coming from all over Northern Luzon. These will be transported in time for the premier art event opening on Oct. 24.

The bul-ul are part of the exhibit of the Axis Art Project which will be the highlight of the Philippine exhibit.

For the 2013 biennale, Singapore decided to concentrate on Southeast Asia and 90 percent of the participating artists would be from the region.

Part of the Axis exhibition is the 82 bul-ul specially carved for the event.

Artist Kawayan de Guia, assistant Philippine curator for the event, said they went all over Northern Luzon to ask carvers, mostly Ifugaos, to make a pair of bul-ul based on their personal impressions.

“In the complex religious system of the Ifugao, the bul-ul is a class of deities who are invoked to guard the rice fields and granaries and to ensure abundant harvest. The bul-ul spirit is thought to inhabit the carvings after the images have been activated through an elaborate sequence of rites,” wrote University of Philippines Baguio professor Delfin Tolentino Jr. in the accompanying essay on the bul-ul.

De Guia said the oldest carver is an 80-year-old farmer who submitted a modern rendition of a bul-ul, looking like a wavy totem pole. The youngest is a Grade 4 pupil who carved the typical bul-ul with folded knees.

Another carver submitted a bul-ul whose partner is a lizard while another incorporated the whole family in one bul-ul.

De Guia also commissioned bul-ul carver Adriano Mahiwo to make a rendition of the late artist Roberto Villanueva’s Mumbaki1 from a print.

He also commissioned carver Jayson Taguyungan to do the three-faced bul-ul of the late artist Santi Bose’s cover of Ani Magazine.

After the exhibit, the bul-ul will be returned to the carvers, De Guia said. Frank Cimatu, Inquirer Northern Luzon