Joshua Serafin

In 1909, Joshua Serafin’s Japanese great-great-grandfather migrated to the Philippines. Commissioned by Kanal, the film installation Whispering pleas of the eternal echoes invites you to join the search for ancestry and belonging. Motivated by a desire for connection and knowledge of the past, Serafin brings together multiple characters and entities across regions and eras. Footage from the Philippines flows into scenes filmed in Belgium. In a universe of Serafin’s own making, past and present generations converse as if across a cosmic threshold. 

 

Joshua Serafin’s practice centres on choreography and queerness, exploring how body, space and audience co-produce meaning. Serafin’s personal journey – from Manila to Hong Kong and now Brussels – fuels their ongoing inquiry into how migration and displacement impact identity and resilience. In their performances, Serafin brings together alter egos and fictional characters within "speculative cosmologies". These spaces for imagination, liberation and transformation challenge systems that control and constrain bodies, as in the performance VOID, which was critically acclaimed at the 60th Venice Biennale in 2024.