Art is an abstract concept; it is hard to define. There is fluidity in art whereby it can exist in a multitude of forms. Anything can be art as it is the substantiation of something that makes art an art. Why did you create such a thing? What feelings have the observer felt in relation to that manifestation? Art is an exchange and a dialogue whereby the artist must create to evoke aesthetic, and the witness must feel something towards that art. When you create something, however tumultuous it is, your goal to create art is the art in its essence. It is not about how flamboyant the display is or how invigorating the combination of color arouses aesthetic pleasure; it is about the motive. Art is the guile, the meaning, the why of everything. Art must have meaning.
Social practice is a form of art. It describes art to be collaborative wherein included in its platforms are the people and communities having social interaction (“Socially Engaged Practice”, 2014). Under this concept of art includes religious festivals. The practices observed reflect the identity of those who are part of it, broken down into different aspects exhibiting a community’s worldview or flaunting their culture.
The Sandugo festival of Bohol is a commemoration of the treaty of friendship that happened between two great leaders from different sides of the world. This event encompasses an aspect of art. Evident in this celebration are the manifestations of cultural identity participated by the town’s people.
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Aside from Bohol’s famous Chocolate Hills, one of the province’s pride is the Sandugo festival. It is a yearly historical event that kicks off every month of July celebrated together with the town’s charter day. It involves colorful costumes and loud drum beats, street parades, church services, fireworks, beauty pageants, cockfighting tournaments and sport tournaments (“Sandugo Festival: Celebrating Oneness”, 2006). One of its highlight is the street dancing competition with a re-enactment that honors the celebration of a local Philippine leader Datu Sikatuna’s blood compact and association or treaty of friendship with the Spanish King conquistador, Captain General Miguel López de Legazpi in March 16, 1565.
According to an article retrieved from Bohol’s tourism page, the history of this significant act started when Legaspi as the surrogate of the crown of Spain sailed from Navidad, Mexico with the purpose of searching for gold, silver and spices, and to Christianize the natives of the islands that they will come in contact with. This expedition was the 5th that the Spanish crown had sent to the archipelago after the expedition of Magellan. The expeditions were led by different leaders and finally it was Legaspi’s turn in 1565. Legaspi and his fleet of four ships arrived in Cebu but were not able to land due to the hostility of the natives caused by the abuses of Magellan’s men when they raped the 50 virgins of Cebu. Instead he explored the island of Samar, Leyte, Limasawa, and Dapitan. He set sail for Mindanao but was waylaid to Bohol due to unfavourable weather. He dropped anchor at a village situated at the south-eastern part now called Jagna.
The natives were unfriendly. The reason behind this attitude was that the natives suffered from some Portuguese men who posed as Spaniards, pretended to be friendly but eventually attacked and robbed them and plundered other villages nearby. With the help of a Muslim interpreter from Borneo, Legaspi was able to understand and sympathize with them but his plea of mercy for him and his men fell on deaf ears. The natives were angry and drove them back. Undaunted, they set sail again and sought other villages where the people were more friendly. There are actually many versions of how Legaspi set foot on the island of Bohol and how he was able to form a friendship with the ruling leader of Bohol that time but this was the most relevant version of it.
In a village of Bool, three kilometres from Tagbilaran, Legaspi dropped anchor. He went ashore together with the Muslim interpreter and some of his men and they approached Datu Sikatuna in a pleasing manner that impressed the local chieftain but some argued that Sikatuna that time was not of the highest ruler of Bohol. Chief Sikatuna was a chieftain of lower rank because of a certain Chief Sigala that was higher than him (Tirol, 2015). Still it was him who welcomed the conquistador from Spain. With Legaspi’s overtures, tact and diplomacy, Sikatuna was sold to his visitor’s ideas and became friends. Thus they sealed their friendship with a blood compact.
The Blood Compact or Pacto de sangre in Spanish is a ritual. The tribes observe this ritual for three main reasons. The blood compact is used for the acknowledgement of a friendship, recognition of a pact or a treaty and a validation to an agreement. Sometimes all three are found in the reasons for a blood compact. In the ritual, the parties would slit their wrists and make the blood fall into a cup. The cup is then filled with liquid or wine and then both parties drink from it. A mutual consent is formally sealed with the act (“The Sandugo”, 2016).
Art is not only confined with limited mediums. According to Alice Guillermo, art can be created in different conditions within different modes of productions or social formations. The Sandugo Festival or ‘Sanduguan’ which means to have one blood is an example of a social practice, that’s what the author of this critique paper believes. It helps in reinforcing a sense of identity to the province of Bohol and continuity with its historical practices that made the province rich in culture. Art and culture are somehow interrelated to each other. The author believes that everything the culture encompasses is considered art.
May it be in a tangible or non-tangible form. As for the case of the Sandugo festival, it has been a tradition that Boholanos commemorate this as a part of their cultural identity. This is of course of great significance since it gives you an in-depth background on the history of Bohol. To Edgar Chatto, the current reining governor of Bohol, “to become a strong province, we must know who we are. If we are inviting people to see Bohol, we should be able to showcase who we are as a people. If people finds Bohol attractive that is because we have a rich culture. The tourism is just what we get for simply being the Boholanos that we are”.
