Bakit Pa

1 March 2025 – 28 March 2025

Edoweird, Manila

About the show

For Silke Lapina, Bakit Pa is more than a song; it is a meditation on faith, doubt, and resilience. Raised between Filipino Catholicism and a secularizing German society, she navigates the tensions between devotion and skepticism, questioning what sustains belief when its foundations are shaken.

Her works explore faith’s evolving role in identity. Unknown Brother (2024) destabilizes gendered religious authority through shifting priestly portraits, while Urban Prayers (2021–ongoing) inscribes mirrors with queer theological texts, reflecting personal and sacred narratives.

At the heart of the exhibition is I could spend my life with you and it wouldn’t be enough (Manila, 2025), an installation where light, water, and text converge. A neon-lit love letter from a queer theologian glows on an acrylic cross, and on the 22nd of March, Lapina undergoes baptism within the installation’s water pool. This ritual reframes faith through a queer lens, challenging who defines devotion and spiritual surrender.

Rather than offering conclusions, Bakit Pa insists on the act of questioning. As the song’s lyrics remind us: Ito ay aking kakayanin. (I will endure this.)

Text by Liz Bautista