From Escalante to Berlin:
Lessons in Solidarity
With contributions and offerings from Lisa Ito-Tapang, Donna Miranda, Angelo Suárez, Enzo Camacho, Ami Lien, representatives from ALPAS Pilipinas, Gabriela Germany, and ICHRP Germany (International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines – Germany), moderated by Eugene Yiu Nam Cheung.
As part of the public program of our current exhibition Offerings for Escalante by Enzo Camacho & Ami Lien at CCA Berlin, we are excited to announce “From Escalante to Berlin: Lessons in Solidarity”—a one-day symposium with activists and collectives from Manila, Berlin and beyond. The symposium takes place on 16 June 2024, from 1–5 pm, at the Kapelle of Kaiser-Wilhem-Gedächtniskirche, Breitscheidplatz, 10789 Berlin (Google Maps). The symposium will be held in English; free entry, no registration required.
Enzo Camacho & Ami Lien, Langit Lupa, 2023/24, film still, courtesy the artists.
12 am
Optional viewing of the film Langit Lupa and the exhibition at CCA Berlin
1 pm
Presentations by Enzo Camacho & Ami Lien, Lisa Ito-Tapang, Donna Miranda & Angelo Suárez
– Coffee break –
3 pm
Conversation with the speakers, moderated by Eugene Yiu Nam Cheung
4 pm
Contributions from local organizations: ICHRP Germany, ALPAS Pilipinas, Gabriela Germany
“From Escalante to Berlin: Lessons in Solidarity” aims to explore the rich activist tradition among Filipino artists and cultural workers and its connection to broader social movements and political mobilizations among local and global farmers and plantation workers. Taking the past and present of the Philippines as a starting point, the symposium examines how these forms of organization mutually inform, challenge, contaminate or entangle with each other. It asks how art and activism can engage and intersect in collective study and solidarity, and how these strategies strike a resonance with struggles in other places in the world—those that are currently bearing witness to the enduring fight for land justice and labor rights, to the transnational movements against belligerent occupation, privatization and environmental destruction.
This symposium is made possible by the generous support of Asymmetry Art Foundation and ifa (Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen).
Lisa Ito-Tapang is a cultural worker, writer, and independent curator based in Manila. She is a member of the Concerned Artists of the Philippines (CAP), an organisation of progressive artists and cultural workers founded in 1983 as a response to censorship during the Marcos dictatorship. 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. Her research, creative, and curatorial interests explore intersections between art practice, socio-political engagement, and ecology.
Donna Miranda is a choreographer living and working in the Philippines. Miranda relocates choreography from the site of the individual body to that of collective political actions. She makes a living as a development worker in public health. She also does volunteer work for the Federation of Agricultural Workers in the Philippines (UMA).
Angelo V. Suarez is a poet who explores conceptualism and performance in his art practice. His last book was Philippine English: A novel published as a downloadable PDF in 2015. He volunteers for Unyon ng mga Manggagawa sa Agrikultura (UMA, Federation of Agricultural Workers) and makes his living as an advertising copywriter.
Enzo Camacho (*1985, Philippines) and Ami Lien (*1987, USA) are an artist duo based between New York and Berlin. They have had solo exhibitions at Kunstverein Freiburg (2018); and Hessel Museum of Art, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson (2018). Their work has been included in recent group exhibitions at Tai Kwun Contemporary, Hong Kong (2022); the 10th Asia Pacific Triennial, Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane (2021); the 5th New Museum Triennial, New York (2021); the 39th EVA International, Limerick (2021); Manifesta 13, Marseille (2020); the Drawing Center, New York (2020); the Kuandu Museum of Fine Arts, Taipei (2019); the Brunei Gallery, SOAS University of London (2019); the NTU Center for Contemporary Art, Singapore (2018); UCCA Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing (2017); Jim Thompson Art Center, Bangkok (2017); and Green Papaya Art Projects, Manila (2009). In 2023, they were the recipients of the Gold Art Prize, and they are currently Senior Fellows at the Lunder Institute of American Art at Colby College.
Eugene Yiu Nam Cheung is a writer, cultural worker, and founding editor of Decolonial Hacker. In 2023, he was the Asymmetry Curatorial Fellow at Whitechapel Gallery, London, where he curated the exhibition Anna Mendelssohn: Speak, Poetess. Eugene has been a curator-in-residence at Delfina Foundation, and was previously part of the curatorial and public program teams at the Julia Stoschek Foundation and documenta fifteen, respectively. His writing has appeared in places such as e-flux Criticism, Third Text, ArtReview, Griffith Review, Art+Australia, and more. In 2021, he won the International Award for Art Criticism (IAAC). Eugene holds degrees in art history, gender studies, and law from the University of Sydney.