PHILIPPINES – JULY 14, 2011 – This August, the local community of Madridejos in Bantayan Island, Cebu will be the center of a five-day installation of the experimental film by the Filipino-Dutch artist, Martha Atienza.The video installation and community project, organized by The Office of Culture and Design, opens at Plaza Madridejos, Bantayan Island, Cebu on August 17, 2011.
"Gilubong ang Akong Pusod sa Dagat" (My Navel is Buried in the Sea) follows fragments of the lives of Filipino seafarers as they work on international vessels. It gives a glimpse of local fishermen in Madridejos who carry on a livelihood passed on by previous generations and their respective families who wait for their return and live their lives directly or indirectly impacted by their family members.
An installation consisting of three screens which will show different scenes simultaneously. In this setting, the audience can walk around the screens and interact with fellow visitors. By screening the film as an installation on the island where it was filmed, the artist strives to initiate a dialogue within the local community and explore possibilities of viewing issues and stories important to locals in a new light by introducing art as a true emotional outlet and platform, not just for the artist but for the artistic subject as well.
In addition, there will be a series of environmental workshops in Bantayan for the duration of the exhibit, in partnership with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) .
The artist also filmed in the city of Rotterdam (a hub for the shipping industry), joined seafarers on an international cargo vessel for several weeks and filmed fishermen in Madridejos.
Atienza received her BFA from the Academy of Visual Arts and Design in The Netherlands in 2006. Her works have been exhibited internationally from experimental art spaces, galleries to video festivals. In 2009 she joined a residency in Green Papaya and was nominated for the Ateneo Art Awards. Having a Filipino sea captain as a father, a Dutch mother with strong philanthropist inclinations and growing up in both the Netherlands and the Philippines where she was surrounded by seafarers, it was only a matter of time that this project would come into existence.
The film, currently a work in progress, is funded by the NCCA (National Commission for Culture and the Arts) and the DKC (Dienst Kunst en Cultuur, Rotterdam).
