many returns

selected works on
memory, identity and place
Opposite: 9 September 2012, Melbourne - An actual cofee
cup reading with Yunus Akin, a Turkish migrant currently
living in Australia. The reading was recorded and used as
audio for a video work that was presented in Sile, Turkey.


The artst 2013




I acknowledge those individuals who have provided support, ethusiasm and encouragement throughout this journey. Among
them I am especially grateful to Dr Geof Hogg, Dr Maggie McCormick, Anthony McInneny and to all my collaborators, artsts,
colleagues, and friends who shared their insights and experiences througout the duraton of my study.


Special acknowledgment is due to two exceptonal women in my life; Julia Bilecki who remains an inspiraton, helping me to keep
all things in perspectve and to my mother Linda Manalo for her grounding power, good will and love.



Photography
Riza Manalo: all photographs
except the following
Giordano Biondi: page 96
Jason Edwards: pages 22 - 25

Cover image: Pascal Huynh

The Visitor - 2013 | Outdoor Video Projecton | Mechanics
Insttute - MoreArt Public Art Show | 5:00 mins looped
Contents

Introduction p. 6
Abstract
Research Question
Context
Methodology
Outcomes

Chapter one Artist Background, p. 8
Approach and Inspiration

Chapter two Memory p. 21

Where should the birds fy after the last sky?
The Arrival
The Shade of Glade
Many Returns
The Sea is Present

Chapter three Identity p. 39

The Afghan Mens Shed
Unveiling the Veil
The Visitor

Chapter four Place p. 63

Traverse
VACUI


Conclusion p. 106
List of Readings p. 108
About the Artist p. 110

Introduction


Movement is not just the experience of shifing from place to place, it is also linked to our ability to imagine the
alternatve. The dream of a beter life and the nightmares of loss are both expressed by the metaphor of the journey. It
is not only life narratve but the very spirit of our tme which seems to be haunted by the metaphor.

Nikos Papastergiadis, The Turbulence of Migraton




Abstract

Many Returns is a series of works addressing experiences related to migraton and mobility,
cultural displacement and the co - existence of cultural identtes in a place. It focuses on
relatonal transitvity, using various mediums to create new meanings through conversaton,
interacton and collaboraton. The work is an exploraton of process and narratve that involves
dialogue with diverse groups of people focusing on shifs, transiton and the conditons of living
between polarites of culture, geography and the nature of intersttal realites.

Research Questions

What is the importance of collaboraton and collectve producton in the development of new
social meanings in contemporary art and culture?

Can a tme-based work connect and engage viewers and partcipants in the producton and
transmission of meanings across the public sphere?
6

Context

At present, globalizaton has presented new directons of movement and ideas that confront
paterns of exchange between artsts and communites across the globe. The aim of the
research is to understand the role of an artst as a mediator to explore and convey new forms
of representaton by incorporatng the use of various media formats based on empirical
research amongst individuals living transnatonal lives.

Methodology

Conducted Research Contextual, Theoretcal and Cultural Studies
Practce - Led Research
Visual and Textual Documentaton
Critcal and Refectve Practce
Community Partcipaton and Facilitaton
Conducted Technical Research and Experiments Studio practce
Producton of works using various media formats

Outcomes

My research project is a series of works that explore the metaphors and the daily paterns that
create imagistc experience of the physical, visceral and the underlying subjectvity experienced
through the body, in transiton and shif and the nature of the intersttal realites.
7
Chapter one



Artist Background,
Approach and Inspiration

My art practce contnues to integrate various forms
of digital media to explore the issues of isolaton and
migraton across borders. I was born in the Philippines
and received my Bachelor of Fine Arts in Paintng from
the University of the Philippines. My early body of work
explored questons of identty through the modes of
paintng, site-specifc installaton and video.
I also use my lifes experience as a reference in my
work. Having had to constantly move during my
childhood I also worked on a series of compositons
which were both autobiographical and also a
commentary on the nomadic existence of many
Filipinos as a result of social conditons in the
Philippines.
8
9



Lost In Transiton, Mate! - 2010 | 15 minutes - A site
specifc video documentary about female internatonal
students from diverse backgrounds sharing their views
about transiton into a new culture.
My move to Melbourne has shifed my art practce to Community
Cultural Development, which focused on working creatvely with
communites on their own ground, and issues, through cultural
practce and expression. I worked for fve years as a Community
Arts Ofcer with diferent migrant and refugee groups in building
leadership, capacity and skills using diferent art forms. I was
inspired by the strength and resilience of these people, who faced
the difcultes of adaptng to a new country and culture with
courage, creatvity and humor. During that tme, I utlized
Partcipatory Video (PV) as a tool to encourage the community to
be drivers of change by creatng videos that can help them express
their needs and hopes from their own perspectve. As a PV
practtoner and a facilitator my goal was to help give a voice and a
face to those who are not being heard or seen. I was able to share
my knowledge and skills to the community by facilitatng
workshops in video producton, digital storytelling and
documentary techniques so that they can make their own flms.

