Rene Aquitania

(1961-2023 Baguio City, the Philippines)

Spanning approximately three decades of artistic practice creating performances, paintings and installations, Rene Aquitania’s largely undocumented body of work transformed the mundane into critiques of pressing political and social realities.

Rene’s ritualistic performances were spiritual undertakings. Much of his practice emerged from a life of observing mountain healers and ritual masters in the Cordillera or from his being raised by a mother who herself was a practicing healer. Tongue in cheek, he constantly excavated the eco-spiritual dimensions of being human that lay dormant or unrecognized within the every day, revealing frictions that challenge homogeneity. His works are often presented unannounced to the moment. But this spontaneity is belied by a thoroughness of procedure and process that the artist cloaks from his immediate audiences. They are works that emerge from the labor of living but then negotiate their own calendar in their expression, waiting for the right moment.