Jay Albaos explores how migrants (laborer, students of color, undocumented - among many others) create places and realize themselves in foreign environments. He is interested in exploring the possibilities of his method, artistic immersion, and how it can encourage artistic creation (and progressive international migration policy changes) through collaboration, participation, and dialogue within/among communities and institutions. 

He was a development community worker who worked with Indigenous Peoples. He was also a theatre community performer before leaving for Finland to study MA Live Art and Performance Studies at the Theatre Academy Helsinki. In 2020 he earned his advanced master’s degree n Cultural Anthropology and Development Studies at KU Leuven in Belgium. He is a doctoral candidate for the arts at the Associated Faculty in the Arts by LUCA School of Arts and KU Leuven.

He tries to incorporate anthropology theories and ethnographic methods in his research/artwork(s). Jay moves from doing solo performance art pieces to working with communities, silent protests to public-sensitive interventions, research writing and poetry, labor working and doing nothing.

Born in Dipolog, Philippines, Jay currently lives and works in Gent, Belgium. 

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Education 

Doctoral Candidate in the Arts, LUCA School of Arts and KU Leuven, [ongoing]

Advanced Master (MSc) in Cultural Anthropology and Development Studies, KU Leuven (Magna cum laude), 2020

Master (MA) in Live Art and Performance Studies, Theatre Academy of the University of the Arts Helsinki, 2018

Bachelor (BA) in Communication Arts, University of the Philippines Tacloban, 2012