Most of my work in Australia has been dedicated to providing
diferent artstc platorms to communites in a contemporary form
and refectve way. My desire to promote cultural diversity within
my practce is very much visible in my work. Through those
projects I learned to explore new ways in creatng my works and
develop new grounds to engage the viewer in an interactve way.
10





Journey of Asylum - Waitng- 2010 | 60 minutes - A
live video projecton that was part of a mult-media
performance in collaboraton with theatre director
Catherine Simmonds and the Asylum Seeker Resource
Centre.
Now as an independent visual artst working in the feld of media,
transitory art and public interventons my focus is to create socially
engaged works that manifest and accelerates new perspectve to
promote new ideas in contemporary art and life.

My motvaton is to create avenues of new meanings through
conversaton, experimentaton, interacton and collaboraton.
Curator and critc Christan Kravagna points out the relatonship
between artwork and audience, he diferentates the following
degrees of engagement and partcipants Infuence:

INTERACTIVE SITUATIONS are usually addressed to an individual
and allow for one or more reactons, which infuence the work
usually in a momentary without changing or co-determining its
structure.

COLLECTIVE PRACTICE stands for the concepton, producton and
implementaton of works or actons by multple people with no
principle diferentaton among them in terms of status.
11
Talk You Me - 2011 | 10 minutes - A video projecton and installaton of newly
arrived asylum seekers living in Broadmeadows Victoria.
When language is lost and new meanings sought, English becomes the second
language and our human language is revived in an experimentaton of
movement, lyrics, rhythm and stories.
12
13
PARTICIPATION usually takes place in group situatons is based on a
diferentaton between producers and recipients, is interested in
the partcipaton of the later, and turns over a substantal porton
of the work to them either at the point of concepton or in the
further course of the work.

COLLABORATION takes the audience to designated co-producers
and an implicit part of the piece usually over an extended period of
tme.

My process of collaboraton is based on conversatonal exchange
and interacton. It explores the dynamics of diferences while letng
go of personal boundaries and embracing a consensual vision to
create a body of work that refects the mainstream culture.

The projects unexpected outcomes ofen assist to mediate
meanings, negotaton of perspectves, commonalites and
diferences. The dialogical approach in the process expands
understanding, knowledge and trust within and outside the group;
the exchange of personal narratves propels the creaton of art
drawn from life.

My role as an artst is to reveal reality in my work. I believe truth
must be in art and it has to portray the contradictons, experiences
and conficts of social life in the same way as these appear in the
mind and life of actual human beings. My focus is to reveal the truth
of the human conditon and to integrate art in real life context
through the exploraton of process and narratve that involves
dialogue and collaboraton with other artsts and diverse groups of
people to address issues that arise from experiences related to
migraton, cultural displacement and the co - existence of cultural
identtes in a place.

In my work I draw on my training in visual arts as well as self -
taught investgatons of flm, photography, video and audio. My
works employ many types of material and disciplines. With my
installatons I share an understanding of sociopolitcal subtexts that
is imbedded in consciousness, body and place. As an artst working
on specifc sites, my methods of making ofen serve as an invocaton
of memory, identty and belonging in a place. The combinaton of
conceptual ideas, materials, collectve narratves and labor is crucial
in my work.

My artstc practce is related to the emphasis of tme, material and
process in relaton to the experience of the body. I worked on the
premise that we are in constant transiton it is the in - between
spaces we inhabit that is the focus of my research. I am interested
in the relatonship between body and transitonal spaces. How a
space thru memory can create moments of similarites from the
past to construct an imagined state in the present.
Twilight (UK) 2005 I 5 minutes -

Twilight is the fourth flm in the Civic Life series in which desperate optmists look into the hopes and fears of the disparate communites
upon which they turn their lens. Shot on a boat on the Tyne against the spectacular backdrop of the seven Tyne Bridges, Twilight is an
intmate exploraton of the ebb and fow of life involving 5 residents from Tyneside.
Inspiration

I have been inspired by diferent artsts working from a range of disciplines to communicate new artstc
possibilites. The artsts I have come across during my research worked mostly with moving image and
installaton. Their work explores the relatonship of community, identty and place. I was drawn to their process,
materials and approach on experiental and temporal public artworks.




























