Stephanie Comilang
In the organizer's words:
The impressive cinematic installations by Stephanie Comilang (*1980, Toronto, Canada) oscillate between documentary and poetic narrative in a captivating way. Her two most recent films "Search for Life. Diptych" (2024/25) and "Diaspora Ad Astra" (2020).
The exhibition combines the ocean and seafaring, which characterize the island nation of the Philippines, with questions about indigenous culture and cultural exchange. Comilang deals with migratory experiences and explores economy, labor and technology and postcolonial entanglements in a global context. She calls her elaborately produced and expansively installed films "science fiction documentaries". People and nature, home, labor migration and diaspora as well as the use of resources are recurring themes in her multi-layered narratives about the future and the past. Comilang delves deep into the respective context and combines research and historical facts with fictional elements and personal narratives of various protagonists, whereby questions of belonging and the search for (one's own) identity repeatedly emerge.
For example, "Search for Life I" is dedicated to the everyday life of a Filipino sailor and artist on a cargo ship and a florist who has escaped life at sea, and links their biographies with a story about the monarch butterfly, a migratory butterfly that overcomes enormous distances.
The second part of the cinematic diptych interweaves stories about the transformation of traditional pearl fishing in encounters with indigenous divers, with the "Mother of Pearls" who runs a breeding farm and with a second-generation Emirati-Filipino migrant who stands between cultures as a dancer in a K-pop group.
Comilang confronts fairy tales with harsh realities. The artist combines fiction and authenticity technically through impressive high-end productions filmed with drones and smartphones, which she combines with lo-fi recordings such as vlog vignettes or livestreams.
Location
You might enjoy this as well?
Events near you
Activities near you
Popular event locations
The best event recommendations for the Rausgegangen App!
