Iris Ferrer, foto © Jimena Gauna (2019) Iris Ferrer
Iris Ferrer is a freelance cultural practitioner from Manila, Philippines and now living in Amsterdam. She was recently part of the 2019-2020 de Appel Curatorial Program and is the 2020-2021 de Appel Curatorial Research Fellow. She has worked as a writer, researcher, project manager and curator across the field of contemporary visual arts and alongside Philippine and regional-based platforms and collaborators. In her involvement with the largely-independent infrastructure of artistic communities such as Back to Square Juan, she developed strategies for cultural production, community engagement and collaborative curatorial work. Her involvement in attempts to renegotiate the position of VIVA ExCon, the longest running artist-led biennale in the wider Philippines art world, led her to the position of managing curator for its 2018 edition. Her work revisits Philippine cultural histories by enacting new approaches to archiving and exhibition-making, she has also assisted in providing discursive platforms across the region.