ALUMINAK
Coliving Space in Santiago, Ilocos Sur
ALUMINAK
Coliving Space in Santiago, Ilocos Sur
“Aluminak’s Umay Ka Museum: A Sacred Journey Through Ancestral Roots”
At the heart of Aluminak a cultural sanctuary in Santiago, Ilocos Sur stands the Umay Ka Museum, whose name gently calls, “Come home.” But this is not just an invitation to a physical space it is a soul-stirring call to return to what is sacred, shared, and slowly being forgotten.
Inside, the museum hums with quiet reverence. Sunlight spills onto woven mats, aged wood, and curated fragments of daily life that once shaped the rhythm of indigenous living. The air is thick with story. Here, artifacts speak without needing words woven baskets whisper of harvest moons, carved utensils recall the touch of ancestral hands, and age-worn textiles hum songs passed from loom to loom.
Umay Ka Museum is not frozen in time. It lives. It listens. It reminds. Within Aluminak’s ecosystem of co-living, co-learning, and co-creating, the museum becomes a vital breath a sacred pause where guests and artists alike are asked not just to observe, but to feel. Each piece on display isn’t just an object; it’s a keeper of memory, a quiet resistance against forgetting.
This is where tradition meets the present. Young minds, visiting artisans, and curious guests gather not only to witness culture but to become part of its unfolding. Whether through guided stories, reflective walks, or spontaneous conversations, Umay Ka gently urges us to remember where we come from, so we may walk forward with deeper purpose.
In a world moving too fast, Aluminak offers this still point a museum not behind velvet ropes but held in open palms. A living archive that honors indigenous Filipino identity, not as artifact, but as truth timeless, tender, and enduring.
"Nature as Healer: Tan-awak and the Art of Seeing at Aluminak"
At the heart of Santiago, Ilocos Sur, where the mountains hum and trees lean in like old friends, Aluminak opens its arms to those who long to breathe, to feel, to see. Here, Tan-awak begins not as a class, not as a pose, but as a quiet homecoming.
Tan-awak, in the soul of Aluminak, means “to witness” to stand still and see the world again with soft eyes. The moment you step into the sanctuary, you are invited to slow down, to look around, and to remember the forgotten rhythm of your breath. Barefoot and open-hearted, you walk through quiet bamboo paths, lush gardens, and wide spaces where art and nature live side by side.
The wind becomes your guide, and the mountains your mirror. You breathe in the green, the sun, the silence. You let go. You feel the body soften. The stress dissolves into air and earth.
Tan-awak is not just a physical release it’s a spiritual gaze. A sacred pause that lets you see yourself again, reflected in the beauty around you. The breeze on your skin, the vastness of sky, the scent of fresh earth they are part of the healing, part of the art.
In this space of co-living and co-creating, Aluminak becomes a landscape of care. A haven not only for artists, interns, and wanderers, but for anyone who seeks stillness, story, and soul.
So come, take a moment. Look around. Tan-awak awaits an invitation to breathe deeply, to live slowly, and to see the sacred in the everyday.
“Aluminak Art‑Jam: A Sacred Drum Circle of Ancestral Rhythm”
Under a living canopy of woven bamboo and glowing wood-carved walls, participants gather in a circle around Marlon Ponsoy. This isn’t merely a jam it’s an Aluminak Art‑Jam: a sacred drum circle, where bodies, breath, and rhythm unite in ancestral resonance.
Barefoot or in soft socks, they sit on cushions placed on warm wooden floors, instruments within reach handpans, tongue drums, gongs, frame drums, bamboo flutes, and traditional kulintang. Each voice and beat weaves together, creating a living tapestry of sound that hums with collective intention.
Marlon, at the heart of the circle, guides the energy his voice, gestures, and rhythmic pulses opening a shared space where creativity flows and spirits align. As his hands coax tones from the drums, participants respond with heart-led improvisation, each stroke a gentle offering to nature, community, and memory.
Sunlight filters through the organic architecture, dancing in patterns across the group, while the bamboo walls and woven textures echo back every note. This isn’t just a musical session it’s an Aluminak living ritual, a moment of creative communion where ancestral echoes awaken and bonds deepen.
In that drum circle, at the edge of sound and silence, the natural materials become allies of resonance wood, bamboo, metal, breath. They carry the lineage of Filipino heritage while opening space for new expression. Here, rhythm becomes prayer. Creativity becomes remembrance. Community becomes family.
