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ABOUT THE ARTIST

Russ Ligtas

(b. 1985- Philippines)

Russ Ligtas is a poly-disciplinary Filipino artist known for his immersive performance, installation, sculpture, video, text, and film works, which unravel autobiography as a direct response to historical, geo-political, ecological, and mythological narratives. His practice often births alter egos-archetypal incarnations that embody persona, myth, and presence-serving as ritualized responses to queer postcolonialsubjectivity in the Anthropocene.

Ligtas studied Fine Arts at the University of the Philippines in Cebu (BFA, 2007). He is recognized for his solo and collaborative performances, installations, and interdisciplinary projects across the Philippines and internationally-including notable exhibitions at Yokohama Triennale (2020), the Cultural Center of the Philippines, and the Museum of Contemporary Art and Design Manila. He was awarded the Alvin Erasga Tolentino Choreography Award, a KoryoLab grant, and a fellowship from the Asian Cultural Council. In 2024, he was conferred the prestigious Thirteen Artists Awards by the Cultural Center of the Philippines.

He has worked with various collectives, including Cebu’s XO? performance art group, and is currently in collaboration with Taiwanese artist Szu-Ni Wen, focusing on territorial narratives and memory. Ligtas lives and works between Manila and New York, continually expanding his practice into film, most recently with his debut short PLUTO.


The Last Hapi, 2025
Video installation, Running time: 90 minutes, Dimensions variable

Russ Ligtas’ The Last Hapi is an exploration of identity, memory, and myth, framed as both a ritual and a self-portrait. Drawing from his experience as a Filipino navigating diaspora, Ligtas weaves together fragments of history, personal narrative, and cultural imagination to question what “Filipino-ness” might mean today.

The work unfolds as a hybrid: a film that is also ritual, a performance that becomes an installation. At its center is stillness-an insistence on breath and silence in a world crowded with noise. The presence of a seated figure within the space, watching alongside the audience, transforms viewing into an act of reflection and mirroring.

By reference 1972, the year Martial Law was declared in the Philippines, the piece gestures toward historical trauma while refusing to fix meaning. The Hapi’s disappearance may serve as metaphor, allegory, or simply myth. In this way, Ligtas leaves room for multiple readings-academic, political, or personal.

The installation space, envisioned as either a dark cinematic environment or an intimate living room, invites audiences into a porous bubble of contemplation. Here, Ligtas offers not answers, but a mirror: a chance to see ourselves in contradiction, and perhaps to find grace in the reflection.