TRANSI(EN)T MANILA

Maraming Salamat

A big and heartfelt thank you to everyone who helped out, attended our events, and made Project Glocal's Manila leg a memorable journey.

Transi(en)t program is now signing off.

Fiona Lee is interested in what cities sound like. She takes early morning walks around Manila, exploring the park by the bay, the jeepneys crawling the streets, the mass held in churches and cathedrals, vendors hawking beauty products in markets.

All of these paint the soundscape of a living, breathing city--one constantly mutating and changing. And yet, alongside this chaotic urban space of the present, there exists another city, long gone but its ghost lingers in what has been left behind: newspapers from another century, celebrations preserved in exposures made on glass, recordings of a radio broadcast from decades back.

The cauldron as genie granting us a glimpse of a city long gone.

Fiona Lee brings all of these things together using upside down projections and radios and cauldrons as speakers that might as well be genies granting a magic wish to be able to experience a city long gone right alongside the city where we are not flesh and blood. The sounds of the cities past and the present sharing the same space, crafting a view of a possible future, if we want it.

Red Cloud at the Ruins

A red cloud covers the ruins.

When spaces are abandoned in the city, they inevitably fall into ruins. How can one transform the dirt and decay into something beautiful?

Architect Takashi Nishibori unraveling the red sheets.

Thai artist Wit Pimkanchanapong, in collaboration with Japanese architect Takashi Nishibori, transforms the blighted space of an abandoned building by blanketing it with sunshade fabric, something commonly utilised in the agricultural industry but now used to revive a dying pocket of urban space.

Experience this ethereal red cloud at the ruins along Escolta today, during the curator's walk through.

Yang Yeung at 98B

One more for the road!

Transi(en)t Manila closes this year's edition with a presentation by Yang Yeung on plans for Project Glocal STAMPED! which documents this art journey over its last few iterations. She will also present primer on soundpocket, the first organization in HongKong dedicated to promoting sound art of which she is the founder and executive director.

Catch Yang Yeung at 98B COLLABoratory this Sunday, November 30 at 3:00 PM in Escolta. Admission is free.

VJ-ing the Storm

Have you ever dreamed of becoming a VJ? Urich Lau transforms the second floor lobby of the Regina Building into an interactive screen where footage from the aftermaths of typhoons Yolanda and Glenda are projected and the viewer must play the video jock. How does one describe the ruins and destruction with the cheerfulness required in front of the blue and green screen?

Curator's Walk Through

This Saturday, 29 November, do not miss this chance to experience art, technology, heritage and people along Escolta. All artworks/installations made by Transi(en)t Manila artists in their laboratories and spaces will be open to the public by 10AM.

You can choose to explore the activated spaces on your own: Check out our logarithm-created loomband Rizal at the Juan Luna building, explore the street with a cellphone-activated robot drone, trade your stories for a drink at the Teoff, surround yourself with sound at the Calvo Building. Experience the "ghost" at First United.

But it will be a special kind of fun to join Project Glocal founder and lead curator Dayang Yraola in a walk through of all the artist-activated spaces along Escolta. Each stop will allow us to interact with the installation, have a conversation with the artists, have a drink, and experience art in a new light.

The curator's walk is at 2PM, which starts at the Juan Luna building and ends at the FUB building, where there will be performances. Here is the map which can serve as your guide:

Map of Escolta's activated spaces.
Walk through begins at the farthest end--there on the tippity top.

Tell everyone. Bring your friends. Share the experience of art in a fun, interactive way. Come and let us all have fun.

Workshops at SDA

Talks and workshops are scheduled
at the College of St. Benilde's School of Design and Arts.

Project Glocal goes to the College of St. Benilde's School of Design and Arts for a day of demonstrations, talks and workshops on Thursday, November 27.

The day opens with demonstrations from two of our Transi(en)t Manila artists at the Museum of Contemporary Art and Design (MCAD).

From 10:30AM to 12 noon, Filipino Ian Carlo Jaucian will provide a demonstration of DIY robots, which includes his mobile phone-controlled drone.

From 1:30PM to 3:00PM, Yung Ta Chang of Taiwan will show how to take real-world signals like voice, audio, video, temperature and pressure, and then use mathematics to turn them into digital signals. He will then combine these processed digital signals into a performance.

There will be a talk on art+technology+heritage+people. Transi(en)t Manila's resident artists Horio Kanta of Japan and Wit Pimkanchanapong of Thailand will be joined by curator and artist J Pacena and heritage conservation architect Dominic Galicia. The talk will be from 3:30-5:00PM also at MCAD.

The day's events will culminate in a workshop on making soup, lead by artists Daiya Aida and Hattori Hiyoruki from Japan. This will take place at the SDA Cafeteria on the 12th floor, from 5:30 to 7:00PM.

All activities are free. Email us at transientmanilaevents@gmail.com or check the Facebook events page here.

The Artist as Bartender

The artist as bartender.

Taiwanese artist Po Chih Huang is interested in two things for his project: to know more about the storied past of the Escolta district, where Transi(en)t Manila finds its home, and to develop a drink made from the local calamansi.

Tools of the trade.

His interest in developing a drink made from citrus fruits stems from his award winning Five Hundred Lemon Trees project, where he previously sold wine labels in exchange for funds to buy the said 500 lemon trees, which he then planted and from which he hopes to harvest enough fruit to turn into wine in the next couple of years. Upon arrival in Manila, he first noticed how ubiquitous calamansi is. Filipinos can't seem to live without it. We drink it as juice, we use it in our sawsawan in almost every meal. Po Chih and Chien Yu then chanced upon a locally made calamansi liqueur and found inspiration from it. Po Chih called his calamansi-based drink "Manila Research," which is an apt name for something that combines history, art and alcoholic alchemy.

Po Chih Huang mixes history and art and turns it into a really nice drink.

Add this to wanting to find out more about Escolta. Thus was born an idea for his laboratory. Why not ask Manila locals for stories about the districit, and in exchange, he would give them a sample of the drink he's developing based on calamansi?

It's quite a combination: history and mixology, tales and cocktales.

The laboratory at TEOFF in Escolta.

It was happy hour in the middle of the day, in the middle of Escolta. The would be tellers came in, more than happy to tell their tales, but also curious about the strange brew that was promised. It was a happy exchange indeed.

A first timer leaves his mark on Po Chih's lab wall.

And we're not done. Come again tomorrow, 26 November, Wednesday, between 12:30-1:30 PM, and again on Saturday, 29 November at 2PM onwards at the TEOFF in Escolta.

Tell us your stories. We'll give you a drink.

More photos from Dayang Yraola's Facebook post.

Happy Story Hour

Po Chih Huang and Chien-yu's laboratory is ready!

We are collecting stories about Escolta. For every story you share with us, we will give you a shot of Po Chih's unusual brew.

Come to the Teoff Center (old Navidad building) along Escolta on November 25 and 26, between 12:30-1:30PM, and on November 29th during the curator's walk through.

Find our Taiwanese artists Po Chih Huang and Chien Yu. Tell them your tales about Manila's queen of streets, and you get a drink that they brewed themselves.

Cool trade, yeah? You tell us a story. We give you a drink. We'll be waiting for you.