Pio Abad's Works at Diriyah Biennial Explore Migration, Loss, and Indigenous Language

Pio Abad presents two works, Giolo’s Lament (2023) and Vanwa (2023/26), at the Diriyah Contemporary Art Biennale in Saudi Arabia. Giolo’s Lament consists of 11 marble slabs depicting a tattooed hand, based on a 17th-century etching of a boy named Giolo taken from Miangas near Mindanao by British pirate William Dampier and exhibited in London. Vanwa is an earthen text piece featuring a poem in the endangered Ivatan language from Batanes in the northern Philippines, derived from oral love poems called laji performed during rites of passage. The works are shown together for the first time in a room titled “A Hall of Chants.” Abad notes that Vanwa was previously shown at the Taipei Biennial in 2023 under the title Laji No. 97. The artist connects both pieces to themes of migration, loss, and the instability of territories, with Giolo’s story involving his mother’s death during captivity and his tattooed skin preserved at Oxford’s Bodleian Library. Abad emphasizes creating beautiful objects to engage viewers before revealing historical contexts, balancing visual seduction with themes of violence and loss. The interview touches on the historical links between Saudi Arabia and the Philippines through overseas workers, and Abad hopes the work resonates with the local Filipino community despite the Ivatan language’s limited speakers (about 30,000). The biennial’s theme is “In Interludes and Transitions.”