Enzo Camacho & Ami Lien
- Enzo Camacho and Ami Lien, Langit Lupa (Heaven Earth), 2023. Film Still. Courtesy of the artists.
Nottingham Contemporary is proud to present an exhibition conceived by artist duo Enzo Camacho (b.1985, Philippines) and Ami Lien (b.1987, USA), in collaboration with Arianna Mercado (b.1995, Philippines), Yuji de Torres (b.1997, Philippines), and Dominic Zinampan (b.1997, Philippines).
This exhibition presents cultural work from the national democratic (ND) mass movement of the Philippines. Campaigning for genuine democracy and sovereignty, this anti-imperial and anti-feudal broad social movement is built upon a coalition of workers’ unions and peasant associations, together with organisations for other sectors including Indigenous people, churchgoers, fisherfolk, the urban poor, youth, women, LGBTQ+ folk, and overseas Filipinos. Along with these sectors, there are also organisations and alliances for professionals with particular skill sets, such as lawyers, teachers, scientists, and, crucially, cultural workers.
Within the ND mass movement, cultural work has a vital role to play. To be a cultural worker in the context of the movement means ensuring that one’s practice is organically tied to the needs and aspirations of the oppressed sectors of Philippine society. This work seeks to challenge, uproot, and dismantle a pervasive colonial, feudal, and bourgeois culture in favor of one that is national, scientific, and mass-oriented. This exhibition aims to offer a glimpse into some of the ways in which this cultural orientation is expressed across collective and individual creative practices. Encompassing poetry, performance, film, music, banners, murals, and various other forms, this presentation will highlight how such creative and cultural expressions are folded into collective processes of investigation, remembrance, and agitation. As a whole, the exhibition seeks to give body to resistant cultural values and creative practices emerging over the course of a political struggle - and can, in turn, offer form and force.
The exhibition will present works by collectives including SAKA (Sama-samang Artista Para sa Kilusang Agraryo, or the anti-feudal alliance of art and cultural workers that support and advance the peasant agenda of genuine agrarian reform, rural development, and food security), Tambisan sa Sinig (Interaction in the Arts, a worker’s cultural group connected to the May 1st Movement); and individuals such as martyred poet RJ Ledesma and departed artist Renz Lee.
Also featured will be Camacho and Lien’s Langit Lupa (Heaven Earth), a major film work centred on the Philippine island of Negros, whose history has been shaped by the sugar industry through the hacienda system and plantation economy under Spanish colonial rule. Drawing on survivor testimonies, historical research, and collective memory, Langit Lupa recounts the story of the 1985 Escalante Massacre under the dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos. Through a moving blend of documentary, performance, and poetic storytelling, the work offers a reflection on political violence, resistance, and the enduring struggle for social justice.
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