DAPITAN CITY, Zamboanga del Norte--Artists from five countries have gathered here for the first World Art Camp Olympiad (WACO), which organizers say would be rotated among all Asian countries every two years until it returns to Dapitan, where it all began.
"Naumpisahan na ang kasaysayan (History has started)," Rolando de Leon, WACO project director, said during the Olympiad's opening at the Gloria de Dapitan business and entertainment complex last July 21.
De Leon told the Philippine News Agency (PNA) that the event gathers local and foreign artists who advocate peace and environment protection through art.
"In fact, our foreign participants are spending for their own transportation from their countries to Dapitan," he said.
For its part, the City Government of Dapitan shouldered the accommodation, local transportation and meals for the entire four-day Olympiad.
Of the 34 participants, 13 are from Indonesia, two from Myanmar, one from Thailand, and 18 from the Philippines, most of whom are from Luzon and Visayas.
De Leon said WACO was planned to be launched three years ago, but it was delayed due to problems on funding and coordination.
He added that WACO was finally given the green light in July 2017, but was canceled again when the war in Marawi City broke out in May that year.
"I'm happy that we are able to push for it now," de Leon said. "Still, there are a lot of problems, but I'm confident we can improve as we rotate the hosting of WACO throughout Asia."
De Leon said the next WACO, to be held in two years, will either be in Thailand or Japan.
Afif Ghurub Bestari, design professor from Indonesia’s Yogyakarta State University, told PNA that Filipinos should embrace their own culture, art and history because these are unifying factors of peoples.
"I'm a Muslim, but I can get inside a Hindu temple or a Catholic church in Indonesia. And we also welcome Hindus and Christians to mosques. Right now, my work is inspired by traditional costume from the Hindu Prambanan Temple in Yogyakarta City. I hope that WACO will further deepen nationalism and eventually reinforce the spirit of one Asia," Bestari said.
De Leon lamented the largely cold reaction of Dapitanons to WACO, but he still expressed optimism the event would lead them to rediscover who they are because that is what tourists are aching to see--authenticity.
"And our own culture, art and history are among the authentic description of us as a people and our growing up as a community," he said.
WACO participants are competing in acrylic painting, figure sketching, photography, and body form architecture. (PNA)
