DELIKADO PELIGROSO 

Tagalog (the official language of the Philippines) has many words of Spanish origin. While some still have their original meanings, others were transformed when they became part of the Philippine universe. Delikado, for example, no longer means delicate, but has evolved to mean dangerous.

Manila is one of those cities where the body seems to be forbidden, or is constrained by linguistic, physical, and social structures, that are so rigid that they seem to make it disappear. Although not a single city comes to mind that does not suffer from the same issues, in the Philippine context (colonisation after colonisation) they are strengthened and have become more evident. Or rather, it robs bodies of their strength and makes these bodies less evident.

But the same fragile body that suffers the effects of cities and History, is also a weapon and a narrative device. The same body which is an obstacle to be overcome (and a problem to be solved) is also the only place where we can be: a place where strength lies in softness; where presence is constant; and where questions are more valuable that the answers.

There is only a thin line between delicate and dangerous, separating the agent and the object (that which causes danger and that which is in danger). This transformation is actually a change of point of view, and occurs in the ideal semantic space to talk about the condition of the body (every body, any body) in the contemporary context, and more specifically, in the experience of life in Manila.