Performing Translations

While exhibition preparations were on the way, Roque was participating in Tokyo Festival's online art camp called Asian Performing Arts Farm (APAF) Lab 2020. Roque met art translator Yume Morimoto through this program. Roque would later find out about the queer and intersectional feminist zine and collective that Morimoto is part of, called "B.G.U."

Since the essay's publication, Montenegro has left Kobe and has come back to the Philippines. She recently went back to university to finish her studies and has re-enrolled as a student at the University of the Philippines - College of Fine Arts.  

This project is a continuation and deeper exploration of those initial engagements by the four participants. The project forges new nodes and pathways in the network of artists and communities working with/in intersectional feminist and gender discourse. The translation project goes beyond the text itself as four women from different and complex backgrounds, personal histories, and identities negotiate translations and exchanges of their experiences. The translated text and launch event seeks to surface the nuances of the experiences of migrant workers in Japan to audiences in Japan, Philippines, and elsewhere. The translated texts help shed light on the struggles and triumphs of marginalized voices, often invisible in discourse because of the limitations of language. With the B.G.U. zine and collective hosting the translated works, we also hope to strengthen feminist solidarities transcending the national and cultural borders between Japan and the Philippines.