ArtsEquator, Deadline Now
by Kathy Rowland ArtsEquator sometimes feels like a mythical creature. Looking back over the past 4 years, it takes the shape of a unicorn, a joyful improbability. With Covid-19, it can weigh like an albatross, cash flow statements instead of…
Pandemic in the Philippines: A cultural sector on its own
By Katrina Stuart Santiago (2,200 words, 8-minute read) When I was first asked to write about “cultural leadership” in the Philippines, I turned up a blank. This is not because we lack cultural institutions that get public funding—we in fact,…
Seasons of Love: Southeast Asia-style
It started out as a “small project” amongst friends. Peter Ong, a musical theatre performer based in Malaysia, wanted to do a recording of the song Seasons of Love, from the musical Rent by Jonathan Larson, to create a message of…
From dream to dystopia: The cultural critic in the age of pandemic
By Katrina Stuart Santiago (1,000 words, 6-minute read) February 2020 seems like years ago, and it feels like escapism to even go back to that time. To some extent, it’s almost like a dream, where for over a week, one…
Podcast 79: Asia TOPA (Part 2)
The following review is made possible through a Critical Residency programme supported by In this latest podcast episode, Nabilah Said and Carolyn Oei discuss various productions that were recently presented at Melbourne’s Asia TOPA: Are You Ready To Take The…
International Women’s Day: Inspiring Women
By ArtsEquator For International Women’s Day, ArtsEquator asked 11 women arts leaders in SEA to tell us about a woman who has inspired, supported or mentored them on their arts journey. Their stories recall mothers, bosses, Hollywood directors and an…
Are You Ready To Take The Law Into Your Own Hands: Tongue Scrapes Against Cheek
The following review is made possible through a Critical Residency programme supported by By Nabilah Said (670 words, 5-minute read) I watched Are You Ready To Take The Law Into Your Own Hands by Sipat Lawin and Friends on 26…
Behind the scenes with the Women of SIFA
By Nabilah Said ArtsEquator speaks to four women that are part of the local commissions of SIFA 2020 – Siti Khalijah Zainal, Jodi Chan, Ellison Tan and Mia Chee. SITI KHALIJAH ZAINAL, THE YEAR OF NO RETURN Siti…
20 Arts and Cultural Festivals to Visit in Southeast Asia in 2020
It’s the year 2020 and the world is rife with new Instagram filters, hashtag 2020vision (yes, we get it) and the perennial “new year, new me” declarations. Well, if you’ve got travelling and #jetsetter on your new year’s resolution list,…
Fantasy issues: “Princess” by Eisa Jocson
By Chan Sze-Wei (786 words, 4-minute read) I’ve recently been reading articles about how childhood trauma is determinative of one’s risk of future health issues from asthma to cancer. Also how ancestral trauma is recorded in our DNA. Snow White…
Contortions and Gentle Songs: SEA at Venice Biennale
By Teo Xiao Ting (1,414 words, 6-minute read) A vivacious viscous zoo swirling with prestige and art, the Venice Biennale spins me exhausted after 45 days. When I was asked to write about the Southeast Asian artworks I’ve encountered here,…
Podcast 60: The Media Landscape in the Philippines
Duration: 19 min In our latest podcast, art critic Pristine de Leon gives a comprehensive overview of the media landscape in the Philippines, discussing challenges to the practice and the new platforms that are paving the way for creative, incisive…
Asian Arts Media Roundtable 2019: When Asian Critics Meet
By Akanksha Raja and Ke Weiliang (1,444 words, 6-minute read) The inaugural Asian Arts Media Roundtable (AAMR) took place between 24 to 25 May 2019 at LASALLE College of the Arts, Singapore. Organised by ArtsEquator, the two-day gathering of over…
ArtsEquator’s Top 10 Picks at the Performing Arts Meeting 2019
Established in 1995, the Tokyo Performing Arts Market (TPAM) was created to be a platform to network Japanese artists with producers and funders. 24 years later, TPAM has expanded in scope and purpose, to include live performance, panel discussions and…
What to expect from the Repertory Philippines stage in 2019 (via Rappler)
MANILA, Philippines – Theater junkies of all ages will be happy to know that our local theater scene has some top-notch stage entertainment up its talented sleeve for everyone to enjoy in 2019. Repertory Philippines, one of the country’s leading…
Those Long Haired Nights: Filipino film highlights struggle for transgender rights (via SEA Globe)
With its true-to-life representation of transgender sex workers in Manila, Gerardo Calagui’s 2017 film Those Long Haired Nights is not afraid to court controversy. Southeast Asia Globe spoke with the Filipino director about the film and the challenges facing the LGBT+ community in his…
Short film fest to send winner to Hollywood (via The Manila Times)
Ten bold and emotionally stirring stories have been selected as finalists the 2nd Viddsee Juree Philippines, a festival of short films that celebrates and supports filmmaking communities in Asia. A wide range of independent filmmakers from different backgrounds turned in…
