Alas ng Bayan is about five remarkable Filipinas who resisted national oppression, social injustice, and false gender normatives at different junctures of Philippine history.
Alas ng Bayan is a collaborative project organized by the Institute for Climate and Sustainable Cities (ICSC), the Constantino Foundation, and 350.org Pilipinas, to raise awareness about the intersections between women, history, memory, climate change, and citizenship.
The project seeks to introduce and inject history and feminism as fundamental elements in the way young people respond to the worsening state of national forgetting and the climate crisis. The Alas ng Bayan exhibit intends to mobilize sectors not normally active in the climate debate by offering new notions of citizenship and nationalism responsive to the multiple emergencies we face today. Viewers of the paintings and those who listen to the lectures that accompany the exhibit will not fail to sense parallels between the lives of the women depicted and current topics under intense public debate, such as violence against women, LGBTQ+ rights, extrajudicial killings, global warming, and national sovereignty.
The Alas ng Bayan exhibit is composed of five paintings depicting individually the heroes Gregoria “Oriang” de Jesus, Apolonia Catra, Remedios “Kumander Liwayway” Gomez-Paraiso, Lorena Barros, and Gloria Capitan. The dimension of each painting is 17 x 24 inches. READ MORE
The Dialectics of National and Natural History, Aesthetics, Climate Change, and Citizenship
Thank you all for coming today. You honor not only the lives of five Filipinas by your presence but also the possibilities of a future that remains veiled but which we hope will be favorable to the lives of young people today who, as the novelist Barbara Kingsolver once wrote, dream of a world where children grow up neither as destroyers nor the destroyed. We hope viewers of the paintings and those who listen to the lectures that accompany the exhibit will discover the links between the lives of the women depicted in Alas ng Bayan and [...]
“We also pay tribute to the role of art in advancing social change. Art itself doesn’t change society. But art can make people’s minds, make people think so that they can change society. That’s the whole of art. At yan po ang dinadakila natin sa exhibit na ito.”
– Prof. Xiao Chua
De la Salle University
News and Updates
‘Alas ng Bayan’ – a fraction of contribution
By Caysel Amita E. Ercilla, student, Polytechnic University of the Philippines History has an array of telling the story of mother nature, unsung heroines, and how these things are deeply interwoven. Perhaps mother nature and our heroines are never too apart or different, both are homes to newborns and new battles. With the collaboration of the aforementioned bodies combined with an astonishing artist, Alas ng Bayan was made possible. An exhibit shedding light on Filipina heroines and the legacy they engraved on the soils of this very country, stories which are often forgotten by the citizens now. The three organizations, Institute for Climate [...]
Alas ng Bayan: Intersections of history, feminism, and the climate crisis
by Chuck Baclagon, 350.org What can we learn from women who went through a form of activism in different parts of our history? What does feminism have to do with climate change? How does climate change tie-up with our history? It is crucial that we keep these things in mind. As one of the speakers for the Alas ng Bayan exhibit, I would like to put focus on the importance of connecting the contents of this exhibit to the ongoing climate crisis, the biggest hazard to be endured by present and future generations. […]
Alas ng Bayan: Women, Memory, and History
by Chuck Baclagon We’ve been running the Alas ng Bayan: Women, History, and Memory exhibit in Manila for a while now. In paintings and lectures, we feature women who’ve struggled against injustice throughout Philippine history, to raise awareness about the intersections between feminism, historical memory, climate change, and citizenship. I’ve found it so valuable to interact with the different people passing through, and to have the chance to engage in conversations on things that we usually take for granted. We’ve asked important questions about our relationship to the past and how our ways of living impact the environment. Who [...]
Check Out These Art Exhibits Featuring Some of the Greatest Filipino Heroines
Originally published in Esquire Magazine Phil. By Mario Alvaro Limos Gregoria de Jesus (Lakambini ng Katipunan), Apolonia Catra (lone recorded Filipina soldier with Macario Sakay’s forces), Remedios Gomez-Paraiso (Hukbalahap’s Kumander Liwayway), Lorena Barros (Martial Law activist), and Gloria Capitan (slain Bataan coal activist) are among the Filipina heroines featured in two separate exhibits at the University of the Philippines and the Polytechnic University of the Philippines in Manila. […]
