Celebrating our 10th anniversary in 2023 and the opening of our new studio, we want to offer four residencies between March and June to different artists or artist groups. The residencies include one week, Monday to Friday from 12:00-17:00, of free workspace in PRAXIS Oslo’s 100 sqm studio space in Rosenhoff, ending with an open sharing on the last day.

Carl Aquilizan will share their artistic research with their project “SIYA” together with Putli Hellesen in the format of work-in-progress showing and talk.

There is free access to the sharing, but registration is required.

At KADI Studio

Doorbell 204 (Kadi Fever Dance).

2. Floor.

DESCRIPTION

The research project «SIYA» is a study of pre-colonial Filipino history of queerness and a look into ways we can decolonize the future. Through this research project I want to study the complex history of pre-colonial Philippines and question what I can learn from these ideologies and how I can decolonize my thinking, my dance practice and the interaction with my surroundings. How can I return to, rediscover, reimagine and rewrite the queer narrative of my ancestors? 

For the residency at Praxis I am specifically looking at pre-colonial Filipino music and folk dance as an inspiration to develop choreographic methods and material. We will be guided and counseled by former dancer Helen Grace Locsin. The residency will be the start of a longer research project researching feminist and queer ideologies from pre-colonial Philippines. 

In pre-colonial times, Filipino society was more matriarchal as well as inclusive and celebratory of otherness. Some examples are the queer gods in Philippine mythology, Libulan and Sidapata – two male gods who were in love, and Lakapati who was the goddess of fertility and good harvest, described as an androgynous, intersex or transgender goddess. The women also had an important role in society as “Babaylans”, a collective term for shamans. They were the community healers, specialists in herbal and divine lore. They delivered babies and communicated with the spirit world. Men who were womanlike were also able to become Babaylans. In our society today, this is how we would describe this situation because of our strictly binary and westernized (colonized) thinking. Indigenous Filipino people had a system that was more fluid regarding gender, and there was more focus on the qualities or roles you had in the community. 

Together with dance artist Putli Hellesen we are searching for a practice that can facilitate a way to return to our cultural roots and reimagine the pre-colonial, inclusive, gender fluid and feminist society. What would Filipino people look like, express themselves and dance if the country wasn’t colonized into western ways of thinking? How can I return to, rediscover, reimagine and rewrite the feminist and queer narrative of my ancestors?   The sharing will be an informal sharing of some material from our research and a conversation about the ideas we present.

BIOs

I am Carl Aquilizan (he/they), a Norwegian/Filipino dance artist based in Oslo. My artistic work explores emotional states, queer strategies and transformative practices. I am interested in queering/bending social norms and binary thinking as a desire to create safe and inclusive spaces. Through questioning and disrupting cultural norms, I want to create discourses that can inform, challenge, change, expand and decolonize our thinking. There is also a desire to voice my experiences as a queer person of color, to create more representation and accessibility for queer and/or BIPOC people. Previous work include dis_func (2021), Flower boy (2022) and Blooming (2022/23), and has been shown at Scenehuset, Dansens Hus, Bærum Kulturhus, Den Norske Opera og Ballett/CODA Oslo International Dance Festival, Fotogalleriet, Sentralen, Kloden Teater and Munchmuseet.

Putli Hellesen (b.1996) is a Norwegian-Filipino dance artist from Florø, Norway. She is based in Oslo, Norway- and predominantly works within the field of contemporary dance. Utilizing humor, voice work, movements, and a wish for transparency – her practice arises. Putli holds an MA in Dance from Oslo National Academy of the Arts (2021) and as a performer she has worked with choreographers like Elle Sofe Sara (NO), Brendan Fernandes (CA) og Anna & Co (SE). www.putlihellesen.com

Photo credits: National Museum of the Philippines