Baguio museum unveils images of Kidlat Tahimik
BAGUIO CITY—At the attic of the Baguio Museum today stands a multitude of faces of alternative filmmaker and National Artist Kidlat Tahimik.
There is a huge ink portrait of 82-year-old Kidlat that he discovered online when it was posted by a former art student, a unique painting of the artist that used Kidlat’s own braided white locks, a quilt-like embroidery of the Baguio-born artist and drawings by his grandchildren Kalipay, Binnulan, Kalinaw and Amihan de Guia.
The paintings and drawings are interspersed between sculptures rendered by his artist friends like Kigao Rosimo and photographs, which traced Kidlat’s evolution from economist and Wharton School of Business alumnus Eric de Guia (his birthname) to the director of acclaimed art films like “Mababangong Bangungot (Perfumed Nightmare)” in 1977.
Kidlat’s latest retrospective, spanning more than 80 years of the filmmaker’s life, featured keepsakes that were collected, itemized and sent to storage by Katrin de Guia, Kidlat’s German-born wife, who passed recently due to a lingering illness, said their son, artist Kawayan de Guia.
At the Dec. 13 museum launch of “Portraits of a National Artist as a Kultur Warrior,” Kidlat said it was Katrin who led him to embrace the “indio-genius” lifestyle, a word he coined and popularized to refer to indigenous Filipino knowledge, crafts and traditions.
“She catalyzed my being an artist. I mean, I wanted to be an artist, which is why I went to Germany. I wanted to quit my economist job. But because of Katrin naging super malalim ang pagiging artist ko (my perception about being an artist became much deeper), “ he told the Inquirer.
Fresh insights
Katrin, who had published a book called “Kapwa” to distill what she believed was the essence of indigenous Filipino psychology, had apparently stored every item about Kidlat, beginning with her nude portrait of the filmmaker in 1973, and her 1973 oil painting of her husband.
Elsewhere in the exhibit are photographs of Kidlat as a young filmmaker and shots by acclaimed lensman Tommy Hafalla documenting the national artist with what is arguably his closest friend, the late Lopez Nauyac, during Kidlat’s brief migration near the Hapao terraces of Ifugao’s Hungduan town.
Through the years, the family has apparently produced art to draw out fresh insights about Kidlat.
One corner displays an undated watercolor picture done by Kawayan of his father Kidlat in a bahag fighting off Mickey Mouse, who straddled a Trojan Horse.
Kawayan also put together a collage of old photographs featuring 10-year-old Kidlat with his late parents Victor de Guia and Virginia Oteyza de Guia, herself a local celebrity having served as a one-time Baguio mayor and city councilor in postwar Baguio.
The retrospective was launched simultaneously with an exhibit of pasikings (indigenous backpacks made of straw and bamboo) collected by businessman Armand Voltaire Cating, who runs the Ganza and Solibao restaurants.
