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.

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.  

Opening: Kok Yoong Lim

Kuala Lumpur based Malaysian artist Kok Yoong Lim works with new technologies to explore and investigate the human dimension of technological development and discourse. Most of his works take the form of (interactive) installation.

Kok Yoong Lim was in Manila last September to give his artist's talk, and also to explore and get inspired by Escolta and its environs.

Check out what he has in store for Manila when his installation for Trasi(en)t Manila opens at the Juan Luna Building in Escolta, Manila on 22 November, Saturday.

Read what Kok Yoong Lim has to say about his art and philosophy during his previous artist talk here.
To find out more about the artist and his works, check out his website here.

The Project Glocal Experience

Sounds like a band name. But we really just rock! 

What is it like to mount a project that gathers multiple international artists to participate in lightning residencies creating site-specific art in towns and cities and spanning several years and themes? 

It's definitely not an easy task, but Project Glocal's various iterations prove that it's possible and doable.Listen in on the conversation as Marika Constantino, Fiona Lee and Joey Berenguer share their Project Glocal experience from their own different vantage points. Marika is this year's Project Glocal manager; Fiona is a Hongkong artist participating in Transi(en)t Manila; and Joey Berenguer is the host for Juan Luna Building in Escolta, which is one of the activated spaces in Transi(en)t Manila.

To amplify the experience, the documentation of Transi(en)t Taipei and Penang editions will be screened at 4PM. 

Join them on 22 November, Saturday. The talk starts at 3PM. Screening will be at 4PM. All at the Juan Luna Building. 

Artists Talk: Concepcion + Huang

Doubleheader Friday

It's a doubleheader this coming Friday! 

Two of our Transi(en)t Manila residents are giving their artists talk at 98B COLLABoratory on 21 November, Friday. 

Taiwan-based Po Chih Huang attended graduate school at the Taipei National University of Arts. His past works were mainly paintings and graffiti, but he is now more interested in video works which explore the relationship between enterprise, economic conditions and self-organization. His talk will start at 3PM. 

Ernest Concepcion has a degree in Fine Arts from the University of the Philippines. He has since moved to the US in 2002 and participated in art residencies in New York and Beijing. He is now a full time artist dividing his time between Manila and Brooklyn. Ernest will launch his work for Project Glocal and give his talk at 430PM. 

Walking With Ivan

Project Glocal teamed up with Old Manila Walks to give Transi(en)t Manila’s artists not just  a look at what the city streets have to offer, but also to provide inspiration and insight that the artists may infuse into their art. 

In Plaza Miranda

Ivan ManDy lead us from 98B’s headquarters in Escolta down the road to Sta. Cruz Church, situated in the heart of Manila’s downtown. A quick backgrounder of Manila’s (and the country’s) colonial history explained why the heritage areas of Sta. Cruz, Quiapo and Binondo were once important to the country’s social, economic and cultural fabric, but has slowly decayed as the city’s centers migrated elsewhere. 

The Black Nazarene attracts believers from all walks of life. 

But more than that, early Sunday morning on the church patio opens one up to what is important to the Philippines as a people: a curious mix of faith and enterprise. At Plaza Miranda, several replicas of the Nazareno draw curious crowds of believers, street urchins bearing religious amulets are quick to wrap them around wrists and limbs and then ask for donations, there are people you can ask to pray for you, or even light a candle for specific blessings one desires. 

The Hidalgo Underpass is now an almost clean but well-lighted place. 

Down the newly renovated Hidalgo underpass, the dinginess has disappeared in the bright lights. There are many things to see and buy and eat. But as one emerges on the other side of Quezon Boulevard, a quick left turn down Bautista Street reveals the dilapidated and sorry states of what used to be grand mansions that once belonged to Manila’s rich and powerful. 

This house is more than a hundred years old. 

