Stephanie Misa

We’re humbled to welcome Stephanie Misa as one of the presenters for Buklod 2026, an artist-led gathering hosted by Bliss on Bliss Art Projects. Born in Cebu City, Philippines, Misa is a visual artist and researcher whose practice engages decolonizing methodologies. Her work brings together multicultural collaboration, curatorial practice, and feminist critique, exploring complex historical narratives across video, sculpture, installation, and writing. She is a graduate of the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna and holds a master’s degree from NYU’s Interactive Telecommunications Program. In 2021, she received the Art Foundation Merita Prize for Artistic Research. Misa lives and works in Vienna, where she also teaches at the Department of Artistic Strategies at the University of Applied Arts Vienna. ✨ Limited slots available. RSVP via email: [email protected] or DM us on Instagram @buklodforum

Buklod Forum 2026: Reportback on Social Practice in the Diaspora Presented by Bliss on Bliss Art Projects Venice x Bogotá Buklod Forum 2026 convenes artists working across the diaspora to examine socially engaged art as a space of dialogue, collaboration, and community-building. Originally conceived by Jevijoe Vitug in 2024 at Eskinita Art Farm in the Philippines, the forum revisits conversations on participatory practice within dominant institutional frameworks where marginalized voices remain underrepresented. The program takes place on Friday, May 8, 2026 (5–8 PM) at Ca’ Malatin, Venice, with presentations by Ged Merino, Jevijoe Vitug, Julio Austria, Eric Ramos Guerrero, Jet Pascua, Noel Ed de Leon, Stephanie Misa, and Lizza May David, followed by open dialogue and dinner. A limited exhibition runs May 5–10 in Venice, traveling to Bogotá and Queens in December 2026.

The sixth edition of Asia Triennial Manchester (ATM6) unfolds across multiple venues in Manchester, bringing together more than thirty international artists and collectives. Curated under the theme Transvaluation, the triennial explores how value is made, challenged and reimagined. It asks how artistic practice might move beyond economic systems to consider new ways of living, relating and creating meaning. The exhibition brings together installation, performance and moving image works that explore transformation, collectivity and the shifting conditions of contemporary life. ATM6 artists: Tiong Ang & Company (Andreea David, Kexin Hong, Ingrid Sanghee Edwards’ Diego Ferrari, Li Xiangdong, Jan Yongdeok Lim, Changli Cui Luo, Andrés Novo, Heekyung Ryu, Wang Xue Sophia); Chien-Chi Chang; Ting-Tong Chang; Yang Ah Ham; Shur-Tzy Hou; Chia-Wei Hsu; Yi-Ting Hsu; Dondon Houmwm; Marcos Keuh, Stephanie Misa; Ziliä Qansurá; Tsai Ming-Liang; Stefanos Tsivopoulos; Wei-Cheng Tu; Yu-Chen Wang; We Are Komachi (Jeffrey Angels, Sae Esashi, Hiromi Ito, Yuko Kaseki, Tomoko Mori, Kanoko Nishi) and Jui-Chung Yao. Curatorial Assembly: Hongjohn Lin, Henk Slager, Miya Yoshida, Kalen Lee, Yusaku Imamura, Sarah James, and Anna Bergqvist. Exhibition Team: Adam Butler, Technical Manager; Clare Chun-yu Liu, Research Associate; Angie Chia-Lin Lee, Assistant Convener; Vera Mey, Curatorial Research Fellow; and Laura Peters, Senior Faculty Planning and Operations Manager.

"Filipinos, Cannibalism, and Mothers Dancing on Tongues" is a lecture performance in development since 2017. I had the pleasure of opening the symposium of the 6th Asia Triennial Manchester: Transvaluation with this piece. Covened and curated by a curatorial Assembly of Hongjohn Lin @hongjohn.lin , Henk Slager, Miya Yoshida @voll_mont , Kalen Lee , Yusaku Imamura, Sarah James @sarahedithjames and Anna Bergqvist. ATM6 brought together a beautiful slice of Asia as it sought to question and complicate the symbolic, cultural, political and poetic values associated with Asia today. 📸 @39th.day and @obenlinla

