May's Museum: MO_Space

By the time May rolled around I wasn't really up for much of a outing to a museum. Instead I decided to stick closer to home, in fact within walking distance of my apartment. On the top floor of a furniture store there is a small two room gallery that has a rotating set of exhibits. MO_Space is an artist run gallery. Dedicated to showcasing work from Filipino contemporary artists the exhibits can be quite a contrast.

This month the two rooms were set up as two different exhibits. I quite enjoyed the brightly coloured paintings on the wall and the floor in Patrick Cruz's people without property. Each time I went back to look I noticed more details (many of which reminded me of Native American legends). It was eye-catching and vibrant.

The second room was a compilation of work by different artists along the theme of visionary. There was a lot more variety in these works, some of which I struggled to find the connection to (not the ones pictured about, these were two of the three with a religious theme). However it pushed me to consider what it means to be visionary.

MO_Space

Bonifacio High Street, BGC

11am - 8pm

Free entry through Mo Design Store

April's Museum: The Dessert Museum

April was a busy month for me. Mom left. I had a full weekend of going to see shows (I highly recommend Lion King if you ever get a chance to see it on stage). Yet I still wanted to get a museum in. After all I was so close to meeting my goal for the school year of a museum a month. So I decided this time of year called for some light hearted fun. The Dessert Museum seemed like the ideal place to go relax for a bit.

What you're thinking probably isn't accurate. The Dessert Museum popped up in Manila this year. A bit of a response to the Instagram culture that is dominating the travel opportunities that people search for. It is three quarters photo op and one quarter sweet treats. There are eight rooms with different themes - donuts to marshmallows, gummy bears to ice-cream, gum to cotton candy. The rooms are decorated to the theme, with plenty of fun photo opportunities in each room. You have about 15 minutes to explore and play before they herd your group on to the next room. 

Smiles around for the group I went with

Of course you can't have a dessert museum without getting to eat some sweet treats. In the blue and white marshmallow room we got a marshmallow (of course) held under a sweet topping fountain (ube, vanilla or strawberry). There was an ice cream bar to go along with the room whose floor was filled with those balls you enjoyed playing with in ball pits as a child. The treats also included a macaroon, some gummy bears and a cake pop. And while each treat seemed small sized, by the end of the tour I feared that I was beginning to go into sugar shock. 

The Dessert Museum

10 am - 10 pm (last entry 8 pm)

Tickets 800 pesos

January’s Museum: Museum of Contemporary Art and Design

Last month we headed out for what I hoped would be a double header on museums. I had seen that there was a sculpture garden in the general area that we were heading to, one that had a sculpture for each of the APEC countries. Figured that since it was cool enough to be outside and we were in the area that we should stop there first. Only it turns out the APEC sculptures aren’t actually in the APEC garden like logic might lead you to believe. Oh we saw two sculptures but none that I was expecting...guess I’ll have to give it another shot once I do a bit more research.

So then on to our actual museum. Which, thankfully, was exactly where I expected it to be, a 20 minute walk down the road. The Museum of Contemporary Art and Design is on the campus of the College of Saint Benilde's School of Art and Design and seems to be a fairly recent addition to the museum spaces in Manila. The museum has a lovely industrial warehouse feel to the open space. For the size of the space there was not much on display. Four exhibits took up a fraction of the space. One on the empty space of buildings, one an cardboard recreation of a beach scene (I found the artist’s annotated photos much more interesting, an interesting back lit display on spaces (my favorite I think) and a video installation set in Chandigarh (a city in India I’ve traveled through but never visited).

All in allI feel like the trip this month gave us a destination but not much more. I can’t really recommend the museum unless the exhibit is one you are particularly interested in. However if you’re in the area it might be worth a stop since it was free.

Requisite museum selfie,
probably our worst one yet!

Museum of Contemporary Art and Design

Tues - Sat 10-6, Sun 10-2

Free admission 

December's Museum: Yuchengco Museum

This weekend was the only time that we could find to fit in a visit to a museum this month, as the majority of the month will be spent traveling for Christmas (One more week! I'm so excited that I'll be in Myanmar soon.) and next week I am in the provinces with a group of students for a week of community service.

Hanging Zen Garden

Needless to say, with all of the stress and busyness that comes with the end of the semester we did not want an all day commitment for our museum visit. Turns out that there is a second museum in Makati, one of the closest neighborhoods to where I live, and so we set off to visit the Yuchengco Museum. It is a fairly new museum, having been started in 2005 to house the private collection of Ambassador Alfonso T Yuchengco. Located on four small floors, the museum seems to be mostly dedicated to changing exhibits with a few small rooms of permanent works on display. One of those permanent installations is a hanging zen garden of paper rocks that was a definite focal point.

Special Exhibit: Blessing Manila

Butterfly symmetry

The exhibit on display during our visit was a entitled Blessing Manila and had two floors of work by the Taiwanese artist Yang Ding Xian. We were absolutely enthralled by his symmetrical butterfly pieces that resembled kaleidoscope images on the third floor. Then when we hit the ground floor and came across some mountain inspired work a woman stepped up to us and said "You know, that is the artist right there." So we had the unexpected pleasure of spending 20 minutes talking with Mr. Xian about his work and his inspiration while a nice older man generously translated for us. I will admit that having that opportunity not only made me appreciate his work a lot more, but made me realize just how special it can be to truly understand what an artist is trying to represent with his work. I would have never dreamed that our random museum choice would result in a one-on-one discussion with the featured artist, but it definitely made for a special visit.

