Lecture Performance von Enzo Camacho & Ami Lien zu ihrer Arbeit Langit Lupa (Heaven Earth).
Sprache: Englisch
There was a lot at stake in the 2019 general midterm elections in the Philippines, which took place halfway through the presidency of Rodrigo Duterte, the infamous strongman whose brutal anti-drug and counter-insurgency campaigns had already claimed the lives of thousands of innocent Filipinos. Despite the overwhelming surge in state-backed violence, Duterte’s allies would score major victories at the national, provincial, and local levels. In the midst of the chaotic and largely depressing news stream following the elections, a curious article emerged from a small city on Negros Island, which carried the headline, “Despite death, Escalante City councilor wins reelection bid.” The first sentence stated, “Less than a month after he was gunned down, Escalante City councilor and human rights advocate Bernardino ‘Toto’ Patigas Sr. was reelected into office.”
Negros Island—a sugar plantation island in the central region of the Philippines—has been the focal site of collaborating artists Enzo Camacho and Ami Lien’s research over the past several years. In their lecture, the artists will take the story of Toto Patigas’ death and miraculous reelection as a haunting parable about the dead ends of what is called “democracy”—a system of false choices and false promises that remains inextricably tied to the violence of the plantation. Paying close attention to practices of cultural activism in Negros, they will highlight how collective processes of remembrance and mourning in the face of such violence can open up new pathways of resistance and new articulations of democracy on the grassroots level.