> makinig,

listen carefully,

may tenga ang lupa,

the land has ears <<

In the tapestries, you see a dialogue on the river bed, a man burying a dead dog under a kamatsile tree by the riverbank, forest community leaders holding their tools of trade, a failed dike project that sealed off the river, the flood that ensues after sealing the river, women foraging for sounds, a community farm in the forest.

Happening across the span of more than two years of grassroots organizing; our collective collected these moments from everyday life in the midst of failing systems.

may tenga ang lupa borrows from the Filipino aphorism, 'may tenga ang lupa, may pakpak ang balita' (the land has ears, the news has wings).

It is the first edition of Ambient Narratives, an ongoing artistic inquiry that attempts to surface tensions in current climate discourses and everyday realities of the rural working class. These seemingly 'ambient' narratives form the backdrop and foreground of the climate crisis.

Here, we interrogate the field. Created in the context of corruption of public funds for climate adaptation, human rights abuses against environmental defenders, land dispossession, and the steady march of corporate and dynastic looting of our commons.

This edition uses sound and image to tell the story of a changing landscape in the typhoon belt. You are invited to listen to human and more-than-human voices adapt, resist, and wayfind in rural Philippines.

We initiated this project with the intention of creating a space to surface tensions between climate, development, and memory through art and public dialogue is of main importance, especially as current processes of decision-making exclude those most affected. This work intends to use sonic knowledges to tell the story of a changing landscape in a climate vulnerable Philippines, exploring how people and systems are adapting and resisting in the typhoon belt, and how voices, including those of the more-than-human, open up possibilities for making sense of loss, resilience, and adaptation.

Ambient Narratives begins as a series of dialogues and deep listening interventions involving a diversity of partners, tracing the flow of a river from ilaya (upstream) to ilawod (downstream) towards a slowly sinking island, locations that are in and of itself a point of interest in sea level rise and the biodiversity crisis, creating a sound archive that culminates in a public listening event and mobile exhibition. This project centers the sentiments of the rural working class on equitable development, historical memory, and everyday ecologies.

Concept, Direction, Sound: Tonio Flores II
Photography: Meg Padpad, Javie Barcinal
Organizing: Sharmaine Blas, Jorgia Dagohoy
Transcription, Translation: Christer Hang, Lars Polido

This project is co-initiated by ekopraxis & Dulungan Youth (GLFxPanay) with research and production support from Heinrich Boell Foundation - East Asia, and Sonic Entanglements. Co-presented by Global Landscapes Forum, Koalisi Ekonomi Membumi and Just Transitions Incubator for BKKCAW 2026

Dulungan Youth is a youth-led grassroots organization in Antique, Philippines, dedicated to community-led biodiversity conservation
https://www.instagram.com/dulungan.youth/

ekopraxis is a prototyping studio for food, farming, and ecology using art and collective action to organize with communities.
https://www.instagram.com/ekopraxis.ph/

We are part of the GLFx network of the Global Landscapes Forum

See more of our work here:
https://toniofloresii.com/

tonio flores ii

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