Manila Biennale : Open City 2018 - Manila Transitio

"Manila Transitio" is an event by Manila Biennale: Open City to commemorate one important part of the city's history which is the Battle of Manila in 1945, where thousands of innocent lives were perished as collateral damage during World War II.

Manila afterwards had an amnesia and never really moved forward, the city resorts to blindly obeying a hypocritical dogma and escapism with empty distractions instead of rebuilding, adapting and improving itself. This messy condition traces all the way back from the colonial era where each colonizers (or invaders) would erase and replace one another, thus the progress of the city would get disrupted and eventually stop.

We are all Simoun from the second novel of Rizal. "Simoom" - from the borrowed Arabic word which literally means "poison", a hot desert wind from the Arabian Peninsula that could cause death. Like Simoun, we are our own poison; disillusioned from the image that has been painted for us after the death of our dear innocent soul, María Clara.

May this event remind you the true beauty and ugly of Manila. A bittersweet ceremonial atonement of the iconic Filipino lovers to transition ourselves to a better community.

Never forget history, never forget 1945.

The Open City Festival is curated by Carlos Celdran and Mitch Garcia.
Special thanks to Lourd de Veyra.
Artwork by yours truly.