Martha Atienza
GOODLand
Bihiya Warriors Summer Workshop organized by GOODland. Courtesy of Martha Atienza Studio.
Visual artist Martha Atienza was awarded the 2024 AFIELD Fellowship for her initiative GOODLand, a community-centered platform on Bantayan Island, Philippine promoting ecological balance, cultural continuity, and social and environmental transformation, using art as a catalyst.
Driven by the urgency to address the environmental degradation and social issues affecting her home island of Bantayan, Martha Atienza, with her brother Jake Atienza established GOODLand in 2020.
At the intersection of artistic practice and resilience-building, the platform empowers Bantayan islanders in their pursuit of a quality of life within an ecologically balanced environment.
In the face of social, economic and environmental threats including tourism, forced relocation from sea to land, rising water temperature-levels and loss of livelihood, GOODLand seeks to create a self-sufficient, resilient community by turning dialogue and collective dreaming into tangible results.
GOODLand emerged from over a decade of Martha’s exploration using art as a tool for social change. Rooted in community collaboration and governance, the initiative focuses on local inter-generational fisherfolk knowledge, building an archive that documents and enables new imaginations for their struggles.
It also collaborates with institutions and organizations to strengthen resilience, constantly posing the question: Can art effectively address the social, environmental, and economic issues facing Bantayan?
GOODland savings club. Courtesy of Martha Atienza Studio.
Martha Atienza is a visual artist exploring art’s ability to document and question issues related to the environment, community, and development. Her practice is rooted in both ecological and sociological concerns as she studies the intricate interplay between local traditions, human subjectivity, and the natural world. Born to a Dutch mother and Filipino father and raised in a fishing community, her projects often engage with themes of climate change and community resilience, and consider modes of observation and documentation, with a commitment to blend art with activism.
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