FRANKFURT.- The impressive cinematic installations of Stephanie Comilang (b. 1980, Toronto, Canada) alternate between documentation and poetic narration in a compelling manner. Parallel to the presence of the Philippines as the guest country at the Frankfurt Book Fair, the Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt is presenting the Filipino-Canadian artist and filmmaker in a major solo exhibition. Her two latest films, Search for Life: Diptych (2024/25) and Diaspora Ad Astra (2020), will be shown for the first time in Germany. The exhibition links the ocean shaping the Philippines as an island state, as well as seafaring, with questions relating to Indigenous culture and cultural exchange.

Comilang examines experiences of migration and explores the themes of economy, work, and technology, as well as postcolonial interrelations in a global context. She herself calls her lavishly produced and expansively installed films “science fiction documentaries.” People and nature, homeland and habitat, along with work migration, diaspora, and the handling of resources, are among the recurring topics of her multilayered narratives of future and past. Comilang immerses herself deep in the contexts and combines research and historical facts with fictional elements and personal stories of a wide range of protagonists, whereby questions of belonging and the search for one’s (own) identity repeatedly appear. Search for Life I is dedicated on the one hand to the everyday life of a Filipino sailor and artist on a freight ship and to a florist who has escaped from life at sea, linking this narrative to the story of the monarch butterfly, which embarks on extensive migrations. The second part of the filmic diptych interweaves various stories about the transformation of the traditional pearl-fishing industry in an encounter with Indigenous divers, with the “Mother of Pearls” running a pearl-farming business, and with a second-generation Emirati- Filipino migrant who stands between cultures as a dancer in a K-pop dance group. Comilang confronts fairy-tale elements with harsh realities. The artist technically interweaves fiction and authenticity by means of impressive high-end productions using a drone and a smartphone, which she connects with lo-fi shots as well as vlog clips and livestreams.