Nominee Prix Pictet 2015, Disorder
‘The fortunes and misfortunes of the mines are the fortunes and misfortunes of Benguet.”
A People’s History of Benguet Province (Bagamaspad, Hamada-Pawid)
The Philippines has a long history of small-scale gold mining, with the Ibaloy and Kankana-ey tribes as traditional miners. Ownership of gold was attributed to the ancestral deity Balitok and the people shared the bounty of the land, offering ritual animals to the spirits before extraction. Mining enhanced a person’s prestige and was part of the indigenous socio-political system that benefited the community.
In 1995, the Philippine government granted 100% ownership of mining investments to foreign owned companies. With mining concessions came land rights that led to the displacement of the indigenous people. Entire mountains have disappeared, river systems polluted, rights to ancestral land ignored and the mining sites left abandoned. These areas in Itogon are dystopic landscapes, shaped by our own desires and needs. Still it continues to be a source of livelihood for the community that continue to live and work in the area, scavenging off the remains, squatters on their own land.
BTS shooting the tailings dam at Antamok
An area called Antamok in Itogon is particularly notorious for landslides. It had an open pit and a massive, jade-coloured tailings dam.
The otherworldly green was created by a lethal mix of mercury and cyanide, chemicals used in the extraction of gold.
I went there with a friend/compadre called Ruel Bimuyag. He agreed to assist and help me visit different areas, usually trying out different dialects on people until he got the right one. In this way, we were able to break the ice, and were somehow given free rein to photograph areas that we wouldn’t have been able to otherwise. Ruel was always related to someone they knew, whether imagined or not. In one of the photos, Ruel is chatting to a young, gun-toting, security guard sharing his stash of momma or betel nut. In another, you can see him running to take a meter reading by the shore of the dam.
Ruel is from Ifugao, knows everything you need to know about the area , and is in on any given project in the Cordilleras. He is also a photographer, and one of the best gangsa (gong) players in the country.
Moving Mountains install at
The Drawing Room, Singapore