In conversation with Cian Dayrit
Cartography is deeply interwoven with our understanding of the world. Maps shape our spatial understanding of land, facilitate our journeys and define boundaries. Yet, as artist Cian Dayrit explain in a recent conversation, maps are also profoundly political objects.
inside Cian Dayrit’s Studio
Based in Rizal, Philippines, Dayrit is an artist and activist, whose practice is inspired by theories from counter-geography. In his work, he engages with land ownership and plunder and is embedded in the history of the Philippines – a country that has a long history of colonialisation. First colonised by Spain for over 300 years, then the US from 1898-1943. The country was then occupied by Japan during World War II, before the US returned granting 'formal' independence in 1946, whilst remaining tied by unequal treaties with the US. Moreover, the heritage of Haciendas (private plantation land) lives on, leading to land reform disputes and one of the longest armed conflicts, lasting since 1969.
Dayrit himself is engaged in the discussions surrounding land conflicts. As a member of the Artist Alliance for Genuine Agrarian Reform and Rural Development (SAKA), he works directly with communities and has been leading counter-mapping workshops since 2017, where participants are invited to draw maps from memory – it is a way of completing communal cognitive mapping and reconsidering how the world is perceived. The gesture of making maps is one of resistance, it is a way of defying the authorities who have been mapping against the interests of the people. As for the workshop itself, Dayrit does not claim any authorship – rather the opposite, he is currently working on teaching community group organisers so they can lead the workshops in his absence, especially during COVID-19.
When talking about the connection between his community work and his art practice, Dayrit explains that ‘the works are by-products of these workshops and synthesise the narrative imagery created by the participants’. Complemented with his archival research, his visual language often references antique European navigation maps. Images of coats of arms, royal seals, inscriptions in Latin – these are all signifiers of former colonial power. Combined in collages, they have been ripped and rearranged, it is a subversion that recontextualises and transposes meanings.
In our conversation, Dayrit emphasises the subtleties of working with a theme that affects large peasant and indigenous communities – there is a danger of the practice feeling exploitative and the disconnection between Western audiences and the local condition is hard to bridge. On the one hand, once his artworks are shipped to Europe, they are unlikely to be seen again in the Philippines. On the other hand, their exhibition generates international knowledge around the issue and their documentation contributes greatly to local campaigns and helps to give gravitas to the cause.
Dayrit’s work depicts shared imaginaries, co-created with communities to subvert colonial dominance, whilst building a platform for resistance. His emphasis on solidarity and support of indigenous communities challenges the individuality of contemporary arts and provides a genuine perspective into political struggle in the Philippines.
Words: Polina Chizhova