Maria Taniguchi and Pio Abad co-curate the Manila leg of Alptraum

Manila and London based artists Maria Taniguchi and Pio Abad are curating the next installment of ALPTRAUM at Green Papaya Art Projects with kind invitation by director Norberto Roldan. Green Papaya Art Projects is the longest running alternative art space in the Philippines, and collaborate with many independent art organisations around Asia. In 2010 they represented artist-run activity from The Philippines in the No Soul for Sale exhibition at the Tate Modern, London. Artists based in Manila have joined the line up and will continue to tour.

Pio Abad . Yason Banal . Mariano Ching . Lena Cobangbang . Patricia Eustauqio . Robert Gutierrez . Maria Jeona . Pow Martinez . Luisa Medina . Raul Rodriguez . Maria Taniguchi . Conrado Velasco . Paulo Vinluan

ALPTRAUM is an artists' project which started in Washington DC, at Transformer. The works on paper travelled to Cell Project Space, London to ‘Projektraum Deutscher Kunstlerbund e.v.’, Berlin, 'The Company', Los Angeles, May 2011, Blank Projects, Cape Town, Katharina von Ruckteschell, The Goethe Institute, Johanesburg and will now open in Manila in April 2012.

Christian Achenbach . Sanell Aggenbach . Victor Aguilar . Pablo Alonso . Kai Althoff . Salvatore Arancio . Petra Johanna Barfs . Alexandra Baumgartner . Matthias Beckmann . April Behnke . Joe Biel . Marc Bijl . Zander Blom . Armin Boehm . Erin Boland . Jan-Henri Booyens . Derek Boshier . Wim Botha . Lutz Braun . Reuben Breslar . Alan Brown . Amanda Leigh Burnham . Stuart Cairns . Ellen Cantor . Jessica Cebra . Natalie Robyn Nesbitt . W. Cheung . Bradley Chriss . Ben Cottrell . Keith Coventry . Jason David . Thomas Draschan . Sven Drühl . Peter Duka . Benjamin Edmiston . Elisophie Eulenburg . Jonathan Garnham . Alexa Gerrity . Stephen Gibson . Georgina Gratrix . Adam Griffiths . Liza Grobler . Ian Grose . Florian Heinke . Trasi Henen . Lori Hersberger . Sean Higgins . Gregor Hildebrandt . Ryan Hill . Stefan Hirsig . Johannes Hueppi . Birgit Jensen . Lisa Junghanss . Andy Kozlowski . Clemens Krauss . Moshekwa Langa . Anders Lansing . Xenia Lesniewski . Cedar Lewisohn . Joep van Liefland . Marissa Long . Mara Lonner . Jörg Mandernach . Sandra Mann . Josh Mannis . Maki Maruyama . Nomthunzi Mashalaba . John McAllister . Mery Lynn McCorkle . Bill McRight . Mohau Modisakeng . Aaron Morse . Jan Muche . Mario Neugebauer . Timothy Nolan . Adam Pape . Christopher Pate . Manfred Peckl . Mick Peter . Carl Pomposelli . Richard Priestley . Clunie Reid . Rob Reynolds . Lauren Rice . Nora Riggs . Tanja Rochelmeyer . Jenny Rosemeyer . Dennis Rudolph . Ruth Sacks . Jamison Sarteschi . Jaco van Schalkwyk . Maik Schierloh . Andreas Schlaegel . Bonnie Brenda Scott . Marcus Sendlinger . Carole Silverstein . Jessica Simmons . Jen Smith . Kathryn Smith . Sober & Lonely . Cammie Staros . Jennifer Stefanisko . Zach Storm . Jay Stuckey . Linda Stupart . Caro Suerkemper . Alex Tennigkeit . Lisa Marie Thalhammer . Peter Thol . Klaus-Martin Treder . Tamzyn Varney . Rachel Waldron . Martin Westwood . Allison Wiese . Maik Wolf . Renate Wolff . Michael Wutz . Jacob Yeager . Ed Young . Phillip Zaiser . Frank Michael Zeidler . Jody Zellon . Thomas Zipp.

Conceived by artists, Marcus Sendlinger, Berlin Jay Stuckey, Los Angeles the artists invited to contribute to this exhibition have been asked only to submit a work which has their direct hand in it, so physical contact and mark making on the surface of the material is implied in a manner, within this context, akin to the skrier, an ‘automatic writer’, a pyromancer’s stirring of the hot embers, an ectoplasmic medium the hand that re-creates the subconscious wanderings of its owner. This naturally excludes many types of process, but rather than excluding artists because their process prevents them from physical contact with their final piece, the artists invited to contribute have simply been asked to experiment within the pre-requisits of the theme. This offers them the opportunity to break the mould of their practice and try something slightly new, or indeed, old but discarded.

Like George Orwell’s Room 101, in his predictive tale, ‘1984’, we all have our own version of what constitutes a nightmare, and for this reason, the project has been opened to a large number of artists whose many and varied personal nightmare versions, or visions, act to reflect this hugely variable human state of fears and fobias, pain and panic.

Alptraum, the German of Nightmare, is an artist led project. It is a model which utilises global communication between localized artist hubs and clusters to form an international grouping with the intent of opening a dialogue about this subject across borders and cultures in order to delve into the stuff and mind murk that is collectively shared or completely random and unrelated, or individual specific within the syndrome of ‘The Nightmare’. Each artist draws on their own personal experience in order to visualize those anxieties, which take them beyond everyday dreams. Working within the remit of the ‘artist curated project’, all of the works in Alptraum have been restricted in size and material in order to facilitate the low cost postal transportation of the show from country to country, with each exhibition site taking responsibility to pass the show on to the next host the number of works and artists may change or grow, and the approach to interpreting and hanging the show vary from space to space as the body of work meanders on from country to country, like a trans-global nimbostratus formation; Alptraum is the exhibition equivalent of Stephen Kings ‘The Fog’

This project is co curated by Victoria Reis and Marissa Long, Transformer, Washington, Richard Priestley, Cell Project Space, London, Anat Egbi, The Company, Los Angeles, Katja Hesch, Projektraum Deutscher Kuenstlerbund e. v., Berlin and Jonathan Garnham, Blank Projects, Cape Town and The Goethe Institute, Johannesburg