It's great to be able to share these wonderful documentation photos from the exhibition FUGITIVE ARCHIVES at MADA Gallery with my work "An altar for the fleshy tongue", 2023 (Vienna Museum Collection) . ✨⚡ Artists: Alfred Marasigan @alfredmarasigan (PH), Czar Kristoff J.P. @studio.ckjp (PH), Gary Lee (AUS), Lesley-Anne Cao @lesleyannecao (PH), Nice Buenaventura @nice_buenaventura (PH), Pagbasa Archive @pagbasaarchive (AUS), Pio Abad @pioabad (UK), Stephanie Misa (AT), and Stephanie Syjuco @ssyjuco (US) Curated by: MJ Flamiano @mjflamiano and Catherine Ortega @catherineortegasandow @s_a_l_u_h_a_n Images by: Christian Capurro

Led by Saluhan @s_a_l_u_h_a_n collaborators, MJ Flamiano @mjflamiano and Catherine Ortega-Sandow @catherineortegasandow , Fugitive Archives is a curatorial project that examines the role of archives in shaping the critical imagination of contemporary artists. Drawing on the work of theorists, Fred Moten and Stefano Harney, the project positions independent archives and artistic practices as powerful forms of collective organising and knowledge production. Fugitive Archives centres the work of historically marginalised artists operating from First Nations, colonised, migrant, trans or queer perspectives. Moten and Harney posit that these ways of working have the capacity to challenge institutional power dynamics in the western world and self-organise towards intellectual and social justice for marginalised artists and communities. The exhibition features artists: Alfred Marasigan (PH) @alfredmarasigan , Czar Kristoff J.P. (PH) @studio.ckjp , Gary Lee (AUS), Lesley-Anne Cao (PH) @lesleyannecao , Nice Buenaventura (PH) @nice_buenaventura , Pagbasa Archive (AUS) @pagbasaarchive , Pio Abad (UK) @pioabad , Stephanie Misa (AT), and Stephanie Syjuco (US) @ssyjuco MADA Gallery, Melbourne Opening July 30, 2025 @monashada

🗣️TALKING HEADS - INSIGHT Einblicke von Prof. Dr. Gerd Auffarth, Direktor der Augenklinik Heidelberg. 🗓️ 11. Mai, 15 Uhr 1886 verbrachte ein junger philippinischer Augenarzt 6 Monate in Heidelberg, um den Operationen und Vorlesungen von Dr. Otto Becker beizuwohnen, dem ersten Direktor der Augenklinik der Universität Heidelberg. Der Name dieses jungen Arztes war José Rizal, dessen literarische Werke und intellektuelles Leben noch eine wichtige und entscheidende Rolle für die Unabhängigkeitsbewegung der Philippinen spielen sollten. Der Grund für Rizals Aufenthalt in Heidelberg war es, sein Wissen um chirurgische Eingriffe am Auge zu erweitern und auf den damals neuesten Stand zu bringen. Eingriffe, welche heutzutage von Prof. Dr. Gerd Auffarth, dem aktuellen Nachfolger auf der Position von Otto Becker, ausgeführt werden. Um die größtmögliche Präzision und Effizienz seiner Operationen zu ermöglichen, bedient sich Auffarth fortschrittlicher 3D-Bildtechnologien. 2024 öffnete Prof. Dr. Gerd Auffarth die Türen für die philippinische Künstlerin Stephanie Misa, die 5 Wochen lang Zugang zu den Archiven und den OP-Sälen der Heidelberger Augenklinik für Ihre Recherchen bekam. Die Artistic Research Residency legte den Grundstein für ihre Arbeiten in der Ausstellung OCULUS im Heidelberger Kunstverein. In seinem Vortrag wird Prof. Auffarth ungewöhnliche Einblicke in seinen Berufsalltag im Operationssaal geben und die Besucher*innen mit auf eine Reise ins Augeninnere nehmen. Die erste Artistic Research Residency in Heidelberg wurde von Talking Heads e.V. mit der Unterstützung der Stadt Heidelberg organisiert. Sie ist Teil des Kulturellen Programms des Philippinischen Gastlandauftritts auf der Frankfurter Buchmesse 2025, einem visionären Projekt des Büros der Senatorin Loren Legarda in Zusammenarbeitet mit der National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA), dem National Book Development Board (NBDB) und dem Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA). 📸 lazooimages | Studio Visuell Photography #TalkingHeads #Oculus #HDKV #HeidelbergerKunstverein

