A recent post on Facebook gained a lot traction because of its semblance to the one of the stations of LRT (with the exception of it looking rather very clean). It turns out, it is an art installation located at the 9th floor elevator of School of Arts and Design in De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde.
InqPOP! reached out to the person who posted the photo, Erickson Jao, to ask him a few questions about the intriguing art installation. Jao is the Executive Director of the Benilde Alumni Association and with the help from the Art Director of DLS-CSB, Center for Campus Art, Mr. Gerry Torres, they shared what the installation is about.
A collaborative creation by several students from different courses, Train “…presents the daily struggles commuters experience in the city.” At the lower part of the elevator doors, there are captions that aptly resonate the daily woes of passengers, which reads: “SIRA NA NAMAN,” “WHEN IS CHANGE COMING?” “MAG-INGAT SA PAGHAKBANG,” and “HABA NG PILA!”
Torres added that a majority of students and teachers use the LRT in their daily commute that it has greatly affected their lives. And the “long lines, malfunctioning trains, and packed cars are just some of the regular occurrences passengers endure.” Thus, the installation art seeks to “… insinuate that the conditions of urban transportation is symptomatic of the governance of our cities and to a greater extent, our country.”
Created by the following artists from diverse courses: Windy Jarloc (Interior Design), John Go (Architecture), Aliya Raymundo (Production Design), JP Magnawa (Consular and Diplomatic Affairs), Raffy Belaniso (Industrial Design), and Nel Chua (Multimedia Arts), the design for “Train” is actually based from a photograph by another student, Clems Dela Cruz Sr. He shared the original photo via Facebook saying that his “…photograph tried to capture the citizens in their moments of discomfort.”
“Train” is just one of the 14 permanent installations located in the School of Design and Arts building. It is part of the “Stations of a Nation” project spearheaded by visual and video artist Manny Montelibano in collaboration with artists taking up different courses in the said university.
The project is loosely based from the Catholics’ Station of the Cross and is comprised of 14 commissioned artworks with themes about nation building, the history of the Philippines, and its present state.
You may visit the university to check out the art installations.
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