08.23.07 kulturnatib

Where were you?

Oh no!, was my first reaction. The event streamer that I had painstakingly worked on by hand – with Pentel Pens! -- the whole day of Sunday and Monday was gone. Stolen, I thought. Just as quickly, I thought proudly; that streamer should be good enough for stealing!

But going into the lobby, I saw it hanging over the musical instruments. I heaved a sigh of relief. I should have known. I knew there was going to be instruments, but Iwas surprised at the professional set up that it was. A drum kit, keyboard, mikes, speakers, lights; the works.

At half past eight we were ready. The instruments were getting tested. The musicians were moving among the instruments. It was a kind of musical chairs. You had to admire their versatility and it appeared to be a simple matter of course. There was no need for a sound check.

The crowd started gathering in front of the lobby columns of the administration building of UP Cebu, the site of the performance art memorial, Where Were You When Ninoy Was No.1? Some because they knew about the event and others because they were just attracted by the music and the lights in what would ordinarily be just another dark part of the campus at night.

The performance art group XO? which I actively collaborate were to have another of its performance events. It was one of the first events the group has planned that was specifically social-historical in theme.

Still, in our planning meetings, we expectedly moved towards our stylistic approaches or leanings based on experience and strengths.

Russ would do something with dance, Chai something with some song she would sing, Doggie something that was quite original and, at this point, surprising, since being a newbie to performance art, she has, of yet, no body of work for comparison.

I would do a concept-performance-installation piece and Raymund would be working with music, play the saxophone and provide the musical direction for the pieces that required music and among the musicians whose participation would also be another first for the group.

Phillip and Ivan were last minute participants. Ivan wouldn't show up at all and Phillip would eventually do a performance-installation piece we were not informed about. But it found a natural fit with the rest of the pieces.

Winston Velez, who had already worked with us in a previous performance event was instrumental in bringing in the musicians. He plays with them in a regular band. He said that this was opportunity for musicians to be exposed to the visual art and even to realize the art in their music.

It turned out that one of the musicians, Oliver, who plays base guitar, has a background in theater. In fact in troupes that was quite activist at that time.

For this event, two other musicians, Nonoi on the guitar and James on keyboards, would sit with us in meetings and rehearsals and they would have their taste of such idea or concept meetings that would typically meander from one trajectory to another then would suddenly explode as some idea gets latched on and planning around that would quickly develop.

In one of these, we had a glimpse of Winston's inventiveness – a definite plus with performance art. He grabbed an empty beer plastic case and proceeded to play it like it was a regular drum.

The crowd was admittedly quite sparse. Yet they were quite appreciative contributing a sizeable amount to a Cat In The Hat hat that would go towards paying for the instruments, audio equipment and the lights.

The music had not quite died down – already, by this time, the venue had moved to Turtle's Nest Book Cafe and percussive music was playing almost endlessly as musicians and guests had some kind of instrument in hand – and talk was already about another performance event for September 21.

Again, we had to remind ourselves that publicity should be the first order of the day. So, next time you shouldn't have any reason not to be there.