Bayan'
Artists: Kwentong Bayan (Althea Balmes of Akin Lansdowne + Jo SiMalaya Alcampo), Hector Barretto Calma, Jaret Vadera
Essay by: Kim Abis
Location: A Space Gallery
Exhibition dates: November 18 - December 17, 2016
Opening Reception: Friday November 18 6 - 9pm:
     Panel Discussion 6 – 7 pm
     Performances 7 – 8 pm
     Reception 8 – 9 pm
    Performances by: Pantayo, Anakbayan, and Caregiver Connections Education & Support Organization (CCESO)

The exhibition, Bayan, reveals the evolution and multiple meanings of the word bayan itself as it manifests in the cultural practice in the Philippines and in the diaspora. Bayan, which can refer to the actual archipelago of 7,100 islands, also refers to the nation of the people itself, including the over 10 million Filipinx living outside the country. It is precisely because of its fluidity, yet all-encompassing nature, that the term BAYAN is the short name for the umbrella organization of the sectoral Philippine national democratic organizations all over the world.

The works of Hector Calma, Jaret Vadera and Kwentong Bayan, combine to reveal bayan in various ways, giving us the opportunity to trace its mutations in particular political and geographical contexts. The most significant of these political contexts is that the archipelago is in fact home to the longest-running communist insurgency in Asia. This year, 2016, marks the 50 year anniversary of the Cultural Revolution, and its persistence in breathing life into various liberation struggles worldwide cannot be denied. Bayan pays homage to the cultural workers who have come before us, who have shown us how to hold the pen like a proper cadre would.