A circle of seekers and makers guided by Marlon Ponsoy captures the intimate, communal heart of Aluminak Art‑Jam, where art, ancestry, and alignment come together in harmony.
“Marlon Ponsoy’s Terracotta Journey at Aluminak – Earth, Hands, and Heart”
Under the dappled shade of tropical foliage at Aluminak, Marlon Ponsoy leads a terracotta workshop that feels more like a communal ritual than a class. Participants gather around sturdy wooden tables, each greeted by a lump of raw clayearth in its most humble form. Slippers are set aside; bare feet kiss the ground, a grounding gesture that connects them to the living pulse of soil and spirit.
Marlon greets each participant with a warm smile, his hands demonstrating how to soften the terracotta, knead it into pliable shapes, and coax out expressions. “Touch gently,” he says, showing how every indentation, every smooth curve, carries intention. The act becomes meditative: thumbs press to define a cheekbone; fingertips trace a brow; palms cradle emerging forms. The clay absorbs breath and movement, becoming a vessel of personal memory and ancestral echo.
Around them, nature hums: leaves drift in breeze, sunlight flickers across carved wooden huts, and birdsong punctuates the soft scrape of clay. Marlon’s gentle coaching invites participants deeper into the process offering guidance on structure, balance, and emotional resonance yet always honors each clay form as unique. “Clay remembers,” he reminds them, “and so do we.”
This terracotta moment at Aluminak is more than sculpting; it’s a living, humanized ritual. Participants watch their creations, sometimes abstract figures or meditative faces, gain shape and depth. The unglazed texture remains honest, raw reflecting vulnerability, sincerity, and the beauty of imperfection.
As the session concludes, each maker steps back, hands clay-streaked and hearts quietly full. They share smiles, glances, admiration for each other’s creations and the unseen stories they hold. Those terracotta forms remain testaments to a shared afternoon of grounding, creativity, and gentle remembrance.
Through the lens of Aluminak, Marlon Ponsoy’s terracotta sculpting becomes an intimate ceremony. Clay, breath, and community intertwine reminding each person of their own rootedness, creativity, and the ancestral soil from which we all arise.
“Dayaw ng Baylan with Aluminak – A Sacred Grounding Ritual Rooted in Ancestral Wisdom”
Dayaw ng Baylan at Aluminak is not a performance it is an ancient poem in motion, a living invocation of ancestral spirit. Imagine this: slippers quietly set aside, and bare feet pressing softly into the earth. That simple gesture is a covenant grounding humility, a return to the soil that carries our lineage. Aluminak begins here, where body and land meet.
Three hands, each placed with intention one upon the heart where love quietly resides, one on the chest where breath flows like spirit, and one cupping the belly, cradle of creation and memory. These are not mere positions. They are silent declarations of presence, each hand speaking directly to the body’s inner sanctum, aligning heart, breath, and center.
Eyes close. Not to shut out the world, but to step inward across the veil into the realm of the Diwata. Soft ancestral whispers begin to stir in that inner world; remembrances of voices long carried in the soul. This is the domain of our elder storytellers the ones whose words wove through forests and fields, whose wisdom lives in the wind, soil, and ancient trees.
Around the circle, nature becomes more than witness it becomes ally, presence, pulse. The trees lean in reverent, their branches murmuring. The wind coils around the participants, not just stirred but alive. Beneath, the soil holds the collective weight of generations. In Aluminak’s sacred space, these elements are not background; they are fellow keepers of memory.
In this hush, the ritual the movement takes shape. Every inhale draws in ancestral song, every exhale release modern tension. The body’s subtle shifts, the steady cadence of breath, the gentle heartbeat: all become offerings. Aluminak is not choreography it is conversation. Each gesture speaks: "I remember. I belong."
A single breath, held between worlds, contains worlds within. A heartbeat echoes through lineage. A small movement of hand becomes prayer. The Diwata and ancestral spirits (anito) stir in that silence. They wake. They bless. They answer. And in that communion, something eternal returns.
When participants emerge from this relinquished silence, they bring something back: a clarity, a groundedness, a renewed alignment of spirit and land. They carry the gentle echoes of ancestral wisdom, no longer distant but alive within daily steps.
