2022TAF: MISS

MISS unpacks codes of representation and performativity found in the transgender pageants in the Philippines, a nation gripped by the cult of beauty.

A stunning solo by the riveting performer Josh Serafina, who peels away layers of surface glamour, and scrutinizes instead the techniques of gendered movement and dis/play. Through the labour of repetition and persistence, they expose not only the construction of femininity and fantasy but also the politics of religion and colonial formations in queering the moving body and its fluid, complex and ambivalent identities that constitute the Filipino ‘beauty’.

Joshua Serafin, Philippines

Joshua Serafin is a multi-disciplinary artist that combines dance, performance, visual arts and choreography born in the Philippines. Their works deal with questions about identity, transmigration, queer politics and representation, states of being and ways of inhabiting the body. They is a graduate of Philippine High School for the Arts where they majored in Theatre Arts. They studied at Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts and at P.A.R.T.S., has finished they Bachelors in Fine Arts in KASK School of the Arts Ghent and finishing they masters in visual arts in the same institution.

They has collaborated with multiple artists both in Asia and Europe ranging from performance to visual arts such as Arco Renz, Eisa Jocson, Manuel Pelmus, Bruno Isacović, Ming Wong, Adrian Wong, Choy Ka Fai, Leeroy New, Korakrit Arunanondchai, and Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker, Damien Jalet, and many more. He has presented his work in Deltebre Dansa in Spain, Queer Zagreb Croatia, Centre National de la Danse in Paris, Bouge B Festival in DeSingel, Vooruit, Beursschowburg, and BIT Teatergarasjen in Norway.