Saturday, 7.7.2018
14.45 Uhr
In English
Moderation: Elsa Guily

Manananggal is a mythological monster originating in the Philippines. She takes the form of orie woman in two halves. You don't see it at first. She just lives near you, or comes close to you. You don't trust this neighbor, despite seeing her on a routine basis. It's something about her communication, which is strained and full of holes. And her appearance, which is incongruously attractive. Her desire seems to rise like a swollen polyp beneath the garble of her words and skin. You suspect it's an ugly thing. At night she creeps into the forest. She scans her surroundings to make sure she is alone. Her body rips in half at the waist as though from an intemal bomb detonation. Her legs remain on the ground, while her torso begins to levitate, sprouting wings and a long. tubular sucking tongue designed for penetration and extraction. This torso flies back toward the village in the direction of prey. She sucks the viscera out of sleeping villagers, while her own organs dangle from an open wound. She sucks unbom fetuses out of pregnant women, while her own uterus is in shreds. Whatever is inside is pierced, dissolved, slurped up, aired out, passed through a tisted metabolic process that makes no sense. Her split body is a crack in our community.

Amy Lien (b. 1987, Dallas, USA) and Enzo Camacho (b. 1985, Manila, Philippines) have been collaborating since 2009, and work primarily between Manila, New York and Berlin. They received their bachelor's degree from Harvard University, and their MFA degrees from the Hochschule für bildende Künste Hamburg, Germany. They have had previous solo exhibitions at the Hessel Museum at Bard (Annadale-on-Hudson, USA), 47 Canal (New York, USA), Mathew Gallery (Berlin, Germany), and Green Papaya Art Project (Quezon City, Philipplnes), and have participated in group exhibitions at the Kestnergsellschaft (Hannover, Germany), the Jim Thompson Art Center (Bangkok, Thailand), and the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art (Beijing, China). They have been Artists-in-Residenence at Saõ Paulo (Phnom Penh, Cambodia), at Artspace (Shanghai, China), the NTU Centre for Contemporary Art (Singapore), and Gluck50 (Milan, ltaly). Their writing has been publisbed in Flash Art and Texte zur Kunst among others.