“The power of Serafin’s PEARLS comes from its poetry, its imagination, and the performance of Serafin, Quismundo, and Cadag, whose intentionality and intensity of movement unfold on their own unique time.”
– etcetera magazine
In their artistic exploration, Joshua Serafin wrestles with the fractures and wounds imprinted by empire on the body, soul, and community. For the work PEARLS, the multi-media artist draws inspiration from nonnormative genders celebrated in precolonial Philippines. Together with fellow artists Lukresia Quismundo and Bunny Cadag, Serafin abandons the binary they have inherited from colonial culture and returns to the ancient past in search of the spiritual roots of Filipino society.
With a gaze toward and away from imperial history, the three performers advance gender-diverse existence as an alternative blueprint for the future. PEARLS thus becomes an exercise of healing that offers an opportunity for queer and trans people of colour to transfigure dark and traumatic histories into something beautiful, similar to pearls formed from foreign particles which irritate the oyster’s mantle. PEARLS is the last part of the trilogy Cosmological Gangbang. Joshua has been touring in Europe in the last year, performing in significant platforms and art centres. They were nominated for 2023 ANTI Festival International Prize for Live Art in Finland and were officially invited to participate in the 60th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia.
The Asian premiere of this production is presented as part of da:ns focus – Connect Asia Now (CAN), a weekend that spotlights contemporary dance works by Asian artists focusing on distinct voices and creative impulses from the region.
Production Credits
Concept: Joshua Serafin
Performance: Joshua Serafin, Lukresia Quismundo & Bunny Cadag
Sound: Pablo Lilienfeld
Scenography: RV
Light: Ryoya Fudetani
Costumes: Katrien Baetslé
Video: Federico Vladimir Strate Pezdirc
Artistic Assistance: Rasa Alksnyte
Theory and Poetry: Jaya Jacobo
Outside Eye: Arco Renz
Co-production: VIERNULVIER (BE), BIT Teatergarasjen (NO), HAU Hebbel Am Ufer (DE), beursschouwburg (BE), STUK (BE), WpZimmer & C-TAKT (BE), Theater Rotterdam (NL), Esplanade – Theatres on the Bay (SG)
Supported by Vlaamse Gemeenschap, Vlaamse Gemeenschapscommissie
Residencies: Emerging Islands
Acknowledgement: Talaandig-Manobo community and Kulahi in Bukidnon
The text includes translations by Christian Jil Benitez, Rica Paras and Macky Torrechilla.
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