The house of the Nakpil-Bautista clan has been converted into a museum that preserves the mementos of its illustrious family members. The Nakpils were intimate to the figures and events that helped shaped the nation. Bonifacio’s widow Gregoria de Jesus later married into the family. A trio of paintings depicting her life with Bonifacio and Julio Nakpil adorned one of the walls. There are mini-exhibits that focused on the Katipunan and its members. There is a set of chairs which have seated Rizal et al during the founding of the La Liga Filipina in 1892. 

The ticket to Bahay Nakpil is in the form of a cedula
to keep up with the Katipunan theme. 

Next door and in a much sorrier state is the Boix House. The heritage house is owned by the Jesuits, and used to be a warren of rooms that nested nearly thirty impoverished families. A small group of artists and conservationist volunteers have been working tirelessly to clean up the over a hundred year old house and get it in a better shape before it all falls apart. 

Students from Adamson University gifted this reconstruction model plan
to the Kapitbahayan sa Kalye Bautista. 

The volunteer we talked to showed us a preservation and reconstruction plan made by students from Adamson University. While they have no money yet to put such refurbishments in place, the groups interested in preserving this heritage house holds  fund raising activities just to manage the upkeep. And yet, they were nice enough to give their visitors some foldable fans to help cool us down. “We’re all neighbors here,” the man from Kapitbahayan sa Kalye Bautista said. “We need to help each other out.” 

This rebulto needs to shape up. 

In that street, there is also a woodcarving workshop where religious sculptures are made. Sometimes, rebultos are also sent by their owners for repairs. We found the father and son team working on a female wooden santo sculpture whose proportions were too big and had to be cut down to make it more female-like--basically, it’s like liposuction for sculptures. It’s fascinating what you find if you only know where to look. 

The tour group crossed the underpass back to Plaza Miranda and made our way to Ongpin for lunch at Ang Tunay Beef House. At one o’clock in the afternoon, it was already last call for orders before they close up for siesta. After eating, we went back to where it all started, at 98B. A closing chat was given by Ivan as to what else can be found in Old Manila that might serve as inspiration for Project Glocal’s artists and allies. 

Project Glocat and Friends thank you. 

Thanks to Ivan ManDy for the perspiring and inspiring walking trip and to BM Lab for the coverage and documentation. Until the next walking trip. 

Kwok Hin Tang at Pan///

Transi(en)t Manila kicks off tomorrow with the launch of HongKong artist Kwok Hin Tang's work at the Pan/// space at the Panpisco Building in Escolta tomorrow, 15 November, Saturday at 4PM. 

If you find yourself in the area early enough, there are also other things to check out in Escolta. Drop by 98B's Future Market at the First United Building, which starts at 9AM. Browse what's for sale, check out the art at Esc Project, and then stay for Kwok Hin Tang's opening. We promise it will be a blast. See you there! 

Transi(en)t Manila Calendar

Want to stay updated with the Transi(en)t Manila's comings and goings? Check out the activities calendar posted here. You can also keep posted through the Facebook events page here. 

Sunday Holiday Prep Day

Curator Dayang Yraola, Yukie Mitomi and artist Umeda Tetsuya at 98B. 

Project Glocal people are so excited for the upcoming Transi(en)t Manila installment that we met up on a holiday weekend to start the preparations.

Of course, no meeting is complete without a hearty lunch. Thanks, Yukie! 

Umeda Tetsuya adds his doodle on the artists' wall at 98B. 

Then we trekked over to 98B to iron out the details of participating artist Umeda Tetsuya's residency.

Meanwhile, Anjo and Marika headed out to take photos of Project Glocal's very lucky cat and her two robot suitors.

Just another day at Project Glocal!

Artist Talk: Kok Yoong Lim

Project Glocal Manila is proud to present Kok Yoong Lim from Malaysia as the fifth artist to give a talk this year at 98B. 

Kok Yoong Lim works with new technologies to explore and investigate the human dimension of technological development and discourse. Most of his works take the form of (interactive) installation. He is currently lecturing at the Global School of Media in Soongsil University, Korea. 

The talk will happen in 98B's Collaboratory on September 12, Friday, at 3PM. Admission is free. 

Anjo Bolarda at The Postcard Shop

Anjo working on The Postcard Shop signage. 