Scenes from the Oculus exhibition and Artist Talk 📸 Oculus is the inaugural exhibition under the Philippines as Guest of Honour at the Frankfurter Buchmesse 2025 program. On view until May 18, 2025, at the Heidelberger Kunstverein (Hauptstr. 97, Heidelberg). The exhibition features works by Stephanie Misa and Joscha Steffens and explores how vision—shaped by ecology and imagination—can blur the line between the real and the spectral. Drawing from Philippine hero Jose Rizal’s time in Heidelberg, including his ophthalmological studies and the writing of Noli Me Tangere, Oculus is a poetic convergence of history, science, and art. The exhibition aligns with the theme of the Philippines as Guest of Honour: The imagination peoples the air (Fantasie beseelt die Luft). Artist: Stephanie Misa and Joscha Steffens Curator: Patrick Flores Presented by: National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) National Book Development Board (NBDB) Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) Office of Senator Loren Legarda Talking Heads e. V. HdKV Heidelberger Kunstverein Baden-Württemberg

"Another portal in the mind of the artist is a liminal tropical house, a space between the garden and the kunsthalle, a nexus of the inside and the outside. The makeshift room is infused with condensation, a symptom of humidity, which evokes feelings of being elsewhere and to some extent being out of place; it is also inhabited by the sound of rain and thunder and singing of a monk from the research of Steffens. Finally, an archival table hosts materials from the individual researches of both artists and an ophthalmoscope. Misa considers medical technology as a kind of enchantment, which is not alien to temptation, perhaps in the same way that Rizal diagnosed the desiccation of the Philippine lifeworld under Spain as a “social cancer.” For her, the retina when subjected to analysis of science becomes the porous layer, indeed a film, through which the world is gleaned and through which light may bewitch or bedevil the imagination. " Curatorial text by Patrick Flores OCULUS Heidebelger Kunstverein 15 March -18 May 2025

"Portal", mouth-blown glass, raw steel frame. OCULUS March 15-May 18, 2025 Heidelberger Kunstverein "Multiple ways of seeing the world is referenced in the exhibition by a suspended glass piece that to some extent, likewise alludes to the retina, which in the artist's words 'becomes the permeable membrane through which we see the world, and through which we let in light for a glimpse into the our mind's eye--- the fractal points between inside and outside, where fevered dreams become fleshed-out bodies, and where the atmosphere is weighted with visions held tenderly aloft.'" Curatorial text by Patrick Flores @heidelberger_kunstverein @philippinesfrankfurt2025 @nccaofficial @kunstglaserei.berlin @joschasteffens #PatrickFlores

Upcoming studio exhibition Stephanie Misa & Joscha Steffens: Oculus Opening: Saturday, 15th March 2025, from 6pm Artist Talk: Sunday, 16th March 2025, 2pm “Seeing things” is a tricky phrase. It may mean grasping objects visually as evidence that they are really in the world. But it may also mean sensing phenomena that are not of this world. The exhibition Oculus delicately moves around this enigmatic instance of seeing things, and it takes the artists Stephanie Misa and Joscha Steffens to historical situations that at once clarify and confound the moment of vision. What things do we see? Is it only things that we see? With the careful mediation of fact through the instruments of science and the sensitive appreciation of fiction through the speculations of art, the exhibition tries to dissipate the binary limit of fact and fiction to anticipate what may well be a third material condition of reflection and action. The locus of this process is Heidelberg, where the Philippine National Hero Jose Rizal studied ophthalmology in 1886 at the Universitäts-Augenklinik and assisted the clinic’s director, Dr. Otto Becker, in several eye surgeries. At that time, the augenspiegel (ophthalmoscope) was a new device that enabled the physician to see the interior of a living eye. It was also in this city that Rizal wrote parts of his novel Noli Me Tangere (1887), which partly ignited the Philippine revolution against Spain. He stayed with the politically progressive Pastor Karl Ulmer in Wilhemsfeld, a town close to Heidelberg. These two initiations coming together through visions and investigations, specifically through the aperture and threshold of Rizal, speak to the framework of the Philippine presence as Guest of Honour at the Frankfurt Book Fair in 2025. Taken from the chapter on Sisa in Rizal’s Noli Me Tangere, the phrase “the imagination peoples the air” shapes the ethos and theory of such a presence. It evokes the intuitions that make writing and reading possible and surround both the historical atmosphere and the ecology of the species and spirits. Exhibition Duration: 15th March 2025 - 18th May 2025 Curator: Patrick Flores

"An altar for the fleshy tongue", my 2 channel video installation, is on view at the @kuvatila.uniarts in Helsinki. This week is the end of its run. Grateful to two beautiful souls, @vincent_roumagnac for the documentation images and @studio_regina for designing the amazing wallpaper.