Civic Life is an assembly of intriguing and highly distnctve short flms from Britsh directors Christne Molloy and
Joe Lawlor. Since 2003, the pair have worked on a series of short flms made in negotaton with local residents
and community groups and exploring the relatonship these communites have to their immediate environments.
This special presentaton fnds the eight flms edited together without ttles or credits; the resultng uncertainty,
as to when one flms ends and another begins, serves to draw out and intensify the overlapping themes of
identty and place, belonging, hope, loss, and new beginnings.
14

Tiong Bahru (Singapore, UK) 2010 | 20 minutes -

Following three people of diferent ages over the
course of one afernoon as they reach a crucial
decision in their lives, Tiong Bahru is a lyrical and
thoughtul short flm that explores ideas of
belonging, place and family. Filmed on beautful
35mm cinemascope in the hawker centre and
market of the heritage estate of Tiong Bahru in
Singapore, Tiong Bahru features a cast of over 150
volunteers from Singapore.
Leisure Centre (Ireland, UK) 2005 | 17minutes -

Leisure Centre was flmed in September 2005 in the
new, only partly opened, leisure centre situated on
Main Street, Ballymun and it follows a young man
through the rooms and down the corridors of the
building where he works as he struggles to come to
terms with his new role as a father. It is his partner,
the mother of his child, who helps him to open his
eyes and imagine a beter future for him and his
young family.
Joy (UK) 2008 |9 minutes -

Joy is a story about a 17-year-old girl, Joy, who
has gone missing. The police stage a
reconstructon of Joy's last known movements in
a local park. But by the tme the reconstructon is
ended it is clear that what we are watching is
more than a reconstructon of a teenager's last
movements but rather a meditaton on the
fragility of youth.
15

16
The Tijuana Projecton 2001
Public projecton at the Centro Cultural de Tijuana, Mexico
(as part of In-Site 2000)
Krzysztof Wodiczko
Courtesy Gallery Lelong, New York











Krzysztof Wodiczko creates large-scale slide
and video projectons of politcally-charged
images on architectural faades and
monuments worldwide. By appropriatng
public buildings and monuments as backdrops
for projectons, Wodiczko focuses atenton on
ways in which architecture and monuments
refect collectve memory and history. In 1996,
he added sound and moton to the
projectons, and began to collaborate with
communites around chosen projecton
sitesgiving voice to the concerns of
heretofore marginalized and silent citzens
who live in the monuments shadows.
Projectng images of community members
hands, faces, or entre bodies onto
architectural faades, and combining those
images with voiced testmonies, Wodiczko
disrupts our traditonal understanding of the
functons of public space and architecture. He
challenges the silent, stark monumentality of
buildings, actvatng them in an examinaton of
notons of human rights, democracy, and
truths about the violence, alienaton, and
inhumanity that underlie countless aspects of
social interacton in present-day society.
Passage, Color video and sound installaton,
11 min., 30 sec. , editon 5/6, dimensions variable, 2001
Shirin Neshats visually compelling flms explore the culture of Islam, especially the
conditon of women in that world, where they have more power than is ofen
assumed. By questoning sexual politcs, Neshat reveals something of the
collectve conditon, its rituals, conficts, and emotons. In Passage, a group of men
carry a body wrapped in white cloth across a beach; in the distance, a group of
women veiled in black chadors dig a grave with their hands, while a child arranges
a circle of stones. These minimal, enigmatc scenes, set to a hauntng score by
Philip Glass, were flmed in the Moroccan coastal town of Essaouira. The locaton,
where Neshat has worked before, is similar in character to the landscape of Iran:
as Neshats work becomes beter known in the West, she is increasingly uneasy
about returning. But geography is almost secondary to the flm. Inspired by the
Israeli-Palestnian confict, specifcally the televised images of bodies held alof
during funeral processions, Passage may be Neshats most tmely and afectng
flm.




