Silverlens is pleased to present Anito, Martha Atienza’s ongoing video work that was selected for the Film Sector in this year’s edition of Art Basel Hong Kong.

A Christianized animistic festival on Bantayan Island, the Ati-Atihan, slowly turns into madness. Ati-atihan means to be like Aetas, an indigenous group predating the Austronesian migrations some 30,000 years ago. Provoked by current events— super typhoons, Manny Pacquiao, the Papal visit, labor migration—participants assume other personas. Inspired by ancestors, they are powerful, god-like, mad.

Born in Manila, Philippines to a Dutch mother and Filipino father, Martha Atienza (b.1981) has moved between both countries and cultures throughout her life. Currently she resides both in the Netherlands and the Philippines, dependent on where her projects bring her.

Atienza received her Bachelor in Fine Arts from the AKI Academy of Art & Design in the Netherlands in 2006. She participated at the art programme at the Kuvataideakatemia in Helsinki, Finland in 2005.

Atienza is a 2012 Ateneo Art Award recipient with studio Residency Grants in Liverpool, Melbourne, New York and Singapore. In 2015, she was awarded the Cultural Center of the Philippines’ Thirteen Artists Award. She is the first awardee of the first Mercedes Zobel / Outset residency (2016) at Gasworks, London. Recent projects include exhibitions at the Asia Society and the Jewish Museum, New York. Her work is part of the 2016 Singapore Biennale.