Kidlat Tahimik. Magellan, Marilyn, Mickey & Fr. Dámaso.

Kidlat Tahimik. Magellan, Marilyn, Mickey & Fr. Dámaso. 500 Years of Conquistador RockStars
From October 28, 2021 to March 6, 2022

Kidlat Tahimik presents Magellan, Marilyn, Mickey & Fr. Dámaso. 500 Years of Conquistador RockStars at Palacio de Cristal, a site-specific project that analyses the building’s past, the history of colonialism in the Philippines and the influence of cultural imperialism nowadays. Born in the Philippine city of Baguio, Eric Oteyza de Guia (1942) changed his birth name to Kidlat Tahimik, which means “silent lightning” in Tagalog, the native language from the center and south of the island of Luzon. He has worked as a filmmaker, performer, writer and actor, creating contemporary myths and fables that critique colonialism, capitalism, globalization and cultural imperialism.

Tahimik’s artistic practice comprises large-scale, seemingly chaotic installations, which articulate anachronistic relationships in narrative fashion, building stories by drinking from a variety of sources and contemporary mythologies and bringing them through to the present with open-endings. On this occasion, the Palacio de Cristal in the Retiro Park — built in conjunction with the General Exhibition on the Philippine Islands, in 1887 — becomes the ideal setting for him to reflect on the colonialism processes in the Philippines, five centuries after the arrival of the Europeans to the archipelago.

The exhibition shows an epic scenario composed of three sculptural groups that refer to three key moments in the history of colonialism in the Philippines: in 1521, the arrival of the Magellan expedition and the death of the explorer at the hands of the native people; in 1887, the creation of the Palacio de Cristal for the General Exhibition and the revolutionary context of the Philippine national hero José Rizal; and finally the current cultural clash between American colonialism and indigenous resistance to the importation of foreign cultural models such as Spiderman, Mickey Mouse or Marilyn Monroe.