Cooking From A Migrant Memory
This event will activate PAKGHOR, a project by Britto Arts Trust where the ecological and social space invites different communities in Riyadh to volunteer in cooking and engage in meaningful interactions with Biennale visitors.
Filipinos love to eat and cook together; cooking as a migrant is a poetic performance involving nostalgia and memory. Recipes passed from parents and grandparents become family history archives, symbolizing remembrance, comfort, and adaptation to a foreign land.
Ang Pagluluto sa Linamnam ng Alaala (Cooking from a Migrant Memory) is a storytelling cooking research project tracing Filipino migrant histories through cooking and food.
Who is this for: all ages
What you will gain: Combining cooking, poetry, and storytelling, Sa Tahanan Collective recreates recipes from Filipino curators and artists from the diaspora. These Filipino dishes connect them to their Filipinoness, narrating stories of longing, desire, and displacement. They are reflective of intergenerational migratory journeys, recipes changing based on geographical food resources.
Attendees will feast together in a Filipino-style salo-salo. The recipes are available in a cookbook produced for the Biennale, with limited copies available at the event.
The menu of the day will be:
KBL - A recipe by Renan Laruan
Coconut adobo -A recipe Alexis Convento
Please note that this is a first-come, first-served activation as the food will be available until it runs out.
Contributors: James Clar, Stephanie Comilang, Alexis Convento, Renan Laru-an, Jou Pabalate, Ayman Tamano
Presented By
Sa Tahanan Co.
Sa Tahanan Co. began in the UAE as an arts collective that exists to be a home for Filipino creatives across the Gulf and the globe. Co-founded by curator Anna Bernice delos Reyes and artist Augustine Paredes, the collective focuses on arts practice as a way to shape-shift the perception of the Filipino identity across the diaspora. Sa Tahanan Co. launched in December 2020 at Alserkal Avenue in Dubai with 3 days of art, poetry readings, and film screenings from the Filipino diaspora.
Through art exhibits, art sales, and creative collaborations, they make space for Filipinos in the contemporary art scene. The collective has grown to also become an active WhatsApp community of Filipino creatives from around the world — not only finding collaborators in each other but also sharing resources for artist and curator grants and other creative opportunities.
Anna Bernice delos Reyes
Anna Bernice delos Reyes is a curator, writer, and communications strategy specialist based in Dubai and Berlin. She co-founded Sa Tahanan Co., a grassroots arts collective platforming Filipino creatives in the Gulf and beyond. She has also worked with museums, galleries, artists, architects, and other cultural organizations on communications, research, and public relations. Her most recent curatorial projects include Yearning the Sun to Fall (fffreidrich/Städelschule), Faces of Machine (Send/Receive), Tsuyoshi Hisakado: Polite Existence (Jameel Art Centre), In Response to Solastalgia (Maisan15), and most recently writes for Vice, Global Art Daily, Dubai Collection, and The National, amongst other publications. Originally from Manila, Anna Bernice studied sociology, performance and contemporary art at New York University Abu Dhabi.
Augustine Paredes
Augustine Paredes, a multi-disciplinary artist from the Philippines, explores themes of desire, migration, and identity through photography, painting, poetry, and installations. He gained international recognition with exhibitions in various countries and authored several art books. Co-founder of Sa Tahanan Collective, Paredes has collaborated with prestigious organizations and is represented by Seeing Things, a Dubai-based agency.