Vince Tañada’s postmodernistic theater (via The Manila Times)
Playwright and University of the Philippines faculty member Wilfrido Ma. Guerrero pioneered in bringing theater out into remote provinces in the ’60s through the UP Mobile Theater. This was to afford his grassroots audiences with his kind of theater away…
This Rapper Is On a Mission to Empower Filipino Women (via Broadly)
Ruby Ibarra is a rapper you’ve probably heard, but haven’t heard of—at least not yet. The Filipina-American recently made the rounds in a nationwide Mastercard commercial that also featured musicians like SZA, Radkey, and Victoria Canal. Each artist performed their take…
One year of Filipina punk feminism and rebellion (via Dazed)
Recently, GRRRL GANG MANILA, a feminist collective inspired by DIY ethics and punk aesthetics, celebrated its first anniversary in the Philippine capital. A long discussion of women’s issues, a film screening, spoken word performances and art exhibitions, and then hours…
In Conversation with Contemporary Art’s Street Miner (via The Artling)
‘Street Mining: Contemporary Art from the Philippines’ features the works of Poklong Anading, Louie Cordero, Victor Balanon, Nona Garcia, Kawayan de Guia, Mm Yu, and the collective ‘Broke’. The show runs at Sundaram Tagore Gallery from 20 January to 2…
“The Neighbor’s Grief is Greener”: Exquisite Macabre meets Slapstick Comedy
By Richard Chung (700 words, 5-minute read) A peek inside the macabrely funny world of The Neighbor’s Grief Is Greener, set in a 1950s American suburban kitchen. In 1940s America, men went off to war, leaving the running of the…
The Pangalay Dance in the Construction of Filipino Heritage (via Philippine Performance Archive)
This is an excerpt from “The Pangalay Dance in the Construction of Filipino Heritage” by Joelle Florence Patrice Jacinto. The research discusses how the Pangalay dance of the Tausug people was used as a heritage tool to support the construction…
Filipino Sculptor Ben-Hur Villanueva (via Murphy Report)
Ben-Hur Villanueva is a sculptor who is not native to Baguio but has made his studio and home there. He says something about the place that drew him there, and continues to nourish the passion he has for his life’s…
32 Defining Moments in Philippine Arts and Culture since 1985
The Philippine Daily Inquirer, founded on Dec. 9, 1985, as part of the “mosquito press,” helped dismantle the Marcos dictatorship in February 1986. With the new dispensation followed a liberalization of attitudes, newfound freedom of expression, the democratization of the…
![Elaine Chiew interviews Singapore-based Filipino writer Victor Fernando Ocampo [Philippines, Singapore]](https://artsequator.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/radar_PhpSG_swf_infinite-library_vrocampo-455x250.jpg)
Elaine Chiew interviews Singapore-based Filipino writer Victor Fernando Ocampo [Philippines, Singapore]
“For every writer, once in a rare while, a book comes along and really shakes you up, where (instead of that height/ceiling metaphor) I’d like to say instead, the floor drops on which you thought the legs of fiction stood….
![ASEAN Music Festival: After K-pop and J-pop, what about ASEAN-pop? [Philippines]](https://artsequator.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/RADAR_ASEAN-Music-Fest-455x250.jpg)
ASEAN Music Festival: After K-pop and J-pop, what about ASEAN-pop? [Philippines]
“There’s K-pop, J-pop, Cantopop, and even Pinoy pop. But do we know what kind of music our ASEAN neighbors are producing? The dominance of Western music notwithstanding, ASEAN Music Festival organizer Annie Luis of the National Commision for Culture and…
Eisa Jocson at da:ns festival 2017: The Body as Archive of Filipino Labour
By Chloe Chotrani (927 words, 7-minute read) To witness the work of Eisa Jocson is an absolute privilege at this point in history. The double-bill pairing up Jocson’s internationally acclaimed Macho Dancer and the new Esplanade commission Corponomy, investigate the…
![Martial Law Musicals: Theatre of a New War? [Philippines]](https://artsequator.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/Radar_PH_Martial-Law-455x250.jpg)
Martial Law Musicals: Theatre of a New War? [Philippines]
“Philippine theater has, through three eras of political struggle—Filipino-American, Japanese, anti-Marcos—never hesitated to go to war.” – – Doreen G. Fernandez, Seditious and Subversive: Theater of War From the essay cited above two important ideas emerge: that war breeds theatre…
Art Beyond Words: The Struggles and Triumphs of Filipino Artist Nolet Soliven
By Mark Louie Lugue (1175 words, 12-minute read) The Asia Europe Foundation’s Culture360 and ArtsEquator present a series of 5 co-commissioned articles that look at arts groups, artists and performances in Southeast Asia that are comprised of or address artists with disabilities….