Since 2010, Atienza has been documenting the Ati-Atihan, one of Philippine’s oldest festivals. It is an annual procession of men donned in elaborate and often humorous costumes, which they created themselves and differs every year in response to current events. Accompanied by music and dance, Ati-Atihan has become an annual display of victories and disasters, dreams and protests. Atienza’s video installation, Our Islands 11°16'58.4"N 123°45'07.0"E (2017), through re-creating the festival as an underwater parade, is both a critical and humorous take on the state of society in Philippines. Projected life-sized on glass, the work immerses the viewer in a mesmerising experience. Yet a sense of alienation sets in while one watches the procession move by in silence, drowned by the sea. The differing ways in which the parading men grapple with the state of submersion—some drift by elegantly while others struggle forward, trampling on dying corals—allude to issues of labour and migration as well as draw the viewer’s attention to the threats of climate change.