17
Trinh T. Minh-ha, Surname Viet Given Name Nam,
1989, 16mm flm, 108min, stlls.
Courtesy Moongif Films
18
The flm is composed of newsreel and archival footage as well as printed
informaton. The flm features interviews with fve contemporary Vietnamese
women. Surname Viet Given Name Nam allows the practce of interviews to enter
into the play of the true and the false, and the real and the staged. Trinh T.
Minh-ha by showing both the staged and the "real" interviews it demarcates the
diferences of the two which addresses the invisibility of the politcs of interviews,
and further relatons of representatons. The flm asks the viewer to consider
issues such as plural identty, the fctons inherent in documentary techniques, and
flm as translaton. Trinh T. Minh-ha is a flmmaker, writer, composer and professor.
She is an independent flmmaker and feminist, post-colonial theorist. She teaches
courses that focus on gender politcs as related to cultural politcs, post-coloniality,
contemporary critcal theory and the arts. She has been making flms for over
thirty years and may be best known for her flms Reassemblage, made in 1982,
and Surname Viet Given Name Nam, made in 1985.


the event of thread, December 5, 2012 - January 6, 2013,
Park Avenue Armory, NYC, photos courtesy of Ann Hamilton Studio
19
Ann Hamilton is a visual artst internatonally
recognized for the sensory surrounds of her
large-scale mult-media installatons. Using
tme as process and material, her methods of
making serve as an invocaton of place, of
collectve voice, of communites past and of
labor present. Noted for a dense accumulaton
of materials, her ephemeral environments
create immersive experiences that poetcally
respond to the architectural presence and
social history of their sites. Whether inhabitng
a building four stories high or confned to the
surface of a thimble, the genesis of Hamilton's
art extends outwards from the primary
projectons of the hand and mouth. Her
atenton to the utering of a sound or the
shaping of a word with the hand places
language and text at the tactle and
metaphoric center of her installatons. To enter
their liminality is to be drawn equally into the
sensory and linguistc capacites of
comprehension that construct our facultes of
memory, reason and imaginaton.
The event of a thread references the buildings
architecture, as well as the individual encounters and
congregatonal gatherings that have animated its rich
social history.
A multsensory afair, the work draws together
readings, sound, and live events within a feld of swings
that together invite visitors to connect to the acton of
each other and the work itself, illuminatng the
experience of the singular and collectve body, the
relatonship between the animal and the human. The
address of the readers to the pigeons shifs at the end
of each day, when a vocalist on the drill halls balcony
serenades their release to fight. Each days song is cut
with a record lathe, and the resultng recording is
played back the next day.


No two voices are alike. No event is ever the same. Each intersecton in this project is both made and found. All making is an act of
atenton and atenton is an act of recogniton and recogniton is the something happening that is thought itself. As a bird whose
outstretched wings momentarily catch the light and change thoughts course, we atend the presence of the tactle and perhaps most
importantlywe atend to each other. If on a swing, we are alone, we are together in a feld. This conditon of the social is the event of
a thread. Our crossings with its motons, sounds, and textures is its weaving; is a social act.

Ann Hamilton
20
How can I go back when I never lef?
Riza Manalo



Chapter two


Memory


This chapter builds on the premise that we are in constant transiton it is the in-between spaces we inhabit that is
the focus of my work. It explores atachments on cultural and historical memory and embodied knowledge. As Yi-Fu
Tuan described, we strengthen our sense of self by accessing our imaginatve and material past; objects anchor
tme, and place.

I am interested in the relatonship between body and transitonal spaces. How a space thru memory can create
moments of similarites from the past to construct an imagined state in the present. It consists of an ongoing
dialogue between body, material and images that occupies the past but contnuously unfolds in the present.
21

Where should the birds fy afer the last sky? - 2012
Live Performance, Installaton and Sound
Dandenong Winter Arts Festval Nocturnal I Duraton 2 hours

Where should the birds fy
after the last sky?


The mobility and transitory elements of the car
presented a sense of not arriving of being suspended
in tme and existng in an in-between space.

The work was experienced at partcular moments in
tme and the relatonship to it constantly in transiton
an energetc exchange that took place from space to
body and the interactve partcipaton of the general
public. Working in these spontaneous situatons evoked
a sense of not-knowing, creatng a percepton of
immediacy and aliveness with the surroundings, and
opening up to surprises in improvisaton.

To me, these transitonal spaces carried a social
message the displacement impactng individuals in
the current global context. The idea ted in with the
noton of a car as a container of stories like the body
as a vessel of lived experiences and memories, pulling
stories out like delving into a subconscious state,
looking for these dormant memories and bringing them
to consciousness.

In this project, I used a motor vehicle as my space to
present the work. The interior of the car was flled with
twigs and stcks, newspapers, canned goods, oranges
and loaves of bread woven together like a nest. The
twigs and objects created a wall to obstruct the viewer
from seeing what was happening inside the space. The
viewers were able to interact with the work by using
torches to experience the live performance inside the
car.