Filipino artist Anjo Bolarda considers The Postcard Shop as his studio in Penang. He's been here in George Town for nearly two weeks for the Project Glocal residency. 

Turn and smile for the camera, bro. 

In the first week, he held an open studio for Portrades. People coming into The Postcard Shop can tell him stories about themselves and in return, he draws their portraits. The next week saw him working on the portraits at 28Bahari or at TPCS.

Artist Marika Constantino needs to step up for Transi(en)t Penang. 

After he has finished all the portraits, he realized that he wanted to leave something behind in his studio--a mark that he, too, was there. 

Ms. Julie's son owns The Postcard Shop,
but is gladly helping us with the work. 

He started working on a signage for The Postcard  Shop. Wooden planks were sawn and nailed to form a frame. He painted it in red and white, minimal and warm and welcoming, and yet at the same time something which still reflects his interest in Oriental and Japanese print and art. 

Team Transi(en)t Takes the Jeep

Curator Dayang Yraola is all grins. 

Riding the jeepney like a boss. 

Here's a little behind the scenes look at Project Glocal. After the tour of Intramuros, Team Transi(en)t  needed to go to Escolta to preapre for the Artist's Talk by Urich Lau and Shih Tung Lo at 98B. 

How to cross over from Manila's south back to the North? The jeepney to the rescue. Out the old walled city and past the Post Office at Plaza Lawton, over Jones Bridge and a right turn to Escolta. Voila! We're delivered almost right in front of the First United Building. 

Quite an authentic Manila experience, too. 

Artist Talk x Urich Lau & Shih Tung Lo

Everyone is invited to the fourth installment of Project Glocal 2014 which features artist's talks by Urich Lau and Shih Tung Lo on Saturday, 12 July 2014 at 98B COLLABoratory. 

Shih Tung Lo is a Taiwanese curator and artist whose works emphasize the temporality in the processes of creating and interacting with the community, networks or spectators. He is interested in exploring the fissures and piecing together the fragments--and even fictionalizing--forgotten history. His works are about seeking one's identity, residence, hometown and city within contemporary society--places which are inhabited by long forgotten and unseen ghosts. 

Singaporean Urich Lau's interest lies in using technology with analogue and digital media to explore modes of presentations in moving and still images, space and time, perceptions and perspectives. His works concern issues in contemporary art, culture and heritage in today's contexts. The subject matters are presented through methods of interaction, intervention and influence between the artist, artwork and audience. He makes art to talk about art. 

Talks will be held at 3PM, 98B COLLABoratory in the First United Building, 413 Escolta Street, Binondo, Manila. Admission is free. 

Meeting with Interns

Web platform manager Jessel Duque explains the documentation tasks for interns. 

This year, Project Glocal Manila's interns are students from the School of Design and Arts's Art Management program at the De La Salle-College of St. Benilde. 

The internship gives the students the chance to observe how an ongoing international art project is run. More than that, the students are also expected to participate in any of these three core areas: liaison and artists' assistantship, marketing and web content. Students doing liaison and AA work are assigned to helping specific artists while they complete their residencies in Manila. Interns' tasks include coordinating the artists' activities and help out with the research in preparation for their work for Transi(en)t Manila. Those assigned with marketing will work closely with Mark Laccay from Artiste Connect, to help out in coordinating with the various institutions and sponsors for Project Glocal. The documentation team is tasked with covering the activities that will later be turned into content for Project Glocal's various web and online platforms.

The interns will also go visit other Project Glocal Transi(en)t sites, most notably, in Penang, Malaysia in August. They will participate in workshops, immersions and studio visits with local artists. Thus, the internship becomes invaluable as it places the students not just on the sidelines, but also right in the middle of the action. 

The internship is made possible through the coordination of Jason Vitorillo from CSB's School of Design Arts Management program, Mark Laccay from Artiste Connect, Team Transi(en)t web platform manager Jessel Duque, and Project Glocal curator Dayang Yraola. 

Internship Orientation

Project Glocal curator Dayang Yraola with students
from the College of St. Benilde and UP Manila. 

