Project Bakawan: Off-site / Out of Sight Art Installation

WALA proudly presents our very first base of operations and community center. It is located within a place that is seemingly close to what the world would look like ten years after humankind's extinction. Kidding aside, it was formerly a stud farm that has long been since abandoned and fallen into disrepair. This is our attempt to reactivate and repurpose (a portion of) this unused but un-useless space through collaborative artistic efforts and sheer manual labor. The group wanted to create an artist-run and artist-built space that would be more than something that simply apes a gallery. The idea -which is also the challenge behind this is to create some sort of fertile ground(jampacked with all-natural, organic compost and happy earthworms) for establishing and developing rhizomatic networks between diverse artistic and public communities sharing some common goals and aspirations.

The site's key feature/character is that it is a cross between being a communal, multi-purpose function area and an installative type of artwork. Not only it is a place where people can go to hold events ranging from discussions, performances, screenings to workshops-or to simply have fun and get totally strung-out. It is also, as a whole, an architectural art piece that people can have a part/lend a hand on its constant transformation and modification.

We envision this tiny, humble spot to carve out a niche that serves as a discontinuity to the all encompassing fabric of our collective everyday realities. Lives that are relentlessly being run by the (il)logic of the capital, dismal incompetence of our government and the brain tumor inducing spectacles especially of our local mass media among others. Almost everyone, if not all of us, are well aware of the fact that these tremendous forces at work mentioned above could gobble up anything they percieve as nice, juicy and profit-yielding. Hence, it is virtually a game between a rampaging alpha T-rex versus a rabid, sharp-fanged, (cute baby) rodent. But in any case, there is still this big possibility of cultivating something that is of probable good for everyone that will be involved from this initiative. This could only happen if we (hopefully) manage to keep it alive for a long period of time. It's nice to think of the site's potential for being a garden of ideas; one that would flourish through a cooperative creative effort.

More on WALA HQ's construction at (Real Estate).

Photos below courtesy of Bea Mariano and Eric Zamuco