How 9 farmers brutally shot dead in the Philippines changed this artist duo’s perspective and forms the backbone of new Hong Kong exhibition
- Enzo Camacho and Ami Lien’s exhibition at Para Site in Hong Kong has roots in the 2018 killing of farmers in Negros, the Philippines
- Titled ‘Offerings for Escalante’, it includes an hour-long experimental documentary featuring anonymous witness accounts of the 1985 Escalante massacre
In 1985, a peaceful protest in the Philippines against President Ferdinand Marcos’ imposition of martial law resulted in 20 civilians being shot dead by paramilitary forces, and many more injured.
That event in Escalante, in Negros Occidental province, is the starting point of artist duo Enzo Camacho and Ami Lien’s exhibition at Para Site, a non-profit art space in Quarry Bay in Hong Kong.
“Offerings for Escalante” ties history with the present, art with activism and, above all, local calls for land reform that resonate with universal concerns over food sovereignty and agrarian oppression.
Lien and Camacho, who have been collaborating since 2009, have long conducted field research in Negros, the fourth-largest island of the Philippines and historically home to wealthy landowners who made their fortunes from sugar cane plantations.
A highlight in the Hong Kong show is a new, hour-long experimental documentary called Langit Lupa, which means heaven and earth in Tagalog.