Load na Dito, Mad in Malacañang, 2022, Sculpture, acrylic on cardboard, print on paper


Mad in Malacañang, video, 9’04’’; sculpture, cardboard

Xiamen Dada burning incident, 1986. Fei Dawei Archive, AAA Collections.

Load na Dito (est. 2016, Quezon City) is an art initiative focusing on the questions of participation and collaboration in relation to the practice of contemporary art. On display are a video documentary showing a group of Quezon City-based collectives creating a 4-metre-high effigy for a street demonstration in July 2022, alongside a sculpture of fire that refers to an action of Xiamen Dada where the collective burnt more than sixty of their artworks in a public square of the Xiamen Palace Museum in 1986 in protest to the art institutions of that time. Load na Dito’s installation proposes fire as a symbol of change and regeneration, and nods at the ongoing legacy of art collectives such as Ugatlahi Artist Collective that started creating effigies and performances for social justice rallies in the Philippines in the late 1990s.

Participants: Altermidya, BAYAN Tandang Sora Network, Concerned Artists of the Philippines, DKK, Erayhryna Building Staff, Film Weekly, Free Daisy Macapanpan Network, ILPS, KALIKASAN PNE, KAPAPATAN, KMU, Load na Dito, Pinoy Media Center, Roymhie Damiano, Sine Sanyata, Sining Bugkos, Sulong Likha, Tambisan sa Sining, Ugatlahi Artist Collective, UP Artists Circle Fraternity




This project has been developed by Susanna Chung, Özge Ersoy, and Rebecca Tso, in close collaboration with Samira Bose, Noopur Desai, Sneha Ragavan, John Tain, Chương-Đài Võ, Congyang Xie, and Anthony Yung. Graphic design: MAJO. The New York edition of the Collective School exhibition is organized by Furen Dai, Ying Chiun Lee, and Alexander Si. Photo documentation by Alexander Si



Installation view at Asia Art Archive in America, New York

The Collective School in New York is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature, Ruth Foundation, with additional support from Eunei and Ron Lee.