a simplistic altar made from a prohibited film scene

Filipino filmmaker Raya Martin is one of the most distinctive emerging voices in world cinema, with an ambitious and constantly evolving body of work that includes fiction features, documentaries, short works, and installations, all of which are radically lyrical, suggesting new forms of approaching personal, cultural, and film history. Martin’s new installation, made with his collaborative partner Gym Lumbera, is meant as a meditation on life, death, and cinema, as well as their Catholic upbringing. The piece was created for presentation on the occasion of the Museum’s retrospective of Martin’s films.

Artist statement by Raya Martin:

“Animals lit by strobe lights. An explosion scene at night. Our grandparents hugging each other. We planned it all but nothing happened. We want to leave the islands. Nothing happens. God is taking a nap. On the eve of the second day of September, in the middle of the woods from childhood, we found ourselves shooting a torture scene that echoed the tragic fate of two film critics exactly three years ago. Two filmmakers sit under the passing rain of a threatening storm, lit by the artificiality of a movie set. Everything else is enveloped in darkness. Suddenly, a firefly encircles us. ‘That’s cinema,’ he mutters, until the light disappears completely. Belief is an ever-ending work-in-progress.”

Related

• Film Series: Raya Martin