I invited dance artst Janete Hoe to respond to the
work. We both used the internal space of the car as a
stmulus to shape the performance piece. The
performers body in the space represented the
subjects-on-hold, frozen, in transiton between lives and
countries. The fear of being viewed by the public was
expressed thru movement and repettve gestures that
suggested paranoia.

I installed a video camera inside the car to capture the
public interacton and live performance in the space.
The audio and video documentaton was presented in a
solo exhibiton at a gallery.

22
23
24
25
26
27
The Arrival - 2013 | Video Installaton and Sound|
The Substaton Gallery | 5:00 mins looped
The Arrival

The Arrival is a dialogue between body and space that represents the
subject-on-hold, frozen, in transiton between lives and places. The dark
long periods of stasis in the work suggest the conditon of unresolved
trauma that when triggered would create and manifest dissociaton,
confusion and anxiety. The space inside the car was used as a stmulus
to shape the performance piece.

The two videos are symbolic pairs, working together to create diferent
abstract moments and open-ended narratves.
28
29
30
The Shade of Glade


The willow branches were stacked and
hanged inverted from the ceiling creatng
a dense environment that actvely
reshaped the space and engaged the
viewer. The obstructed space became a
single whole creatng an amorphous
environment where the material took
over, representng a physical and
psychological landscape. The texture of
the material became the structure of
thoughts and emoton, binding and
reconciling past experiences and inventng
future ones.

The installaton can be compared to a
performance, as the process was visible
and connected to acton. I envisioned the
characteristcs of the willow and the
moving image to take over the space, and
hold an actve and passive role over the
entre site.
The Shade of Glade - 2013 | Installaton and Video
Fort Delta Gallery | 4:20 mins looped
31
32
Many Returns - 2012 | Video and Performance | 15:15 mins looped | In collaboraton with dance artst Janete Hoe
Site: Abandoned Nursing Home, Preston Victoria
Many Returns

The work is an exploraton of memory, identty and the paradoxical
experience of human pleasure and distress when arriving to a new
place. The impact of displacement creates a feeling of uncertainty
combined with unfamiliar images and objects that captures
isolaton and eventual adaptaton.

This ephemeral performance explores the metaphors and the daily
paterns that create imagistc experience of the physical, visceral
and the underlying subjectvity experienced through the body, in
transiton and shif and the nature of the intersttal realites.
33
34
35
The Sea is Present - 2013 | Video Installaton | Museo Italiano
4:15 mins looped |Site: Tuz Golu Salt Lake, Turkey
36
37
The Sea is Present

The work emphasises the act of walking to reveal the layers of cultural and historical imprints in the
place. The images of the feet overlapping unfold and locate the past in the space of the present. The
layered movement in the video highlights the visible and the invisible paths created by human
presence. The work is a journey through walking; it unveils traces of memories, connectons and
passages to evoke the nature of intersttal realites.
The Afgan Mens Shed - 2012 Live Projecton and Sound | Federaton Square The Light in Winter Festval | 2 hours
38
I have lived away from my sweet homeland for the past seven years.
Honestly I really miss my dear Kabul. I miss the cool breeze of the
spring and the fresh air around.
I miss Paghman picnics. I miss Afghan special bread. I miss my friends.
I miss the congeston of the city
Here in Australia everything is great but for some reason I dont
recognize these things here.
I really miss my homeland but cant return.
I wish I had wings and fy now to my country.
I wish I had wings and fy now to my country.

Away from home and homeless.

From a story teller
Chapter three


Identty can be defned as the sense that people make of themselves
through their subjectve feelings based on their everyday experiences
and wider social relatons.
P. Knox & S. Marston, Human Geography


Identity

The Afghan Mens Shed

The Afghan Mens Shed was a project in collaboraton with
the Afghan Mens Collectve. The men partcipated in
several workshops to discussed issues and write leters to
the world and their families in Afghanistan. The leters were
a plea from the heart; it expressed their joys, sorrows,
hopes and fears about being an Afghan male in todays
world. Words and phrases from these leters, combined
with the element of light formed the walls, foors, ceiling of
a self-constructed metaphoric space. It represented
fragmented memories of tme and place as they described
their struggles with personal and cultural identtes.

I collaborated with the men to conceive and realise the
mens shed. Upon the culminaton of the build, the shed
was installed at Federaton Square as part of the Light in
Winter Festval, invitng women and children to join them.
The public outcome was a live projecton, installaton and
performance in which the public partcipated.



