Project Belonging: From There to Here. The Foreign in the Familiar

Project Belonging: From There to Here is a two-part exhibition curated by Spain-based Filipino curator Kristine Guzmán, opening on 10 August 2024, Saturday, 4:00pm. The first part of the exhibition, entitled “The Foreign in the Familiar,” features works by Spanish visual artist Enrique Marty, with Isabel & Alfredo Aquilizan as guest artists.

Project Belonging is based on a dual approach of self-representation, considering the self as a product of society, emerging from social and symbolic interaction. The idea of belonging is explored by delving into the contrast of the homelike, or familiar, and unhomely, or uncanny, and how both intermingle and merge. Though Marty and the Aquilizans define this differently in their respective practices, the figure of the family or the community take a central role in both.

ENRIQUE MARTY, "Superwoman crossing herself," 1998, Oil on board, 60 x 60cm. each, 6 pieces. Courtesy of the Artist/Ateneo Art Gallery.

The first part of the exhibition is entitled The Foreign in the Familiar and focuses on Enrique Marty’s work. Since the start of his career, Marty’s main body of work has been nourished by a long pictorial tradition influenced by the Baroque, and is centered on the idea of family in which the everyday and the familiar becomes a genre with its own personality. It also touches on the existence and acceptance of conflict as a coexisting element into the domestic scene. This reveals the traumas that rise from Marty’s familial history, a phenomenon which connects viewers’ personal memories. Charged with the emotional, familiar, and affective narrative, the invisible becomes seen and visceral to the viewer.

ENRIQUE MARTY, "At Boleskine House," 2008, Watercolor on paper, 30 x 30cm. Courtesy of the Artist/Ateneo Art Gallery.

The launch of Project Belonging will be preceded by an Artist’s and Curator’s Talk at 2:00pm with Enrique Marty and Kristine Guzmán. Interested guests may reserve their slot at https://go.ateneo.net/ProjectBelonging.

Part 1 of Project Belonging: From There to Here. The Foreign in the Familiar will be on-view from 10 August – 26 October 2024 at the second floor, Wilson L Sy Prints & Drawings Gallery, Ateneo Art Gallery, Areté, Ateneo de Manila University. This exhibition is supported in part by a grant from Acción Cultural Española (AC/E), a state agency.

The museum is open to visitors from Monday to Saturday, 9:00am – 5:00pm. For more information, visit www.ateneoartgallery.com or email aag@ateneo.edu.