ART FAIR PHILIPPINES BY THE NUMBERS

Now on its 6th year, Art Fair Philippines is ongoing until March 4. 5 floors plus the roofdeck of The Link car park at the Ayala Center, Makati City

READ “WHAT TO SEE IN THE ART FAIR”,

In an extreme example of the “I can do that/Yeah, but you didn’t” dichotomy of contemporary art, Nilo Ilarde filled one booth at the ongoing Art Fair Philippines with 24,124 diecast toy cars with a little help from Hot Wheels. