"Moments of Delay," the forthcoming exhibition of the Museum of Contemporary Art and Design (MCAD) of the De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde, brings together the diverse practices of interdisciplinary artists, who navigate the tensions and contradictions emerging from local contexts. Together, they look inward, yet with multiple trajectories, in response to the fluidity of time, plural realities, and urgent concerns of the present.
Curated by cultural worker Arianna Mercado and independent curator James Tana, the presentation engages with the concept of contemporaneity — a potentially infinite period characterized by doubt and hesitation — as articulated in the essay "Comrades of Time" by art critic, media theorist and philosopher Boris Groys.
A rarity in MCAD’s usual programming, it builds upon the 2015 exhibition "The Vexed Contemporary," which sought to complicate the positioning of art practices in local and global spaces.
The "Moments of Delay" curators explained the exhibition operates within strategies that explore the varying embodiments of the looping and cyclical nature of time.
“We propose approaches to understanding time and the contemporary, addressing how artistic practice has been used as ways to probe individual and collective experiences, as reactions to specific conditions and speculations on a future, which approaches ‘delay’ as a fractured, yet expansive temporal state,” they explained.
“This presents an opportunity to contemplate the changing landscapes of art, inviting reflective observations into narratives addressing cultural and political shifts, as well as technological advances that shape the contemporary milieu,” they added.
The textual interventions of Neo Maestro speak to the ideas of the experience of the contemporary as a phantom that transcends and represents multiple narratives in time and space, whereas Allan Balisi’s paintings breathe new life and interpretations into dusty mannequins found in the storage of the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP).
Miguel Lorenzo Uy’s multilayered large-scale wall installation Screen (2021/2025) creates parallels between technological static and theories of the beginning of the universe. Meanwhile, Christina Lopez speaks to contemporary anxieties and disinformation as shaped by technology.
In her low-frequency hums, Corinne de San Jose uses sound and scent to evoke moments spent for healing and meditation. On the other hand, the heating, cooling, and melting work of Lesley-Anne Cao sheds light on how materials undergo subtle yet irreversible changes and alterations.
Artist collective Tambisan ng Sining tackles activism and socially engaged practice as enduring forces within history. Ronyel Compra comments on the relentless search for public and communal spaces, through drone footage that documents the transformation of a plot of land.
Rocky Cajigan connects queer movements, indigeneity and religious enculturation in his labyrinthine installation A barrier, a time II (2019/2025).
The study on the glitches of the contemporary is likewise deepened through public programming. Uri de Ger’s practice is investigated through the lens of humor aligned with more brutal narratives of sociopolitical issues and activism. Whereas for Tropikalye, led by Nice Buenaventura, workshops and indexes color posit interest in recording strategies of contemporary “vernacular wisdom.”
Joar Songcuya reflects on the personal experience of placelessness and a diligent practice of painting the sea through museum collections. Meanwhile, Celine Lee surveys the use of haptics, manipulation and illusion to reveal the underlying forces that shape our reality and perception of the world.
"Moments of Delay" will open on 27 May, at 5:30 p.m., will run until 24 August. It and its public programs are free and open to the public at MCAD located at De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde (DLS-CSB) Design + Arts Campus, Dominga Street, Malate, Manila. Visits must be booked in advance through bit.ly/momentsofdelay. For more information, visit https://www.mcadmanila.org.ph/moments-of-delay or https://www.facebook.com/MCADManila.