Orange Project in Bacolod hosted the Philippine launch of Project Panatag: Subjective Atlas of the Philippines on May 23. This marked the first of a regional series of workshops designed to create bottom-up cartographies of the country, authored by its people.
According to the organizers, Project Panatag is an ethnographic inquiry on territory and is an arts-based psychosocial research initiative. It uses creative mapping to explore the lived experiences of Filipinos, focusing on emotional and socio-cultural dynamics within territorial contexts. By integrating participatory feedback loops that blend artistic practices with local narratives and community insights, the project deepens place-based identity and fosters collective resilience.
Through this lens, water is not merely a resource—it is a cultural and ecological lifeline, a symbol of historical connectivity and territorial contestation. The project explores how water links the narratives of Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao, shaping heritage and identity. Panatag thus positions itself as an evolving platform for dialogue, healing, and mapping new solidarities.
The Orange Project workshop gathered 20 Negrense artists and cultural workers for a full day of creating maps, stories, and emotional landscapes together. Their works ranged from annotated routes and photo collages and map making all focused on capturing the feelings and memories tied to their communities and land. Instead of the usual maps that focus on borders or infrastructure, these pieces are about memory, family ties, loss, and resilience.
The artists reflected on certain aspects of their shared history as a community, using digital drawing and skillful portrait making to bring those stories to life. One artist from Victorias City, highlighted how Filipinos love to celebrate feasts and the special moments shared around the dining table during fiesta gatherings as a tradition carried out by their family, an important part of her cultural identity.
They shared personal experiences like growing up as daughters of migrant workers or coming from families of farmers who’ve carried the weight of their land and sugar heritage for generations. And they talked about how the arts have grown and thrived in Negros, from pottery to famous local filmmakers, and the important work happening in their design and printmaking communities and the importance of keeping art education alive.
The overall initiative connects Filipino communities across the archipelago through shared cartographic rituals with a special highlight on Negros for the Visayas Region.
Founded by Belgium-based artist and designer Annelys de Vet, the Subjective Atlas is an international publication initiative that reimagines the atlas as a collection of intimate, artistic representations of place and identity. The Philippine edition is led by Josephine Turalba, with curation by Portia Placino. Ari Turalba serves as Overall Project Manager, ensuring project cohesion across multiple regions. Dominique Arcenas manages operations in Bacolod, joined by Marketing Head JL Diquit, Documenter Migs De Leon, and Project Coordinator Melai Arguzon.
It is organized by the Philippine Women’s University Artistic Research Center (PWU-ARC) in collaboration with Subjective Editions. The organizers recognized their partners, Charlie Co and the entire team at Orange Project for opening their creative sanctuary to the initiative, fostering contemporary art in the Visayas that made a deep impact not only on the participants but on the broader national conversation about place and identity.
They also thanked Mayor Javier Miguel “Javie” Benitez and Vice Mayor Jun-B Bantug of Victorias City for their visionary leadership and enduring belief in the transformative power of the arts.
The contribution of Active Group was also recognized, whose generosity and trust allowed the socially engaged endeavor to be carried out with care and impact.
By the conclusion of the national workshop series, select contributions will be published in the Subjective Atlas of the Philippines, set for release in 2026. The Philippine edition will join a growing global archive of subjective atlases from Amsterdam, Brussels, Pakistan, and Palestine, each a testament to the power of lived experience in rethinking national identity.
These workshops do more than gather art. They gather stories. They foster reflection on how Filipinos navigate space—how they relate to their islands, their neighbors, their histories, and the waters that connect and divide them.*
