A non-linear (auto-)ethnographic study of the life, habitat, and (digital) death of a white-hat troll hunter. A chronicle of online gender-dystopias and post-colonial political dysphorias in support and dissent of Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte, aka “The Punisher.”
Clara Balaguer is a cultural worker and grey literature circulator. From 2010 to 2018, she articulated cultural programming with rural, peri-urban, and diasporic communities from the Philippines through the OCD, a residency space and social practice platform. In 2013, she co-founded Hardworking Goodlooking, a cottage industry publishing house interested in the material vernacular, collectivising authorship, and the value of the error. Currently, she builds and publishes curriculums at BAK basis voor aktuele kunst as head of Civic Praxis (Community Portal); at Willem de Kooning Academy as research lecturer in Social Practices; at Piet Zwart Institute as midwife for Experimental Publishing; and at Sandberg Institute as teacher at the Dirty Art Department. Frequently, she operates under collective or individual aliases that disclose her stewardship in any given project, the latest of which is To Be Determined. She has lectured and exhibited work at the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; Harvard GSD, Massachusetts; Strelka Moscow, Moscow; Asia Culture Center, Gwangju; Singapore Art Museum, Singapore; and Hangar Barcelona, Barcelona. Balaguer lives and works in Rotterdam.