Curatorial Notes

For ArtFairPH/Projects, Sa Tahanan Co. brings home the works of four Filipino artists practicing across the migrant diaspora in an exhibit titled “Narito, Naroon”

The artists’ practices mull through the documentation of the Filipino identity outside the archipelago. Here, the artists are afforded the privilege to criticize from a safe distance, the time spent abroad a form of soft exile. The exhibition centers the act of seeking material and tangible evidence of the “Filipino” across various geographic contexts, where the artists inquire into the residues of colonial intrusion through the discovery of photographs, sacred objects, textiles, and archival documents encountered while abroad. Through their mediums, these artists find ways of connecting these discovered histories to their own diasporic narratives and experiences.

–Anna Bernice Delos Reyes and A.P.

About the Artist

Sa Tahanan Co. began in the UAE as an arts collective that platforms Filipino creatives, first across the Gulf and then the globe — bridging the accessibility gap with institutional opportunities. Co-founded by curator Anna Bernice delos Reyes and artist Augustine Paredes in 2020, the collective focuses on arts practice as a means of diasporic representation in creative and cultural industries.

Through community building, cultural research, art exhibits, performance programs, art sales, and other creative collaborations, we make space for Filipinos in the contemporary art scene. The collective has also grown an active WhatsApp community of Filipino creatives from around the world — not only finding collaborators in each other but also sharing resources for project grants and other creative opportunities.

Select list of collaborators and commissioners:

Sharjah Biennial 16, Diriyah Contemporary Art Biennale, Critical Times: Interventions in Global Critical Theory, Asia Art Archive, Jameel Arts Centre, NYU Abu Dhabi, Alserkal Avenue