“THE artist produces for the liberation of his soul. It is his nature to create as it is the nature of water to run down the hill.” These are the famous words of novelist and writer William Somerset Maugham that ultimately describes the most prolific Kagay-on artist, Nicolas Aca Jr.
He is art itself.
One can see him on the busiest aisle of St. Augustine Cathedral where a number of churchgoers walk pass. On his shoulder, he carries a pole with a ballot box in one end and a cooking pot in another, portraying a taho vendor. He then shouts “Ayaw ibaligya inyong boto! (Do not sell your votes!)” This is just one of his famous acts in his personal movement against vote-buying during the electoral campaign period.
“Even if people don’t understand, the act is the final play of the whole sum of the art”, said Aca.
He said most of the time, people would just ignore him; some would laugh, others take pictures while some just stare at him with a perplexed look.
Aca believes that at some point, people really understand what he is doing and that through his performance; he is able to inject the truth in the community. His continuous pursuit for the production of true and good art reflects in his art works.
Aca has been one of the country’s avant-garde artists in Mindanao who forwards his social commentaries and shares awareness to the common folk through the freedom of his performance art.
This year, Aca heads to Xi’an, China to perform along with the top artists around the globe in the prestigious 9th Guyu Action, Contemporary Art Festival.
The 47-year-old artist is an Architecture graduate of Cagayan de Oro College. He decided to pursue a career in the performing arts.
Aca is presently a member of Cagayan de Oro Historical Committee and a curator at the Museum of Three Cultures at Capitol University. He was commended as one of the Top Ten Mindanao Artists in the 2009 Philippine Art Awards and in the Phillip Morris Philippine Arts Awards 2011.
In more than a decade of his career, Aca’s art has been known in the artistic community in Mindanao. Aca has been known to bring art outside of the conventional museums and galleries and bring it closer to the grasp of the people by performing in the streets.
Directing a group of fellow artists or sometimes performing on his own, Aca walks the streets of Cagayan de Oro re-enacting social issues which he thinks should be brought to the consciousness of the people.
When the devastation of Typhoon Sendong hit Cagayan de Oro City, Aca, together with his fellow artists, walked the city streets with mudded clothes. He did it again when Typhoon Yolanda damaged the Eastern Visayas region. He acted as one of the casualties.
Aca also made a performance act on social and political issues that have stirred the Filipino community, including the Ampatuan Massacre, the Pork Barrel Scam, the Lumad Killings in Surigao del Sur and the SAF 44 massacre.
Aca also participates in social movements such as the 2015 Project Bakawan wherein he, along with other artists from different part of the country, walked in various cities to call for environmental preservation.
He also gave a performance in the 2016 celebration of the Earth Hour last May.
With his invitation at the Guyu Art Performance, he will perform his much awaited contemporary visual art with 300 artists around the world. The art festival opens on October 13 to 31. This event was initiated by the Xi’an group of artists on 2007 and aims to advocate artistic freedom and poetic qualities.
Aca believes that good art requires honesty of intention more than just truthfulness of perspective; with these, the artist achieves his purpose.
“Art must stir the senses, challenge the status quo, and raise awareness,” Aca said.