Last May 23, Project Glocal held an orientation for students considering an internship with this year's Transi(en)t Manila. 

The orientation focused on working with new media artists, heritage sites as venues for interactive art installations, and Project Glocal as an independent project for students in the Arts Management Program of the De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde and the Philippine Arts program at the University of the Philippines-Manila. 

Project Glocal curator Dayang Yraola spearheaded the orientation by explaining the arts praxis that the students will be exposed to during the internship program. Arts praxis includes the more practical aspects of getting a project off the ground, like securing funding. 

Artiste Connect and Chief Executive Officer Mark Laccay.

Artiste Connect's founder and CEO Mark Laccay was also on hand to explain how crowd funding projects work. 

Dayang Yraola on the intricacies of curatorship. 

All in all, Dayang Yraola emphasized that Project Glocal (and by extension, curatorship as praxis) is more about curating artists, opening up avenues in which artists can cross borders and interact with other artists in a truly trans- and international way. 

The orientation venue was at 98B's Collaboratory at the First United Building in Escolta, Manila. 

Artist Talk x Tang Kwok Hin

Project Glocal invites everyone to an artist talk by Tang Kwok Hin on June 13, Friday at 3PM at 98B in Escolta, Manila. 

Join Kwok Hin as he visits Manila once again as part of his participation with Transi(en)t Manila. Kwok Hin largely works with collage of different medium including digital videos. He proposes that artists should hold suspicious attitude towards their living and life. For him combinations of materials are result of processed that has undergone many factors. Exploring their other forms of existence is what motivates his art.

Kwok Hin is based in Hong Kong and has active practice as curator and artist in the region. He was recently resident of Kuandu Art Museum in Taipei and currently a grantee of Asian Cultural Council.

The talk will be held at 98B's COLLABoratory at the Mezanine Level of the First United Building, 413 Escolta Street, Binondo, Manila. Admission is free. 

RePORTS x Dayang Yraola & Mannet Villariba

RePORTS poster by 98B

Last May 8, curator Dayang Yraola and artist Mannet Villariba gathered the friends and supporters of Project Glocal at 98B's Archive Room at the First United Building and gave a talk that provided insight as to what's in store for Project this year. 

Project Glocal has been engaging artists to experiment on different production platforms, conditions and circumstances since its inception in 2011. Art is dynamic and collaborative, as proven by what Project Glocal and its artists have come up with starting with its 2012 incarnation. 

Mannet Villariba, Yukie Mitomi, Abigail Lee Tin
and Marika Constantino are all listening to Dayang's report. 

As Dayang Yraola asserted in her RePORT: "Art is a creative decision (individually or collectively) manifested in a product, an act or combination of both with the purpose of exciting those observing or taking part." This dynamic also allows for the artists to expand not just their awareness of their city of origin or art practice, but to cross borders and interact with other artists in other nations. Artists worked with what they found and inspired them on site in the cities they visited. 

With this year's program called "Transi(en)t," Project Glocal continues the conversation by bringing artists from Malaysia, Taiwan, Indonesia, Singapore, HongKong, Thailand, the Philippines and Japan to Taipei, Penang and Manila. In these three cities, the artists will explore art+technology, heritage and people in lightning or nomad residencies, collaborative production and non-museum/gallery exhibition/presentation. 

Manet showing a video clip of his work for Transi(en)t Taipei

Manet shares his experience in Taipei to a full house at 98B's Archive Room

For his part, Mannet Villariba shares his experience in Transi(en)t Taipei. He showed videos of his performance installation piece in which he worked with sound projection and a rotating stage stacked with newspapers. 

Dayang also shared the plans for this year's Manila Transi(en)t, wherein artists will work with and in heritage buildings in the Escolta and Intramuros area. There will also be a book that will document the Project Glocal over its multi-year and multi-explorations. But more than the production of art, Dayang is most proud that Project Glocal was able was able to build a communicty and network of artists, and hopes to sustain that environment well after Project Glocal concludes this year.