Offerings for Escalante marks the first major US museum exhibition of artist duo Enzo Camacho (Filipino, b. 1985) and Ami Lien (American, b. 1987). For over a decade, Camacho & Lien’s multidisciplinary practice has addressed geopolitical relations by attending to localized forms of dispossession, survival, and resistance, particularly in the context of the Philippines. Through moving-image works, a light-based installation, as well as a suite of handmade paper compositions, Offerings for Escalante centers the Philippine island of Negros, known for its sugar plantations. A newly commissioned long-form film, Langit Lupa, draws upon survivor testimonials to narrate the story of the 1985 Escalante Massacre, a tragic incident of state violence against a mass protest in Negros under the Ferdinand Marcos dictatorship. Laying bare the brutality of plantation societies, Offerings for Escalante emphasizes remembrance and mourning within ongoing struggles for land justice, food sovereignty, and anti-imperialist resistance.
Enzo Camacho & Ami Lien are based between New York, Manila, and Berlin. Solo exhibitions of their work have been held at the Glasgow Gallery of Modern Art; Center for Contemporary Art Berlin; Para Site, Hong Kong; Kunstverein Freiburg; 47 Canal, New York; and Green Papaya Art Projects, Quezon City, Philippines. They have been included in group exhibitions at Tai Kwun Contemporary, Hong Kong; the Asia Pacific Triennial, Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane; the New Museum Triennial, New York; the EVA International, Limerick; Manifesta 13, Marseille; the Drawing Center, New York; the Kuandu Museum of Fine Arts, Taipei; the Brunei Gallery, SOAS University of London; the NTU Center for Contemporary Art, Singapore; UCCA Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing; Jim Thompson Art Center, Bangkok; and Green Papaya Art Projects, Manila. They are currently Senior Fellows at the Lunder Institute of American Art at Colby College.
Organized by Ruba Katrib, Chief Curator. Exhibition research and support is provided by Andrea Sánchez, Coordinator of Curatorial Affairs. The presentation at MoMA PS1 emerges from a cross-institutional collaboration between Para Site, CCA Berlin, and the Glasgow International.
