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

Project Belonging: From There to Here. The Familiar in the Foreign is the second half of the two-part exhibition curated by Spain-based Filipino curator Kristine Guzmán. Featuring Filipino Artist-Couple Isabel and Alfredo Aquilizan with guest artist Enrique Marty, the show opens on 9 November 2024, Saturday, 4:00pm, preceded by an ArtSpeak session with Guzmán and the Aquilizans at 2:00pm. Interested guests may reserve their slot at https://go.ateneo.net/ProjectBelongingPt2.

Isabel and Alfredo Aquilizan, "Nothing to Declare," 2024, Mixed media (personal belongings), Variable dimensions. Courtesy of the 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. This dichotomy is explored by delving into the contrast of the familiar and the uncanny, and how both intermingle and merge. Though Enrique Marty – who was the main artist in the first part of the exhibition – and the Aquilizans define this differently in their respective practices, both explore the idea of “Belonging” with the figure of the family or the community taking a central role.

Isabel and Alfredo Aquilizan, From the series "Horizon Line," 2013-2022, 230 Postcards (collected images from the Internet), 10.5 x 14.8 cm each. Courtesy of the Artist.

In The Familiar in the Foreign, the artistic practice of Isabel and Alfredo Aquilizan is intermingled in their lives as migrants, using objects that are both familiar and strange as these serve as signifiers in themselves, holding memories and sentiments. After eighteen years, they return to their homeland, bringing back with them a series of wrapped objects in the installation Nothing to Declare (2024), placed atop blue plastic pallets. Most of these are personal objects that were collected all through the years and seem to float in the sea amidst Horizon Line (2017-2024), a collection of postcards with images of maritime landscapes. They represent an act of collecting, a collaborative process where individual narratives become part of a greater whole. Like the balikbayan boxes that represented their departure, the wrapped objects speak about their return — a future to be revealed — in a continuous performance intertwining art and life.

Project Belonging: From There to Here is supported in part by a grant from Acción Cultural Española (AC/E), a state agency. Part 2, “The Familiar in the Foreign,” will be on-view from 9 November 2024 – 16 April 2025 at the second floor, Wilson L Sy Prints & Drawings Gallery. The Ateneo Art Gallery is open from Monday to Saturday, 9:00am – 5:00pm. For more information, visit www.ateneoartgallery.com or email aag@ateneo.edu.