Tiw-Tiwong - An Uncyclopedia to Life, Living and Art in Baguio, the Cordilleras, and Beyond

Just published!

Edited by  Kawayan de Guia, Rocky Acofo Cajigan, Allan Lumbaya Cariño, Joyce Toh, Padmapani Perez, Frank Cimatu

The societies of the Cordilleras, a mountainous and landlocked province in Luzon Island in the Philippines have been the subject of classic works for ethnography and social science. This is something different.

A multi-pronged, multi-layered collaborative art book, Tiw-tiwong: An Uncyclopedia to Art, Life and Living in Baguio, the Cordilleras and Beyond summons the potency of history, the transformative potential of art, and an inheritance of indigenous knowledge and practices, to open up the story of Baguio and the Cordilleras during a time of rapid change. Tiw-tiwong takes the form of an irreverent and defiant reference book: the 'anti-textbook' antidote to more than a century of colonial representations and institutional studies of Baguio and the Cordilleras. It is also one of the most wide-ranging overviews of Cordilleras and Baguio-based art collated to date. Spanning topics such as the changing face of the bul-ul, the truth about dog-eating, and how to sleep on a Dangwa bus, the 950+ entries explore the known and unknown, as well as the celebrated, notorious and misunderstood aspects of life in the Cordilleras, a mountain terrain that is both generous and unforgiving.

With artists, writers and cultural activists as the chroniclers of change, the book is an urgent remembering of histories and inscribing of indigenous ways of living and communal knowing, and a call to action to value the resources that are still with us today. Through the act of sharing, it also seeks to activate the transterence of fragile knowledges to a generation that is yet-to-come. As such, this book is a tribute to ancestors who have passed on, a lament for things lost, but it is also a celebration and a carnival — a gathering of spirits, where the past, present and future come to party and play.

Tiw-tiwong is published by Baguio Kunst Book Publishing and Partners for Indigenous Knowledge Philippines, in conjunction with AX(iS) Art Project, the Singapore Biennale 2013 and the Philippines National Book Development Board.

Publication year: 2024
368 pp / 232 x 160mm
500+ illustrations, maps, drawings and photographs, in full colour
Paperback
ISBN: 978-621-96739-0-7

Distributed by NUS Press for Baguio Kunst Book Publishing and the Partners for Indigenous Knowledge Philippines