Join us for an engaging conversation with Manila-based artist Cian Dayrit in light of his work Blueprint of Dam as Sadistic Monument (2022) currently on display as part of An Ocean in Every Drop.

Cian employs collaborative counter-mapping strategies with a range of communities across the Philippines to understand and communicate the effects of large-scale development projects, government policies and the ongoing militarisation of the landscape. In Blueprint of Dam as Sadistic Monument, Cian brings attention to the negative effects of large-scale damming projects and their impact on river ecologies and local indigenous communities across the Philippines. Mapped across the textile work are the Apayao and Alimit dam project in the Cordillera region, the Balog-Balog dam on the Tarlac River, the Kaliwa-Kanan-Laiban dam system in the Tanay and Quezon provinces, the Jalaur River dam in Panay, and the Pulangi dam in Mindanao.

The conversation is moderated by Daniel H. Rey, Public Programmes Coordinator at Art Jameel.

Cian Dayrit (born 1989, Philippines) is an interdisciplinary artist whose work investigates notions of power and identity as they are represented and reproduced in monuments, museums, maps and other institutionalized media. Working with textile, installations, archival interventions and community-based workshops, Dayrit’s work respond to different marginalized communities, encouraging a critical reflection on colonial and privileged perspectives. While informed by the experience of colonialism from the perspective of the Philippines, Dayrit’s work nonetheless defies being tied to a specific position or location. Instead, his work and research cross over geopolitical and supranational bearings.