39
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43
44
45
46
47
Unveiling the Veil - 2012 | Video Installaton
Federaton Square The Light in Winter Festval
15 mins
48
Unveiling the Veil

Unveiling the Veil is an African womens poetry, performance and video installaton
project about young Somali women publicly proclaiming ownership of their head dress,
whilst living life as contemporary Australians. This project illustrates unique, provocatve
and enlightening interpretatons of the theme, community engagement, addressing
direct need with a powerful public outcome.

A group of twelve young Somali Women were part of a workshop to express the young
womens responses to western percepton about the scarf. I used video partcipatory
facilitaton as a tool in collaboraton with Stll Waters Womens Storytelling collectve to
realise the project sensitvely, provocatvely and artstcally to create a powerful and
poignant portrait of a girl with a head-scarf.

The work atempts to initate a new approach in discussing the Hijab as it is practced in
Australia by current Islamic cultures, from the perspectve of girls who willingly choose
to practce. It is an atempt to free themselves from to public percepton, bust harmful
myths and present the Hijab and themselves in another light. It aims to construct a new
methodology for perceiving the many alternatve meanings for the Hijab, rather than
reducing it simply to an Islamic tool of oppression.

49
50
51
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53
The Visitor - 2013 | Video Installaton | Counihan Gallery
and Coburg Library | 5:00 mins looped
54
The Visitor

This work is a dialogue between body and movement
to explore culture-specifc gestures as a form of
greetng to communicate recogniton, friendship and
reverence in the space. The physical gestures are a
form of welcome where each movement conveys a
variety of diferent actons and thoughts; it is
composed of a small wave of the hand, large
movements incorporatng the entre body or simply a
state of being, a posture or a stance. The video is a
symphony of non-verbal expressions that illustrate
the multcultural nature of gesture.
In this project, I used video and dance performance
as a medium. I collected informaton of diferent
gestural greetngs from diverse cultures and groups
and used them as a point of departure to create a
video work that refected the diversity and richness
of people living in the City of Moreland. The intenton
of the project was to create a welcoming, culturally
inclusive environment and to foster peaceful
coexistence in a place.




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56
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I worked with Yumi Umiumare, a performer and
choreographer to develop a dance piece based on the
research material that I gathered. She used body
movement to express authentc and culture specifc
gestures using one hand, two hands, hand and other
body parts, body and facial gestures.


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59
This outdoor video projecton was commissioned by
City of Moreland as part of 2013 MoreART Public Art
Show. The large-scale video projecton was
presented at Mechanics Insttute while
screen-based format was presented at Counihan
Gallery and Coburg Library.
60
61
Place is a porton of geographical space. Sometmes defned as territories of meaning...
Arild Holt-Jensen, Geography, History and Concepts
62
Chapter four


Place

The name of Sile was derived from genus of labiatae
which is a seasonal phanerogam known as marjoram
colloquially. Within the scope of Siles historical
background that goes back to B.C. 7th Century;
Phrygian, Roman, Byzantne, Seljuk and Otoman
Empires were involved.

This district had been called as Bitnye due to
setled indigenous race was known as
Bitnler(Thrace-origin community). Turks had been
setled on that region during Otomans. During 1350
Orhan Bey period, they setled on to outskirts of Sile
and in 1450Yildirim Beyazit period, to central of the
county. Names given to quarters in central of Sile are
names of Yildirim Beyazits raiders.

Sile had been governed by Otoman Empire for 500
years and although was lef to Britsh by 1918-Treaty
of Mondros, again was lef to Turks afer War of
Independence on date of October 7, 1922. With the
proclamaton of the republic, Sile had become a
municipality and took its place in history as a touristc
town with its natural and cultural propertes and
closeness to Istanbul.







populaton 32447
the area 790 km2
the number of villages 57
the length of the coast 60 km

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The key site and producton studio
is located on the M/S Maltepe, a
decommissioned Bosphorus ferry,
anchored at the breakwater,
sheltering Siles fshing feet.
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I was inspired by the feet of fshing boats, objects and materials found around the area and the
daily lives and movement of the local people of the seaside town of Sile.
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Traverse

The research centres on relatonal transitvity, using various mediums,
concepts and images to create new meanings and representatons
through conversaton, interacton and collaboraton. The work is an
exploraton of process and narratve that involves partcipaton and
dialogue with diverse groups of people that relates to experiences
atached to identty, memory and site.

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A series of works that refect the transitonal nature of the sea. The sea as a site of cultural roots, historical
memories and routes; a metaphor for tme, distance and change.

Project One - Narratves

100 postcards, with an image of the Tasman Sea were handed out to the locals to create interacton and
partcipaton resultng in conversatons. The postcards generated stories and narratves that related to
memories of the sea.


