BROCHURE

WHERE IS CAR? The Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) of the Philippines consists of the provinces of Abra, Benguet, Ifugao, Kalinga, Mountain Province and Apayao. Baguio is the regional center. The Cordillera region encompasses most of the areas within the Cordillera Central mountain range of Luzon, the largest range in the country. The region is home to indigenous cultures of different tribal ethnicity such as the Igorot, Kalingan, Ifugaos, Kankanaeys, Illian, Baliwon and many others spread in isolated communities in the various parts of the region. Despite differences in tribal ethnicity, the Cordillera people have commonalities in costumes, music, dances and even customs. In the central part of the Cordillera Mountain Range, rice terraces abounds - from Ifugao to Mountain Province, famous of which is the Banaue Rice Terraces. The UNESCO Heritage Site declared five clusters of rice terraces in various towns in Ifugao. Other hidden rice terraces can found in Natonin, Mountain Province.

Maria Oggay Popularly known to the world by her name Apo Whang-od Oggay is known as “the last and oldest mambabatok” and a part of the tribe in Butbut in Buscalan, Kalinga. She has been tattooing for the past 80 years. The traditional tattoo was considered a painful rite of passage, a body decoration, a talisman against malevolent forces, a mark of bravery, a visible mark of religious and political affiliations in the community, and a symbol of statues or affluence. Apo Whang-od’s ink is composed of the mixture of charcoal and water that is tapped into the skin through a thorn end of a lemon or pomelo tree. Apo Whang-od’s hand- tapped tattoo technique— called batok—dates back to thousand years and is said to be more painful than the machine tattooing system.

Eliza Chawi Chawi is the oldest weaver from a village known for their traditional Kankanaey weaving skills passed on from generation to generation to this day. Luck was on Chawi’s side. Fondly called Manay by her fellow weavers and close friends, Chawi was able to land a weaving job at Easter Weaving, a famous textile business in Baguio City that had been established in 1908. In the Cordillera, the use of cloth is involved in life from birth to death, in sickness and health. As an art form, textiles are embedded in all aspects of life from day-to- day situations to the performance of rituals. The handwoven textiles of the Cordillera tell stories of identity, economics, and social change. When a weaver creates a textile that is a work of art, she becomes an agent of change setting off trains of social phenomena. Her work is an expression of creative genius, and her art is fully invested with the intention to change the world all the while that it remains the same.

Ben-Hur ViGlloarnosuepeva Ben-Hur Villanueva was a Filipino sculptor, painter, educator, lecturer, and art entrepreneur based in Baguio City. The Arko ni Apo is an art gallery owner by Ben- Hur and his family. Arko ni Apo means Ark of the Lord in Ilocano. Ben-Hur has traveled the country giving seminars, art workshops, therapies and spearheading art-related activities with professionals, educators, students, young artists, television/film writers, directors, street children, the cultural minorities and many more. According to him, \"Every individual has his own artistic inclinations and propensity be it from the several types of Arts, that is, Painting, Sculpture, Architecture, Theatre, Music, Photograph, Literature and Dance. The person has the right to enhance and utilize it creatively.

JeCfafwerasoonn Cablog Jefferson Cawaon is a native of Barlig, Mt. Province and is the only Filipino to be included in the list of the 40 Contemporary Great Masters of Portrait Painting 2019 book published by Diverti Editions, the publisher of Pratique des Arts Magazine based in France. Cablog works are quite of extraordinary beauty. Most of his artwork is a revelation of Barlig culture and tradition that was told and lived by his ancestors. His love, dedication and interest to the “Ob-ofok” which means the past oral stories from the great elders of Barlig are unfolded through his beautiful and unique paintings. The narrative structure of Cablog’s works plays with his aesthetic technique that involves his use of layers and light. His highly-textured oeuvre lends an intensely- spiritual aura that is evocative of nature. His work is highly reminiscent of National Artist Vincente Manansala, whom he considers a major influence. The resulting effect is an indigenous rendering that echoes the National Artist’s development of “transparent cubism” that is, at the same time, highly detailed and exemplifies a mature drafting ability.

BeRneeydiecsto Cabrera Benedicto Cabrera, Popularly known as \"BenCab\", is considered the preeminent Filipino painter of his generation and is widely hailed as a master of contemporary Philippine art. Primarily figurative, Cabrera’s work often depicts woman and occasionally men wrapped in swirling, bundled fabrics and capes. He has been noted as \"arguably the best-selling painter of his generation of Filipino artists.\" Bencab started his career in the mid-sixties as a lyrical expressionist. His solitary figures of scavengers emerging from a dark landscape were piercing stabs at the social conscience of a people long inured to poverty and dereliction. Bencab, who was born in Malabon, has christened the emblematic scavenger figure “Sabel.” For Bencab, Sabel is a melancholic symbol of dislocation, despair, and isolation–the personification of human dignity threatened by life’s vicissitudes, and the vast inequities of Philippine society.*