“Aluminak’s Inabel Showcase: Abel Iloko by Anna Galinato, Raiza Montero & Jocel Gacilos”
Abel Iloko, the traditional handwoven textile native to the Ilocos region, is celebrated for its strength, softness, and intricate geometric patterns built on techniques like binakol and pinilian that echo across generations. At Aluminak, this living art is woven into the fabric of identity and belonging.
Under the of sunlit bamboo and woven palm, a group of interns from ISPSC Candon Campus stand in quiet reverence before dedicated weavers at Aluminak. They watch with attentive curiosity as threads of golden-red in Abel Iloko also known as inabel are pulled across shuttle and loom in a timeless dance. The bamboo floors beneath their bare feet and the driftwood walls around them create a space of shared presence, where the soft rhythm of weaving feels like the heartbeat of community.
Artists Anna Galinato and Raiza Montero share their Abel Iloko creations: elegant scarves, runners, and garments, each pattern an echo of home and lineage. Alongside them, Jocel Gacilos takes center stage her collection of handmade Abel pieces is exclusive to Aluminak, garments and textiles woven with care that celebrate Ilocano artistry. Sunlight filters through woven lanterns overhead, highlighting each finished piece and the careful hands that made them. Guests and staff alike share thoughtful nods and hushed smiles, moved by the vibrant energy coursing through the space: tradition meeting tomorrow, creativity meeting craft.
This isn’t just a display it’s an intimate exchange, a living tapestry binding past and present, local talent and global journey. At Aluminak, weaving is more than craft it’s ritual a blessing spun from yarn, memory, and collective presence.
Pag‑inana: The Sacred Flow of Breath, Body, and Belonging
(Meditative Movement with Yeyette San Louise • Aluminak)
Beneath a living canopy of tropical green, a circle forms on soft mats. Feet are bare slippers removed not merely for comfort, but as an act of humble grounding. Each sole presses into the earth, feeling the heartbeat of the land, reconnecting body to soil in a silent pact of belonging. Around them, lush leaves sway in gentle applause; sunlight filters down in shifting patterns of light and shade.
At the center stands Yeyette San Louise, facilitator and keeper of tranquil rhythm. She invites participants to stretch their arms wide, folding inward at the shoulders as though embracing both sky and earth. This gesture becomes more than posture: it is openness—an offering of release, a vow of unity. With each breath, movement slows, becoming deliberate and sacred, flowing in time with the pulse of that shaded sanctuary.
This is no ordinary class it is a living ritual, a convergence of breath, body, and spirit. Every inhale draws in ancestral echoes, every exhale releases modern burdens. The breeze becomes a whispered hymn; the canopy, a sacred vault; the participants, vessels through which memory moves again. Here, movement is remembrance. Here, alignment of limbs mirrors alignment of lineage and life force this is Aluminak’s promise.
In this shared space, bodies become prayer, breaths become bridge, and belonging becomes the song we all remember but seldom hear. Pag‑inana is more than meditative movement it is an invocation, a dance of ancestral belonging that calls both earth and spirit into witness. As the session ends, silence lingers like incense, each heart carrying the sacred flow forward.
“ISPSC Candon Intern Portraits at Aluminak – Emerging Local Talent”
Beneath the woven bamboo canopy at Aluminak, a group of talented young artists interns from ISPSC Candon Campus stand proudly, each holding up their charcoal portraits like quiet declarations of creative voice. Their artwork, alive with emotion and technique, brings the rustic space to hum with youthful energy and emerging style. Aluminak welcomes artists from everywhere, and here these interns shine as living proof of that welcoming spirit: a place where local talent connects to a global community, and creativity is celebrated in all its forms.
These talented young artists Aluminaks interns present their work confidently, each portrait capturing emotion, line, and depth. Aluminak welcomes all creatives across the world; these interns represent the heart of that global invitation, a testament to one of Aluminak’s core goals: nurturing emerging artists and embracing community collaboration.
The session is guided with kindness and expertise by Sir Jay Tarusen, Aluminak staff artist and mentor, whose gentle encouragement helps shape both technique and confidence. Alongside him is AL Elnar, the marketing staff and artist whose warmth and support help bridge the interns’ stories with Aluminak’s welcoming spirit. Together, they create a space where local talent can blossom under careful guidance.
Each piece is a whispered declaration: eyes thoughtful, features shaded with care, individuality emerging in charcoal’s subtle gradients. These portraits are more than representation they are the young artists’ voices made visible, each face a quiet narrative of belonging and emergence.