Sincerely Yours, The Philippines

The Frankfurt artist collective Mousonturm has dedicated its upcoming ten-day festival to the performing arts of the Philippines. The German public knows very little about the country’s innovative art scene despite the fact that Germany and the Philippines have been deepening their ties for years. For example, the so-called Triple-Win Programme offers registered nurses from the Philippines the opportunity to work as caregivers in Germany. This naturally sparks questions related to the value of care work and inequality in a globalised world.
This project presents six new and joint productions with dancers and performing artists of different generations from the Philippines and the diaspora. As the project’s artistic director, the Philippine choreographer Eisa Jocson has gathered a group of queer-feminist artists  who are interested in decolonial strategies, female rage and resistance. The festival creates ties between karaoke and performance art, indigenous curative practices and the workaday reality of immigrant caregivers. A running theme in the festival are references to babaylan: priestesses, women warriors, healers and mediums to the spiritual world who traditionally assumed leadership roles in families and communities in the Philippines – a cultural practice suppressed in colonial times. 
To intensify the collaboration with the art scene in the Philippines, the festival will be preceded by artist labs, production residencies and digital exchange formats. The Goethe-Institut is responsible for coordinating the projects with local cultural venues and universities in three regions of the country: Luzon, Visayas and Metro Manila.

Artistic director: Eisa Jocson
Curator: Franchesca Casauay
Performers: Bunny Cadag, Catherine Go, Anjeline de Dios, Ea Torrado, Grace Nono, Tonio Flores, Nenet Ocson, Jared Luna

Festival: Künstler*innenhaus Mousonturm / Frankfurt LAB, Frankfurt am Main: 11 – 20 Sep. 2025; 
University of the Philippines Diliman, Metro Manila: 6 – 9 Nov. 2025