Sa Pagitan ng Bangungot at Bahaghari

In his solo exhibition, Sa Pagitan ng Bangungot at Bahaghari, Jeho Bitancor plumbs the space in between the nightmare and the rainbow—the latter being a sign of hope, renewal, and the possibility of something better. The nightmare alluded to in the title may be located in a particularly dark chapter of our history, but for Bitancor, it also points to a larger socio-political inheritance: how decisions made by dictators and strongmen of the past continue to shape the present, and how certain societal ills—poverty, inequality, and injustice—remain stubbornly persistent.

But for Bitancor, the ultimate monster is dead, as declared in “Wakas ng Halimaw.” Here, the edifice complex has collapsed, its imposing monument brought down and its tentacles severed by the swift sword of Inang Bayan. It is a moment of reckoning, even of triumph: the monster that once seemed all-powerful has finally been vanquished.

Yet the death of the wicked does not mean that the work is finished. Much remains to be done, and the task before us is nothing short of Herculean. It is a task that cannot be accomplished by a single individual but only through collective action. Many of the works in this exhibition are consequently populated by bodies choreographed together in space, seemingly functioning as one organism—whether holding up the scaffold of resistance in “Pugad ng Pagtutol,” or sailing upon a nest toward a probable future in “Bisig at Bakod.” The individual becomes part of a larger formation, and strength emerges precisely from this coming together.

While steeped in the ethos of social realism, Bitancor’s works are not bound by its realist conventions. He draws freely from symbolism, surrealism, and even myth-making, transforming his figures into characters inhabiting a world of turmoil and upheaval. They occupy strange, sometimes dreamlike spaces, yet they maintain a remarkable sense of dignity and resolve. They organize, gather, hold their ground, and construct structures amid the demolishing forces that continually seek to dismantle collective action. In this way, the fantastical becomes a means of confronting realities that are all too real.

Hence, the bahaghari alluded to in the title is not some paradisiacal terminus waiting at the end of the struggle, but a vision toward which one continually moves. It is less a destination than a direction. And perhaps this is why the rainbow remains elusive: the powerful will not abandon their power without a fight, and the forces that perpetuate injustice are rarely vanquished once and for all. But this does not make the striving futile. For as long as we continue to build—nests, scaffolds, structures, and formations—and as long as we do so together, the possibility of reaching that rainbow remains.