Katie listing to Yang Ding Xian

Yuchengco Museum
RCBC Plaza
Corner Ayala and Senator Gil J. Puyat Avenues
Makati City, Metro Manila
Hours: Mon-Sat 10 am-6 pm
Entry Fee: 100 pesos

November's museum: National Museum of Fine Arts

We headed out this weekend with very little in mind for our museum trip. Rather a realization that November was coming to an end and we were running out of time if we wanted to follow through on our goal. So I went looking for a museum that was open on Sunday, and decided upon the National Museum. Turns out the National Museum has a couple of building, having taken over some of the old legislation sites in Manila. I decided upon the National Museum of Fine Arts for no real good reason except that it was there and I could find the name of it to look up when requesting a taxi. Needless to say I had no idea what we were getting into with a visit to this weekend. But hey, it is open, and as an added bonus is free to the public all the time.

Bright walls!

I was not prepared for the bright walls that greeted us as we explored the ground floor galleries. Although I suppose in some ways they helped to brighten up the sometimes dark 18th century paintings. I'll admit I wasn't all that into the painting that were on display. Although I did find it interesting to note that the portraits, at least, were of Filipino people, easily distinguishable as they wore the recognizable traditional pina fabric made partially out of pineapple fiber. I was also fascinated by the sculptures that were made from concrete, marble being too expensive or not available. To be honest though, I found myself more distracted by the bright walls than engaged in the paintings.

One of my favorite statues, although I don't think
this one was concrete.

So then we had to decide if it was worth heading upstairs to check out another level of galleries. We're here, might as well, right? I was relieved to find the work on this floor more colorful (and the walls less colorful) and modern, more to my taste. In fact I found some work by Vicente Silva Manansala, the National Artist for Painting in 1981, that I quite liked. Not only was the majority of his work of local scenes (landscapes, cock fights, religious ceremonies, etc) his use of color and shapes were quite appealing to me. 

Isda, The Philam Life Manansala Series (No 7)

All in all we spent about an hour and a half in the National Museum. It was worth a visit, especially if you enjoy old buildings. I particularly liked the stairwell near the entrance and the handles on the gallery doors reminding you that you were in the National Museum. All in all, a pretty good way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

October's Museum: The Ayala Museum

October always seems to be one of those months when life and work just get busy. It has been great in some ways, as I feel like I'm finally out of my apartment more than I am in it, but frankly it is a bit exhausting. I'm very much looking forward to the week long break we have coming up, and can't wait for a bit of down time. 

Katie and I outside the Ayala Museum

Things have been so busy that it was a bit difficult to find the time for Katie and I to get out to a museum this month. So we chose to stick close to home. Heading to the Ayala Museum in Makati, a short 10-20 minute taxi ride away. I really had very little expectation for this museum, having no idea what they might have. Only knowing after a brief search on their website that I could actually get in free if I brought my teacher ID with me. Not a normal part of what I carry on the weekend so I was glad I had read that. Otherwise, the only other thing I knew is that the Ayala's are one of the business tycoon families here in the Philippines - having their name on many malls, and so it isn't really a surprise that the museum is at a shopping complex.

Spanish galleon replicas

A little to my surprise, the museum was quite nice. Particularly the two floors that housed the permanent collection. The top floor with a fairly large collection of Chinese pottery that seemed to have mostly been found at archeological sights in the Philippines. An extraordinarily large gold collection was the highlight of my visit. It was mostly taken from burial sights in the Philippines. We were wondering how there could actually be that large of a collection here, in a fairly small museum, but upon reading we realized that most of it was discovered after 1960 when archeologists began working in the Philippines. The second floor had an extensive set of dioramas detailing important events in Philippine history. I will say I learned a bit more about that topic, since I didn't know very much at all. Although it gets a bit depressing to realize just how much war and violence is part of their notable history. All in all quite an enjoyable two hours visiting the museum.

Sculpture outside the museum

The Ayala Museum
Tue-Sun 9am-6pm
Entry: free for teachers with id, price ranges from 100p to 425 p
Makati Avenue corner De La Rosa Street
Greenbelt Park, Makati City 1224

Sulabh International Museum of Toilets

Yes you read the title right. An International Museum of Toilets. Perhaps the only museum of toilets in the world. And it happens to be in Delhi. Well according to our taxi driver, in a village that has been consumed by Delhi. How could you not want to visit it? The museum isn't all that outstanding - although a one room museum that kept our attention for over an hour must be pretty good...what was more impressive is the Sulabh organization. It is an organization that believes that toilets can be a tool for social change - helping to redefine the role of those who were untouchables or are scavengers. Part of their process includes getting more composting toilets which do not require people to clean them out and are actually more sanitary for low water areas than other options. They operate and maintain over 8000 public toilets which are kept impeccably clean and I believe have had a direct impact on health and sanitation in the areas where they have been installed. In fact the courtyard outside of the museum is a showroom of composting latrines - varying in size and price which can be installed.  (see their website for more information)

But back to the museum. The room is full of a variety of posters which share a portion of the history of the toilet. From guidelines to toilet use in Aryan times to poetry written about or on it. Such as this one that was specially inscribed at the bottom of a chamber pot:

I am as polite as ivory, but whiter than it,

Sometimes I am a virgin;

I am a bit delicate and hardly succumb to temptation,

Besides I never dream of being glorified.

      -ordered by King Louis XIV

The walls included humorous posters found in toilets, specialty toilets designed to resemble other objects like a stack of books or an armchair. There was a door made out of human excrement, as well as hard balls made out of the same. And a surprising number of advertisements encouraging people to visit the museum from all over the world. I must say that it is one of the most unusual museums I've ever been in. The sign as we left seemed to sum up their philosophy quite well:

Thoughts that matter:

*Smile you are in Sulabh

*Sanitation is our religion

*Perfect way to conquer worry - pray

*Museums are mirrors of heritage

*Do the very best you can