Karnabal Returns to Town
JUNE 2016 — KARNABAL FESTIVAL is all set to reunite artists in the next chapter of their tripartite run of performance-gathering. The first run is themed as Discovery, the third is Divergence, and the transitioning run is eyeing for Development.
This year’s festival will run from June 1 to June 12, in Diliman, Quezon City. Karnabal Festival is set to engage participating local and international artists with their audiences through different platforms for performances, dialogues, training programs, and exhibitions.
Initial gatherings among artists and festival curators came to fruition since April 2016. Workshops and consultation among artists were exercised and spearheaded by the Festival Curators, JK Anicoche, Eisa Jocson, Sarah Salazar, Ness Roque-Lumbres and David Finnigan.
KARNABAL Festival is a pioneering contemporary and alternative creative laboratory for performance and social innovations in the Philippines. It highlights the community of change-makers from the local scene whose works and practices are representative of the alternative wave of art-making in the country, alongside international artists interested in immersing in creative multi-field connectivity and collaboration with Filipino practitioners and communities.
Proclaimed as a contemporary community festival, Karnabal is an initiative of the Sipat Lawin Ensemble. The ideals developed from being a festival of def defying works into a festival for social innovation. Hence, the contemporary community pushes for the essence of a three-fold chronology of Discovery, Development, and Divergence.
Being the second episode in the tripartite, the festival will reunite the artists from the Discovery year, and provide a platform for their works’ continuity.
KARNABAL FESTIVAL is the biggest artist-run gathering of independent contemporary performance-makers in the Philippines. KARNABAL Festival is a pioneering contemporary and alternative creative laboratory for performance and social innovations in the Philippines.
KARNABAL FESTIVAL 2016 is a contemporary community festival that supports independent artists and communities in developing socially-engaged performances. The two-week multi site festival takes place in houses, theaters, restaurants and many other spaces in Maginhawa Art District in Quezon City, Metro Manila, engaging more than 200 artists and around 3,000 audiences through different platforms for performances and exhibitions, training, dialogue and idea presentations.
Karnabal Festival 2016 will feature local performance-makers such as Teresa Barrozo, Adrienne Vergara, Claudia Enriquez, Alison Segarra, Isabelle Martinez, Guelan Luarca, Ness Roque-Lumbres, Issa Manalo Lopez, JK Anicoche, Eisa Jocson, Sarah Salazar, Bernadette Uy, Boyet de Mesa, Russ Ligtas, Ea Torrado, Bunny Cadag, Mahimbing & Thea Yrastorza, Eshei Mesina, Christopher Aronson, Josef Billedo, Thomas Billedo, Vincent Billedo, Christine Imperial, Cassandra Imperial, John Patrick Imperial, Camille Imperial, Anino Shadowplay Collective, Kolab Company, Mapua Tekno Teatro, The Scenius Pro, Storyboard Junkies, Theater in Alternative Platforms, Yugto Theatre Ensemble, Green Glass Door, Silly People’s Improv Theater, The Story Circle, and Sinagbayan. It will also provide platforms for International artists such as, Chikara Fujiwara (Japan), Natsuki Ishigami (Japan), Riki Takeda (Japan), David Finnigan (Australia), Nikki Kennedy (Australia), and Tassos Stevens/ Coney (UK).
FESTIVAL PLATFORMS and TIMELINE
Dates: June 1 to 12, 2016
Main Venue: Amelia Lapeña-Bonifacio Teatro Papet Museo 64 Mapagkawanggawa St Teachers Village Diliman, Quezon City
Main Platform
June 2 Thu-9 Thu (open to the public); Main Platform performances
As KARNABAL Festival 2016 focuses on Development, the Main Platform, still highlighting Performance and Social Innovation, supports select local and international artist participants from the previous KARNABAL to continue developing their works and practices, further challenging and exploring performance possibilities in the realms of contemporary and social art, towards another Work-in-Progress showing or Premiere this June.
Karnabal X
June 2 Thu-11 Sat (open to the public); Karnabal X performances
A reincarnation of KARNABAL 2013 and 2015’s Open Platform which has already birthed 24 original productions by local artists, Karnabal X is the festival’s laboratory for new works addressing the theme “Encounters in Transitions”. Invited arts practitioners from different backgrounds and communities immerse in a series of pre-festival workshops, guided development and community discussions, towards having a Work-in-Progress showing during the festival.
PerYaKToi
June 4 Saturday (open to the public); Presentation of PerYaKToi participants
This Platform is a two-week mentorship program and guided performance laboratory for young artists, which aims to create a multi-field approach and shift perspective in solo and collaborative performance-making.
Idea Exchange
June 8 Wed-9 Thu (open to the public); 2nd part of the festival conference
Mapping the contemporary performance scene, the Idea Exchange Platform looks into the varying practices, processes and perspectives that have been emerging, or active and continuously transforming. Its main offering, Tok! Tok! Talk!, is a two-part conference of informal talks, lectures, panel discussions and roundtable conversations on contemporary social practices and performance, involving arts practitioners and creative leaders from varying fields.
Gatherings
June 1 Wed-12 Sun (open to the public); Get-together gigs and social functions
A series of get-together performance gigs patterned after different community functions and co-curated by select artists from different arts communities. This platform hosts performance events aimed at bringing festival artists and audiences together, to confront and challenge how and why we gather in this day and age.
KARNABAL FESTIVAL remains to perpetuate the noble purposes of art-making, committed to engage artists and audiences for the quest of social transformation.
For more details about what’s happening in the Manila theater scene, please view our Theater Calendar.