Another highlight of the Sandugo festival is the street dancing competition. What made this special is the fact that it does not just showcase pure talent in dancing but the contingents from different municipalities had to pull off an overall performance incorporating moves that is according to the theme while strutting their creative costumes that usually reflect their respective towns’ culture and arts. One thing that is unique is that they have to use the dance steps of Kuradang.
Dancing is often use as a medium of expression. Through which, people express their culture and beliefs. From the article Travel to the Philippines, an online source, Kuradang, also known as Curacha is known to be an original dance from Bohol. It is actually a courtship dance. The Kuradang has three different parts with three different rythms. Each part has a particular act. The first part of the dance is when the female and male dancers execute the waltz. When the music shifts into a faster beat, the female dancer runs away while the male dancer chases after her.
After the chasing part will be the finale wherein both dancers of opposite sex will dance together as if flirting. The male dancer will imitate a movement of a bird in a mating scene. Other sources believed that the word Kuradang could have been derived from the archaic Waray word “kurandang” or “kudangdang” which literally means “overdressed”. Retrieved from the same source, the term is probably descriptive to showy dancers and their exaggerated moves of the olden days. Another online reference stated that dance is a type of art that has aesthetic and symbolic value, and is acknowledged as a dance by performers and observers within a particular culture.
It is important to view art in its social or historical context so that you would be able to grasp the meaning behind those movements. As for Kuradang, it depicts the traditional way of courtship of the early Filipinos. It gives a glimpse of the early lifestyle of the ancestors and establishes norms to the new generation. Performing the original dance moves is a way of preserving the culture of Bohol. Though the world is gradually evolving, it is nice to know that the culture is still well preserved by the people. There is a sense of continuity which is an important factor in sustaining the established traditions of the ancestors.
Disregarding its context, may it be social or historical, dance is considered art in whatever type or form or how it is expressed. Going back to the explanation of how dance is considered art, it all reflects to the idea that dance is a medium of art that tells a story and you are able to express emotions (Garecht, 2013). Again art is fluid and therefore it can be manifested in different forms. Stated in the first paragraph that art must have meaning and the witness must feel something toward a particular art. Dancing evokes emotions. Antonia Grove (2013) said, “dance communicates in a way that no other art form can. In my opinion it has a unique ability to reach people viscerally, energetically and poetically in a way that is both primitive and sophisticated.
When we make contemporary dance choreography we are not working from any set vocabulary of language that already exists; we are searching for a new physical language that is specific to what we are trying to say, which is specific to every moment of every piece of work we make. It can be as simple or as complex as is needed, and the interpretation of it will be different for every viewer. It remains for me a beautifully abstracted and intangible form of communication, and in this world where we strive for knowledge, clarity and a quick diagnosis of situations, it retains an essence of mystery”. She is the artistic director of Probe-a dance theatre company formed in the year 2004.
This is another manifestation of art being collaborative. It gives people the opportunity to interact with each other sharing their talents and passion for the things they love. This encompasses the criteria for art as social practice.
The Sandugo festival is just one of the many examples that represent art as a social practice. The event does not just limit itself to social interactions between the community and the people but it also paved way for visual arts. Through their creative costumes, the people are able to incorporate the elements of arts that suit the criteria for visual arts.
In a more general perspective, art is a social practice. It allows you to communicate with your body, and it lets you dig deeper into the meaning of your existence. Art is pouring yourself out so that you will get a generalized view of the person that you are. Art is not the product in its own; art is inside you. More than that, art is also a form of communication to the outside world. It is a direct or indirect form of socializing, communicating, and talking through different media. Art has always been a part of social activism, of socializing for that matter. Remember how people write love songs for their loved ones? Remember how people paint to illustrate social injustice to galvanize people? Remember how you write to tell people how you feel? Art is a social practice because in its own, it is not complete without a sender and a receiver. Like communication– a social practice– art must have a meaning or a message, it must have a sender, and a receiver even if that receiver and sender can be yourself at once. Art is not complete when nobody sees them.
Moreover, art is the unification of the body and the soul. It is the dialogue of the body of the artist and her or his soul that creates art. In essence, this is the aftereffect of art; you feel complete of art. As you provide meaning to art, you are also providing meaning to your existence—you are completing your whole humanity. Notice how music and singing allow you to transcend beyond your body. Sometimes people cry and laugh because of music and that is because their body has transcended, and art has provided a soul that explains the nonmaterial world that art has created. It is a complicated concept, but the soul simply justifies that art creates a planet which cannot be seen—it is felt.
Another: art is an expression; it is a protest. When all conventional forms of communication fail (e.g. words), art interpolates. In fact, art is the strongest form of expression that can be so incisive to direct people to action. Art has always been part of the dialogue of happiness, despair, and revolution. It is a less cumbersome of communication and expression where you encapsulate words and meanings beyond the color combinations, the movements of the body, or the arrangements of the note. Art transcends. Art is concise.
Art has no universal definition. Art is not immured inside the walls of limited and constricted ideas and meanings. Art is free. It gives you the liberty to do whatever you like. It gives you the exemption to be whoever you want. But what is constant in art is that it serves as a vehicle in communicating and expressing ideas and emotions.
