Following the glow of fireflies, Albert Garcia travels from Macao via Hong Kong and Taiwan to the riverbanks of the Philippines. Through video and storytelling, his performance links this journey with the fates of undocumented migrants. A poetic exploration of migration, survival and fragility in a globalised world – haunting, empathetic and inviting us to look more closely.
Fireflies flicker in the dark – tiny beacons of light that appear in the night and suddenly vanish again. Their glow is a quiet rebellion, a silent act of resistance in landscapes where they are often forgotten or under threat. The fate of these insects is reminiscent of that of people who live in hiding. Many migrants without secure residency status keep cities around the world running, whilst their stories disappear with every wave of urban development.
In his new piece, Albert Garcia uses performance, video and storytelling to link people and fireflies. Born in Macao to Filipino migrant workers, life has taken him via Hong Kong to Taipei. With empathy and analytical clarity, he follows the glow of the fireflies through the backstreets of Macao, the hidden gardens of Hong Kong, the changing landscapes of Taiwan, right to the riverbanks of the Philippines. In doing so, he describes the complex survival strategies of undocumented migrants in the metropolises of East Asia and invites us to look more closely – at the fragile and vulnerable aspects of our globalised world, and at the quiet strength to shine and survive.
Infos
- Duration: approx. 60 minutes
- Spoken language: English
- A Mousonturm co-production
- World premiere
- As part of Telling the Untold
- “Journal. Notes from a Work in Progress” Download (PDF)
- The Karaoke Party is cancelled due to the heat
Accessibility
Accessibility of Location
Sponsors and Supporters
Concept, Performance, Text: Albert Garcia
Dramaturge, Project Co-Initiator: Michael Li
Video Artist: Lao Keng-U
Research: Emilie Choi
Music & Sound: Toben Piel
Choreographic Assistence: Chiu Yuhuai
Aknowledgments: Sasa Cabalquinto
A co-production by Künstler*innenhaus Mousonturm, funded within the framework of the Alliance of International Production Houses by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media, and as part of the anniversary program “100 Years of Mousonturm” by the City of Frankfurt am Main. Supported by #DANCELESS complex 2026 “Unlock Dancing Plaza. Performance Ecologies” of the Goethe-Institut Manila, as well as by the residency program of PACT Zollverein, funded by the Ministry for Culture and Science of North Rhine-Westphalia.
Hinweise zu sensorischen Reizen
- blinkende Lichter
Biographies
Born in and raised in Macao with Filipino migrant roots, Albert Garcia is a multidisciplinary artist currently based in Taipei. As an immigrant and performance artist, he uses the body and multimedia to explore hybrid identity and survival. His work reflects on themes of citizenship, labor, and resilience in an ever-changing world. Garcia studied Media Studies (BA, 2012) in Macao and later pursued an MFA in Dance Performance (2017) in Taipei. His practice is driven by movement, storytelling, and a deep curiosity about the intersections of personal and collective history. Through his performances and installations, he seeks to create spaces for dialogue and reflection on migration, heritage, and the human condition.
???????????? ????????????????-???? is a filmmaker and artist. He graduated from Arts University Bournemouth with a BA degree in Film Directing. He is currently pursuing the DocNomadsPlus Master Programme in Documentary Filmmaking in Portugal, Lithuania and Belgium. Through different materialities of the moving image, Lao explores the performativity of theatrical magic as an expanded metaphor for how perceptions and imaginary of reality are manipulated and generated. His films have been shown in festivals internationally, including at Athens International Film and Video Festival, Kurzfilm Festival Hamburg, Sao Paulo International Short Film Festival, Aesthetica Short Film Festival and Onion City Experimental Film Festival, among others. In 2025, his experimental short “Dirty Eye” won the “Award for Excellence” at the 39th Image Forum Festival in Japan. Beyond his creative practice, Lao actively promotes local film culture. As a curator for the Associação Audio-Visual CUT, he has organized the “Macao Experimental Cinema” series and the “CUT! Experimental Film Festival” initiatives dedicated to fostering experimental cinema within the Macau community.
Choi Sin-yi (Emilie) is a researcher and film programmer based in Hong Kong, currently a PhD candidate at the School of Creative Media, City University of Hong Kong. Her research explores the intersections of media, environment, technology, and infrastructure, with additional interests in Asian documentary and experimental cinema. Her writing has appeared in journals including Modernism/modernity and Film Quarterly, and she has presented her research at institutions such as the EYE Filmmuseum (Netherlands) and transmediale (Germany). Choi has contributed to editorial projects such as Still Jumping: Mediated Performance and Moving Image Across Asia and the Global Stage, 2004–2024 _(2026) and _Cinema After Cinema (2024). She has curated numerous film and visual arts programs, including Jumping Frames – Hong Kong International Movement-image Festival, Hong Kong Retrospective Documentary Film Festival: From the 80s to 1997, and Macao Experimental Cinema. She also serves on the boards of Videotage and Unlock Dancing Plaza. Personal Website: www.emiliesy.com/
Li Hon Ting (Michael) is an independent producer and dramaturg. Li’s producing practice focuses on the production and development of contemporary dance and theatre projects, actively curates various forms of research and development platforms — including artist residencies, work-in-progress showings, exchanges, and co-productions — to explore alternative spaces for creation beyond mainstream production frameworks. Since 2022, Li has participated in a number of artistic projects as a dramaturg. His collaborations include The Survival Guide: Between a dog, a wolf and a tardigrade and The Bug is On Fire by Albert Garcia (Macau/Philippines); My Body is a Battle Field and These are My Armors by Chu Chin Ching; Evolving Grip: Pole Dance and Zebra Mussel by Cheung Wai Yin; and work by Cheung Lee Hung on In Somebody’s Shoes. Li currently serves as a board member of Unlock Dancing Plaza, a peer assessor for the Hong Kong Arts Development Council, and a member of the Arts Form Panel (Dance and Multidisciplinary Arts) under the Leisure and Cultural Services Department.
Toben Piel, born in 1980, works as a musician and performer and lives in Frankfurt am Main. Originally trained as a geriatric nurse, the self-taught musician produces sounds for dance and theater pieces, radio plays and his own formats. His interest in musical experiments, collaborative forms and electronic sound production forms the basis of his interdisciplinary approach. Together with Charlotte Simon, he forms the music-performance duo ‹Les Trucs›. With his solo project ‹Das Kinn›, he explores the interface between new age and post-punk, hiccups and singing. Piel also collaborates with directors, choreographers and authors such as Meg Stuart, Schorsch Kamerun, Hendrik Quast, Nis-Momme Stockmann and Jetse Batelaan. He has also been active as a curator and organizer of musical formats in the Rhine-Main region for several years.