Isabel and Alfredo Aquilizan at Ateneo Art Gallery in Manila

9 Nov 2024

Isabel and Alfredo Aquilizan’s exhibition Project Belonging: From There to Here. The Familiar in the Foreign is currently on view at Ateneo Art Gallery in Manila, featuring guest artist Enrique Marty and curated by Kristine Guzmán.

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.

After eighteen years in Australia, Isabel and Alfredo Aquilizan have moved back to their homeland in the Philippines, bringing with them a series of wrapped objects in their installation Nothing to Declare. Collected over many years, these personal objects speak to the artists’ continuous performance intertwining art and life. Curated by Kristine Guzmán, the installation is surrounded by a series of found postcards of maritime landscapes titled Horizon Line. Together, they represent the act of collecting as a collaborative process where individual narratives become part of a greater whole.

The exhibition on view until 16 April 2025 at Ateneo Art Gallery, Ateneo de Manila University, Katipunan Ave, Quezon City, Manila, Philippines.

Image: Installation view of Isabel and Alfredo Aquilizan, Project Belonging: From There to Here. The Familiar in the Foreign. at Ateneo Gallery, 2024. Photography by Clefvan Dambo Pornela.