Moments of Delay, the Museum of Contemporary Arts and Design's (MCAD) newest exhibition, questions and explores what it means to be in the now. Taking direct inspiration from art critic Boris Groys’ essay Comrades of Time, the exhibit, which opened on May 28, wishes to directly challenge the current notions of time, looking past the conception that time spent has to be “productive.”
An inquiry into the present
Co-curated by independent curators, Mx. Arianna Mercado and Mr. James Tana, the exhibit brings together 13 artists who tackle the exhibit through various perspectives and media. From paintings, installations, and literal writings on the wall, these artists work together to create a space for meaningful reflection, encouraging visitors to confront current realities through art. In their interview with The Benildean, Mx. Mercado gave insight into the inspiration behind the exhibition.
“We were inspired by him (Groys) because he really thinks through this. Like how time is not strict but open to a lot of different possibilities and ways of thinking,” they shared. Taking from the idea of the fluidity of time, Mx. Mercado also shared how this influenced the decision making process in selecting the artists involved.
“For me, my interest [...] were the artists that worked not in absolutes, artists that really think about contradictions [and] [...] that can speak to these different positions and ways of approaching their own work and time as a construct,” they continued.
The exhibit consists of both works within the museum space and public programs that bridge the gap between the artist and their viewer. Artists Allan Balisi, Rocky Cajigan, Lesley-Anne Cao, Ronyel Compra, Christina Lopez, Corinne de San Jose, Neo Maestro, Tambisan sa Sining–an artist collective, and Miguel Lorenzo Uy make up those with works in the exhibit space. Public programs, facilitated by artists such as Uri de Ger, Celine Lee, Joar Songcuya, Tropikalye, the aforementioned artists, as well as both curators, are scheduled to take place within the term.
A potentially infinite period of delay
For Mr. Tana, the exhibit prompts visitors to rethink the current notions of time, “We were thinking of delays as acts of resistance against urgency and immediacy [...] so the show actually encourages you to take a pause, and listen, observe, which I think mostly you would see that in the works included here.”
More than just a collection of pieces, the curators hoped to create an experience through their arrangement of works and installations. “We also want the viewers to take a pause, this kind of resistance against the urgency, to be productive, et cetera, all the time,” Mr. Tana ends.
The exhibit is also a celebration of an ever-changing landscape of the creative industry. When asked about his takeaways from the exhibit, Mr. Ryan Reyes, lecturer from the Culture Based Arts (CBA) department, had this to say, “It opens up discussions and conversations about this very idea of contemporaneity, or being at present. [It] invites us to confront this very idea of contemporaneity: what does it mean to be at present? What does it mean to be existing in the now, which is an open-ended question.”
Moments of Delay is a Filipino contemporary exhibition that commemorates the past, showcases the endless possibilities of the present, and ponders upon the future. As the opening was scheduled for May, it sparked hunches that the collection would relate to the National Heritage month—however, Mx. Mercado openly shared, “It was not actually something that we thought of… of course, you can reflect on Cajigan's work as thinking about heritage or tradition. But, I'm also wary, I don't want [people] to have a very specific reading na ito talaga [ay] dahil [sa] National Heritage month, ‘di ba? It was purely coincidental.”
Although it was purely coincidental, Mr. Tana expressed, “I think art, visual arts in general, will always be part of the Filipino heritage… But I think it's more of the concerns, the conditions of the time that inform these works, the creation and production of these works, which is also part of our national consciousness and [personal] experience as Filipinos.”
Filipino art is not something that can be defined with a textbook definition, it is something innate that only we Filipinos can understand and relate to. Explore the concepts of time, contemporaneity, and Filipino culture with “Moments of Delay,” until Aug. 28.
For more updates on future exhibits, make sure to check out MCAD’s Instagram, Facebook, and Website pages.
