Born to a Dutch mother and Filipino father, Martha Atienza (b. 1981, Manila, Philippines; lives and works in Bantayan Island, Philippines) has moved between the Netherlands and the Philippines throughout her life. Constantly oscillating between these two cultures has had a profound influence on Atienza's focus as an artist. Atienza's practice explores installation and video as a way of documenting and questioning issues around environment, community and development. Her work is mostly constructed in video, of an almost sociological nature, that studies her direct environment. Often utilizing technology in the form of mechanical systems, Atienza explores the immersive capacity of installation in generating critical discourse. Her work tends to be collaborative in nature, working with people from different backgrounds and expertise as well as residents of Bantayan Island, where her family is from, whose narratives are intricately woven into issues such as environmental change, displacement, cultural loss, governance and socioeconomic disparities.
Atienza's practice explores installation and video as a way of documenting and questioning issues around the environment, community, and development. Her work is mostly constructed in video, of an almost sociological nature, that studies her direct environment.
In this new body of work, Atienza asks, 'Who owns the land? Who owns the sea?'. These are questions that persistently come to mind when working with communities across Bantayan Island's group of islands, north of Cebu in the Philippines. Under the guise of promised economic prosperity, Bantayan Island has been subject to the interests of the tourism industry, landed elites, and the local and provincial government.
This sits in stark contrast to idyllic imaginations of islands and island life portrayed in the media, tourism, and even the art sector. This work challenges this process of imposition and the imaginations that foster it.
Press release courtesy SILVERLENS.
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