STATEMENT
On June 12, 1898, Filipino revolutionary Emilio Aguinaldo declared Philippine independence. This was in the midst of a war waged between Spain and the United States, a pivotal moment that would end three centuries of Spanish rule. What followed in December later that year was the Treaty of Paris, a “peace treaty” that gave the United States possession of territories in the Global South, including the Philippines. After falling out of war with Spain, Filipinos fell into war with the United States, and ultimately fell under duress for 48 more years under its new imperial power.
Today, to celebrate June 12 is to reprise a bittersweet proclamation of Philippine sovereignty. It comes with the ambivalence of remaining tethered to the persisting powers concentrated in the Global North. It is the same dream of self-determination in 1898 that attracts Filipinos to the metropole, where they are promised a life of exceptionalism, but face inevitable sacrifice and risk reenacting colonial submission.
1898, too, was a year of insatiability. It not only marks the consolidation of America’s territories in the world, but the force that amalgamated Manhattan, Brooklyn, Western Queens County, and Staten Island into the Empire State’s metropolis: the City of New York.
“Taking Place” is a virtual open studio with Francis Estrada, Jevijoe Vitug, Xenia Diente, and Jaclyn Reyes—all artists operating from different positions within the greater Philippine diaspora in New York City. In this event, each artist will address their own creative practice in the legacies of historical efforts to consolidate and occupy real and imagined terrains, and the subsequent costs of being codified and spoken for.
TAKING PLACE © 2020