Tayog-Tayog: The Ilonggo Imagination

“Tayog-Tayog: The Ilonggo Imagination” presents a confluence of personal experiences, historical narratives, and indigenous cultural practices, all intertwined with the fantastical elements of folklore and mythology that dwell within our collective psyche.

The Hiligaynon word “tayog” means “to fly off far.” Colloquially, the expression “tayog-tayog” refers to an “out-of-this-world” idea. This is the starting point for the exhibition, a launchpad for the lofty heights that the stories from Iloilo have reached—the Panay Sugidanun, local folklore, creatures like aswang, tayho, and kataw, and even the narratives of a family history passed down through generations. These stories play a crucial role in retelling our realities and contribute to our collective memory.

Participating artists bring forth figments of their imaginations, breathing life into the enigmatic and the uncanny. “Tayog-Tayog” is an homage to the surrealist tradition, reimagined through the lens of contemporary and regional sensibilities. The featured works aim to use art to challenge the boundaries between reality and fantasy, the past and the present, the tangible and the ephemeral.