This exhibition in Montreal weaves together Filipino stories through an interactive map

This Montreal Filipino exhibit will be on view until Jan. 28, 2024 | Screencap from Pulso ng Bayan website

On Dec. 2, an interactive exhibition curated by a group of Filipino artists and creators in Montreal opened at the cultural center Maison de la culture de Côte-des-Neiges. 

Entitled “Maglala: Weaving Our Webs of Home,” the exhibit consists of photography, cartographics, and soundscapes gathered over three years from the Filipino community in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. 

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“So much of our history is sort of putting pieces together by the people that we sort of share our lives with,” one of the curators, artist Andi Vicente of collective Pulso ng Bayan, told City News. 

“It will be really nice to just kind of have like a set archival project where all those stories kind of come together and everybody would have access to it.”

One of the unique features of the exhibit is how it is able to map out stories throughout the city as shared by migrant Filipinos. Vicente said that it is through these places and experiences that many Filipinos abroad feel connected to each other.

An online map pinpoints specific locations and stories as far back as 1992 in an effort to recognize the cultural impact of Filipinos in the Côte-des-Neiges neighborhood. The archival project also aims to highlight and preserve often overlooked stories of Filipinos. 

There’s another more tangible part of the exhibit that features messages from Filipino participants in a workshop attached to various articles of clothing. The idea, Vicente said, is to communicate different perspectives across age, gender, and familial linkage. “They all have their particular desires and longings.”

“Maglala” is an ongoing project that encourages members of the Filipino community to add their stories, photos, and videos through a website that one can access through a QR code or by going to Pulso ng Bayan’s website.

Pulso ng Bayan started in 2021 as a way to gather and share Montreal’s Filipino community stories of migration, home, and intergenerational resilience for the future.

The exhibit will be on view until Jan. 28, 2024.