MATHILDE AGIUS: MADAME

OCT 24  —  NOV 22, 2026

Tomorrow Maybe, 4/F Eaton HK

Madame is a series of portraits produced between 2024 and 2025 by photographer Mathilde Agius.This chapter was developed in the cities of Shanghai, Hangzhou, Chongqing, and Chengdu. It documents the local drag scenes and features imaginary worlds situated between contemporary China and Euro-American pop aesthetics. The practice of drag, combining subversion, spectacle, and satire, offers a lens through which current dynamics can be read. On stage, drag queens appear both exposed and concealed: beneath layers of makeup and accessories, their characters become vectors of implicit narratives. They speak to the pressures, strategies of evasion, and vulnerabilities inherent to queer creation while reflecting an ironic and critical image of both Chinese and global society.

Mathilde Agius is a photographer trained at ECAL. Her practice developed in London through editorials in cultural and fashion print publications. Her work featured in Art Review, Buffalozine, Kaleidoscope, The Gentlewoman, Fantastic Man or T Magazine China. Agius was nominated three times for the Photography Swiss Design Prize. She received the “Relève in Photogrphy”(2017)

and the “Focus Photo”(2025) grants of Pro Helvetia. Her practice studies how fashion and pop culture codes disseminated by the media are reinterpreted at the individual level and within social scenes, contributing to the formation of group identities. Between reality and staged representation, her approach transforms a photographic session into a performance,

with the person being photographed becoming an active participant, akin to an actor rather than a passive subject. The portrait session evolves into a collaborative process, offering a combined interpretation of their identity rather than a fixed truth.