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People and Places

These postcards were installed in fshing boats at the pier
located in Levent Birben Caddesi. Other locatons included
abandoned buildings, local establishments like restaurants,
bakeries, cofee shops in Uskudar Caddesi, which is the main
street of Sile.
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Project Two - Kara Deniz

The stories from the postcards were transcribed in
Turkish onto the old anchor of the M/S Maltepe ship.
The right side of the anchor tells the story of a sisters
mourning of her brothers drowning in the black sea while
the lef tells a story of love, passion, freedom and life,
the writen words in the middle tells a tale about the
power and mystery of the sea. The red wool yarn
represents the life that fows through the veins of the
people who live and work around Siles coastal township.
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Traverse Postcard Exhibition

The postcards were exhibited as part of the
YansimalarRefectons of Sile exhibiton on the M/S
Maltepe ship, October 12, 2012. The local council and
the community atended the event. The postcard project
had created exchange and partcipaton that resulted in
conversatons , interacton and collaboraton between
the artst and the community.
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The sea always reminds me of my childhood, it is the best way of cleansing
the soul, it will always be with me through my life, present and the future.

Deniz Bayau
Sile, Turkey - Oct., 2012
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VACUI - 2013 | Salt Installaton in Collaboraton with Giordano Biondi | Mildura Palimpsest Biennale # 9
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VACUI

Mildura Palimpsest is a biennial visual arts event that
invites artsts to engage with the cultural and natural
environment of the Mildura and Murray Darling region.
It addresses the concept of locality and encourages an
actve dialogue between global and local contexts.
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Palimpsest means a parchment which has been partly erased and re-inscribed,
it evokes the marks made by human setlement on the land, the passage of
tme, presence and absence, and the web of inter-dependence unitng the
natural and the cultural, the material and the immaterial.

Helen Vivian, Mildura Palimpsest Curator















Site: Lake Ranfurly



Located near the juncton of the mighty Murray and Darling
Rivers, on the border of three states and inland to Lake Mungo
World Heritage site, Mildura is a powerful locaton with a
formidable history of engagement with the arts. Hugging the
rivers, vast blue horizons intersect with row upon row of vivid
green citrus and vines ruled into the red desert sands.



VACU I I 2013

Salt crystals, metal boat

Just as the river levels of the Murray Darling fall, causing the rise of salt deposits, the installaton suggests the
solidifcaton of fuidity; a boat, human artefact that operates within abundant quanttes of water, becomes a void in
a crystallized landscape, unable to move in a liquid environment, and becomes a statc hole that becomes ruin,
immersed in salt, that slowly consumes the hull. The form that barely emerges from the salt, human agency causes
the overgrowth of salt, a crystal that allows only itself to thrive, corrosive with anything else. The hull will one day be
eaten up and be crushed by the pressure of the sea of salt that surrounds it; the boat, vehicle that traverses water,
becomes mere form, and then is engulfed in crystal. The outline that serves no traversing purpose is embatled, but
yet statc, a space encased in salt becomes ruinous, a preserved void that is fxated in a mineral landscape.
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VACUI - 2013 | Video Projecton| Mildura Palimpsest Biennale #9 | 4:00 mins looped
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VACUI II 2013

Video for projecton, sound, 3:21 min loop

In dialogue with the glitering of the salt and the concavity of the boat, is a cosmological sequence of glitering stars;
a close-up of the murky waters of Lake Ranfurly reveals unexpected plays of light. The scorching brightness of the sun
is gently rippled in the salty water, and broken into innumerable litle suns.
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Water, the nonexistent element in the frst part of the installaton appears dark and nearly
invisible in this video; along with salt and light it forms the triad of elements that determines the
landscape; elements that devour, evaporate and absorb each other and produce a harsh cycle of
light, solid and liquid. Within this universe, the human tries to ft in, divertng, digging or
damming his way into the cycle, perhaps unable to embrace it all but gazing at its components.
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The absence of water and the triumph of solidity
around the memory of it or the presence of it,
dark and slow, slowly evaporatng
through the force of miniature
galaxies, twinkling within it.
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Conclusion


