Solidarity In Performance Art -Sipa Pinas

rt/game in the Philippines literally meaning “kick” in Filipino, SIPA draws its inspiration. The sport sipa requires discipline, focus, and the creative coordination of the whole body. The project draws from this practice and initiates a healthy process of cultural exchange that showcases methods, talents, and artistry, as well as providing a venue to explore creative possibilities. Centered on performance art, the project emphasizes the idea of movement: movement as motion, movement as a collective action, and movement as the progressive development of ideas. (SIPA 2016)
Over the past nine years, SIPA has been able to build a community of performance artists in the country and is part of the global performance movement. SIPA has invited and hosted about 80 international artists from 22 countries in the world (Asia, Europe, the US, including Latin American countries). Performance art continues to remain alive and vibrant due to the contributions of SIPA through its annual performance art festival. SIPA is an active member organization of the Transnational Coalition of the Arts (established in 2021). SIPA ‘s main stages are the universities, public markets, museums, galleries - venues that serve as key platforms to propagate and promote the discipline of performance art to students, the academic community, and the public. SIPA has established partnerships with major universities in 6 cities, including those in Metro Manila and the provinces of Rizal, Pampanga, Laguna, Cavite, and Negros Island. This year, the festival will be held in Iloilo City. SIPA has become a bridge of unity between various disciplines in the arts and has promoted solidarity with educators and students of the academy, artists' communities, and people’s organizations such as the fishermen of Paranaque, sugar workers of Escalante, and families of survivors of the fake drug war of the previous regime. SIPA is composed and collectively managed by a volunteer secretariat made up of artists, cultural workers, young professionals, and teachers. It exercises consultative, consensus- based governance, stitched together in respect for others, a spirit of solidarity and a shared love for art.