True blue Manileños, recent transplants, and visitors to our city all know — there is never a lack of things to do in Manila. This is Coconuts Manila’s guide to all things good and great happening over the coming weekend. Peruse it, take note of everything that interests you, and hit us up on our Facebook page or on Twitter @CoconutsManila to sound off on what you think.
Catch the final run of an experimental sound and art festival
Date: Oct. 15, Tuesday – Oct. 28, Saturday
Venue: Green Papaya Art Projects, Quezon City; and in Cebu, Davao, and other venues in Metro Manila
Even if the festival already opened on Tuesday, you still have three weekends to go before the country’s longest-running arts and sound festival hangs its hat–for good.
WSK Festival of the Recently Possible, which takes its name from the colloquial wasak (“shattered”), has come a long way from its early years as a parody of the famous French music festival Fete dela Musique (then named Fete dela Wasaque), but this year, the fest will be bidding us adieu for the last time. The final year’s two-week festivities presents a series of visual art exhibitions, pocket concerts and club nights, artist talks and forums, and street performances from artists around the globe which will be staged in more than a dozen venues in Cebu, Davao, and Metro Manila (talk about going out with a bang, right?).
The goal of the festival, according to its founder Tengal Drilon has been to “blur and deconstruct preconceived notions of how art, culture, and technology interact, and to imagine other ways in which the three intersect.”
Ticket prices and admission vary depending on the venue. For a schedule of events, visit WSK’s website or Facebook page.
Watch a Filipino-Spanish fusion play about religion and the afterlife
Date: Oct. 17, Thursday – Oct. 26, Saturday
Venue: Benilde School of Design and Arts Theater, 950 Ocampo St., Malate, Manila
A mashup of 17th century Spanish playwright Pedro Calderon de la Barca’s El Gran Teatro del Mundo (“The Great Theater of the World“), and Filipino contemporary playwright Tony Perez’s Hoy, Boyet (“Hey, Boyet”), this adapted staging of an original script, Ang Dakilang Teatro ng Daigdig (“The Great Theater of the World”), touches on the allegories of Catholicism, fate, philosophy, and the afterlife.
Directed by Gawad Buhay Awardee Nonon Padilla, and starring theater veterans Frank Rivera and Manny Castañeda, and featuring the student artists of Benilde School Theatre, the stage play will have you “reflecting” at the very least.
Tickets start at PHP250 (US$5), available at the venue or at Ticketworld.
Learn how to print photo stencils on fabric
Date: Oct. 18, Friday
Venue: CCP Main Gallery, Cultural Center of the Philippines, Roxas Boulevard., Pasay City
As part of its Design Week and Poster/ity Exhibit, the Cultural Center of the Philippines will be hosting a 3-hour workshop to cover the process of making photographic stencils and printing them on fabric.
Art Duo Hocus Manila will be teaching a screenprint-on-textile workshop, which will also include discussions on sourcing screenprint equipment and suppliers, prep and transfer of artwork to screen, and various printing tips and techniques.
The workshop fee is PHP2,500 (US$48.29) per participant, inclusive of materials, and you get to take home your prints. For registration visit the CCP-Hocus’s registration page.
See minute replicas of urban landscapes cobbled from staple wires
Date: Oct. 19, Saturday – Oct. 31, Thursday
Venue: Nova Gallery, La Fuerza Plaza Compound, 2241 Chino Roces Ave., Makati City
“Wanderland,” artist Jesusito “Chito” Borja’s third solo exhibition opens this Saturday at Nova Gallery, Makati, featuring urban landscapes reimagined as minute, mixed-media replicas. These “portraits,” according to Borja, are a query into human beings’ long-standing relationship with war.
An artist with a natural curiosity for humanities and philosophy, Borja uses stacks of that everyday office supply staple — i.e. staples — broken into different sizes to create miniature aerial shots of military-industrial installations in Europe and cities that served as battlegrounds during World War II.
His tedious efforts in creating these intricate assemblages are better appreciating up close than on the screen of your phone, so come down and check them out in person.
Buy books! Lots and lots of books
Date: Oct. 16, Wednesday – Oct. 31 Thursday
Venue: Multiple branches across Metro Manila
National Book Store, the country’s, well, national bookstore, is having a massive 15-day sale in participating branches in 16 cities across Metro Manila.
Score books from PHP300 (US$6) to as low as PHP50 (US$1). The book blowout deals in participating branches tags books on sale with idiot-proof, color-coded stickers to indicate price, with yellow for PHP300 books, orange for PHP200 (US$4), green for PHP100 (US$2), and red for PHP50. Book on sale for 10-percent (blue) and 20-percent (white) off are up for carting, too. Drop in to see if your favorite fiction/non-fiction/biography/self-help/occasional-cat-books are tagged for savings, then go crazy.
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