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 60^th Venice Biennale in 2024.