In my work, I seek to present an open-ended opportunity for public to
partcipate. I use the power of storytelling to provide images and situatons to
enable the partcipants to construct their own meanings rather than to have
meanings imposed. The mult-disciplinary approach, process and mediums that I
employ in my work provide a means to stmulate past memories and
remembering. My exploraton of process and narratve involving diverse groups
of people in my producton is the primary focus of my work. The shared stories
and experiences presents a life outside of the gallery space in the form of
outdoor moving image, transitory and ephemeral public artworks and
performances. My intenton is to establish an intmate and personal place of
recollecton in the public realm that can actvate a direct storytelling response
from partcipants. By becoming storytellers themselves they produce their own
social meanings, develop ideas and mutual understanding that allows each
partner to partcipate in the formaton of new forms of thinking and collaboraton
that refects the current tme.
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Artsts are not only among the most mobile members of a
community, but they are ofen outriders of the transformatons
between the local and the global

Nikos Papastergiadis, The Turbulence of Migraton
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List of Readings

Books

Bauman, Z 1998, Modernity and Ambivalence, Polity Press, Oxford.

------ 2000, Liquid Modernity, Polity Press, Cambridge.

Bourriaud, N 2002b, Relatonal Aesthetcs, Les Presses du Reel, Dijon.

De Certeau, M 2011, The Practce of Everyday Life, University of California Press, Berkeley.

Deleuze, G 2005, Cinema 2: The Time image, Contnuum Internatonal Publishing Group Ltd, London.

------ 1990, Mediators In: Negotatons, 1972 1990, Columbia University Press, New York.

Elwes, C 2005, Video Art: A Guided Tour, I.B. Taurus, London & New York.

Holt-Jensen, A 1999, Geography, History & Concepts, London: Sage Publicatons Limited.

Kester, G 2011, The One and the Many: Contemporary Collaboratve Art in a Global Context, Duke University
Press, North Carolina.

Knox, P & Marston S 2004, Human Geography, Upper Saddle River NJ: Pearson Educaton, Inc.

Kwon, M 2004, One Place Afer Another MIT Press, Cambridge.

Meskimmon, M 2010, Contemporary Art and the Cosmopolitan Imaginaton: Politcs, Ethics, Afect, Taylor &
Francis Ltd, London.

Ming-ha, T 2011, Elsewhere, Within Here, Abingdon: Routledge, New York.

Papastergiadis, N 2000, The Turbulence of Migraton: Globalizaton, Deterritorializaton and Hybridity,
Polity Press, Oxford.

------2012, Cosmopolitan and Culture, Polity Press, Oxford.

Tuan, YF 2001, Space and Place, University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis.




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Online Resources


art21 2011, Public projecton at the Centro Cultural de Tijuana, Mexico (as part of In-Site 2000), viewed 19
September 2012, <htp://www.art21.org/artsts/krzysztof-wodiczko?expand=1>.

Hamilton A n.d., Video/Sound, viewed 15 September 2013,
<htp://www.annhamiltonstudio.com/videosound.html>.

Neshat S 2001, Passage, (Color video and sound installaton, 11 min., 30 sec., editon 5/6, dimensions
variable), viewed 2 September 2012,
<htp://www.guggenheim.org/new-york/collectons/collecton-online/show-full/piece/?search=Shirin%20Neshat
&page=1&f=People&cr=1>.

Park Avenue Armory 2013, ANN HAMILTON: the event of a thread, viewed 15 September 2013,
<htp://www.armoryonpark.org/programs_events/detail/ann_hamilton>.

Trinh T. Minh-ha 1989, Surname Viet Given Name Nam, (16mm flm, 108min, stlls), Courtesy Moongif Films,
viewed 5 September 2012, <htp://www.aferall.org/journal/issue.23/indirect.fow.through.passagestrinht.
minh-has.art.practce1>.












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About the Artist


Riza Manalo's (b. Manila, Philippines) art practce has been in the producton of
transitory public artworks that refect on shifs, transitons and the conditon of
living between polarites of culture and geography, and the nature of intersttal
realites.

Riza Manalo has been exhibitng in solo and group exhibitons since 1994. Her
work has been shown in galleries and flm screenings internatonally, including
Smack Mellon, Brooklyn, NY; ABC NO RIO, New York, NY; Minna Gallery, San
Francisco, CA; Dumbo Art Centre, Brooklyn, NY; P.S. 122, New York, NY;
Contemporary Museum of Honolulu, HI; Cultural Centre of the Philippines;
New York Video Film Festval, Lincoln Centre New York, NY; Natonal
Geographic All Roads Film Festval, Washington, DC; Roterdam Internatonal
Film Festval, Netherlands; Federaton Square Light in Winter Festval,
Melbourne; Australian Centre for the Moving Image, Melbourne and Palimsest
Biennale #9, Mildura among others. Her works are held in collectons in
Australia, Philippines and U.S.A.

www.rizamanalo.com