Monumental in Scope, Impermanent in Space

In relation to her project, A Meme is not a Monument, But Can It Make a Myth of a Man? Büchsenhausen Fellow Alice Sarmiento will moderate a discussion with artists and activists Lisa Ito-Tapang and Cian Dayrit on their work as artists and organizers, specifically focusing on their practices related to countermapping, people’s tribunals, and other enactments of public accountability and symbolic justice.

We will also screen BAD ROADS MAKE YOU SORE AND STIR MEN UP TO FIGHT, a 9-minute video and sound assemblage by Cian Dayrit in collaboration with artists Jon Olarte and Auspicious Fam. The work examines how empire scored out the maps of the modern world, how its aftermath perpetuates uneven development, and how alternative territories might be imagined from the ground up.

THIS IS A HYBRID EVENT. You can either participate in the event on site at Künstlerhaus Büchsenhausen or follow the event online, via Zoom and Facebook. You will receive the Zoom link after registering via Eventbrite.

Lisa Ito-Tapang is the Secretary-General of the Concerned Artists of the Philippines (CAP), an organization of progressive artists and cultural workers founded in 1983 in response to censorship during the Marcos dictatorship. CAP continues to organize artists to assert the Filipino people’s right to justice, genuine democracy, and freedom of expression today.
Since 2012, she has taught art history and art theory as a faculty member of the Department of Theory, University of the Philippines College of Fine Arts. She received a Bachelor of Fine Arts (major in Art History) and her Masters in Art Studies (major in Art History) from the University of the Philippines Diliman. Her research, creative, and curatorial interests explore intersections between art practice, socio-political engagement, and ecology. She was among the fellows of Condition Report, a Southeast Asia-wide curatorial development program of the Japan Foundation from 2015-2017.

Cian Dayrit’s interdisciplinary practice subverts the language and workings of institutions such as the state, museums, and the military to understand and visualize the contradictions these platforms and formats are built upon. Through sculpture, multimedia, and participatory practices, he explores colonialism and ethnography, archaeology, history, and mythology. His countermapping works, often realized through embroidery, textile, and mixed media collages, plot the patterns of imperialism and feudalism in activities such as the extraction of natural resources and the displacement and exploitation of marginalized populations. Through narratives that expose the inner workings of imperial power, Dayrit’s work invites us to reconsider how we spatially perceive and interpret the world. At the same time, the works summon new imaginaries that recognize the overlapping struggles and periods of resistance.