Because we believe in the art of asking: We need your support!
We are excited to announce that Sipat Lawin Ensemble and our collaborators have been accepted as Artists-in-Residence of the Kinosaki International Arts Center in Kinosaki, Japan this September 2018. Sipat Lawin Ensemble’s GOBYERNO is one of the 16 groups of artists and projects that have been selected out of 94 applications from 25 countries.
The work
For this residency, we will develop Gobyerno (Government), an interactive and participatory performance-workshop inviting audiences to create, perform, and film their ideal government and communities. The work employs both the language of theater and cinema to activate audience agency as an opportunity to question and exercise global citizenship.
First prototyped in 2015 and envisioned to become an eight-hour durational work, the six-year global project explores performance as rehearsals for revolutions and collective action. Key collaborators include playwright David Finnigan, filmmaker Brandon Relucio, and visual artist Ralph Lumbres.
It has been previously performed and iterated in collaboration with Creative VaQi (Seoul, South Korea); Junnosuke Tada of Tokyo Deathlock (Honmoku, Japan), Lisa Pellegrino (Darwin Festival 2016 Darwin, Australia), High School Students from Castlemaine Secondary College (Castlemaine State Festival 2017 Castlemaine, Australia), and Shock Therapy and High Students from Robina State School (2970 Boiling Point: Practising Democracy Gold Coast, Australia).
Gobyerno has also been recently recognized with an Honorable Mention - Elliott Hayes Award for Outstanding Dramaturgy 2017 by the Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas.
The residency
The Artists-in-Residence (AIR) Program of the Kinosaki International Arts Center (KIAC) is a unique opportunity because “group” or “ensemble” residencies are extremely rare. For this residency, we will be granted free use of KIAC’s main hall and studios, the residence facility, and take part in the KIAC’s Local Exchange Community Program.
We will take this time to drive Gobyerno to new directions as we are in the work’s fourth year in its six-year development. We will spend the time devising a new version of the performance, collecting insights from the past runs, as well as integrating research on the current global and local political climate.
Support
We have also been awarded support by the Japan Foundation - Manila through a travel grant.
However, flying in seven artists from Manila to stay in Japan for 10-15 days will incur a lot of cost. Thus, we would like to request for you support. We are currently raising Php250,000.00 to cover per diems and the artists’ professional fees.
In past years, Gobyerno has been performed in different contexts to educate students, artists, scientists, and educators in various countries, to explore questions on government, citizenship, systems thinking, and civic engagement. We have implemented Sipat Lawin’s blank-ticket system for our performances in the Philippines and have mainly sought grants to produce our work so as to allow better access to this performance.
If you have been part of Gobyerno as a collaborator, audience-as-performance-maker, and/or producer; or someone who believes in and values the creative processes that Sipat Lawin Ensemble shares with communities: we ask for your generosity. We know these perks will not be enough to thank you for your unwavering support, but know that we are infinitely grateful and we will do our best to ensure that your support in us will translate to relevant works that will reach various communities.
Because we want to keep doing, keep inspiring, keep making, keep questioning, keep destroying, keep creating with you, with many communities, here and around the country, inside and outside the Philippines.
You may also send support via BDO:
Acct Name: SIPAT LAWIN INC.
Acct Num.: 001630062810
Bank Details: BANCO DE ORO
Branch: East Maya, West Avenue Branch Quezon City, Philippines
International Swift Code: BNORPHMM
And, via Paypal:
https://www.paypal.me/supportsipatlawin
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MABUHAY! MARAMING SALAMAT!
Love,
GOBYERNO Project Team x SIPAT LAWIN ENSEMBLE
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Take a look at the Kinosaki Arts Center Souvenir Program for 2018 here:
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