The exhibition "Chambres de bonnes" features a series of 50x70 cm black-and-white photographs taken between 2022 and 2023 during the COVID period, when Filipino domestic workers were confined. These photographs highlight the harsh conditions these women endure in cramped rooms, usually not exceeding 10 square meters. Artist Ryan Arbilo, deeply concerned about the situation of his fellow countrywomen, aimed once again to draw attention to their suffering. He visited room after room to photograph them, and this is the work he is presenting for the first time at the Depardieu Gallery.

This new subject, still linked to the difficult conditions of Filipino workers in France, follows the series entitled "Chicken Hands" in 2016, which depicted the deformed hands of domestic workers due to manual labor, and the series "Halo-Halo-Mix-Mix" in 2019, showcasing mixed couples and their children, previously presented in December 2021 at the Depardieu Gallery.

The lives of these women strangely resemble those of the former occupants of the 19th century: they must wake up at 6 a.m., take the metro at 6:30 a.m., and arrive at their employers' homes by 7 a.m. to prepare breakfast and take care of the children, whom they accompany to school at 8:30 a.m. They then return to their employer’s home to carry out household tasks, deep cleaning, washing, and ironing. In the afternoon, they go to another employer for the same routine. They work an average of 12 hours a day for an hourly wage of 15 euros. They cannot afford to lose a minute of rest or attend to their own affairs. Their day ends at 7 p.m., when they can finally return to their rooms, after climbing 6 or 8 flights of stairs in a building with no elevator, with shared toilets on the landing and a single water point, for which they pay between 500 and 600 euros a month. On the same floor, up to 30 rooms can be found. However, this is the only place where these domestic workers can enjoy a few hours of freedom and personal life.

In these rooms, they cook on small stoves, wash dishes and themselves in the sink, and eat sitting on their beds in front of a folding table. The photos reveal their ability to optimize every inch of storage space. Shelves cover the walls up to the ceiling, and items are placed under the bed, with a cross of Christ hanging in almost every room.

These "sixth floors" offer terrible discomfort. In winter, without central heating, they are cold, while in summer, under the roofs, they stifle under the sloping ceilings. Dim light filters through skylights that sometimes overlook the street but more often inner courtyards filled with the stale air of kitchens and toilets that also open onto them. The rooms are cluttered with small furniture and various knick-knacks. The cramped conditions on this floor, shared by domestic workers of both sexes in poorly closed rooms separated by thin partitions, make the "sixth floor" experience physically and psychologically difficult to bear, fostering anxiety and neuroses.

Ryan Arbilo's photographs reveal the hell in which these women live daily.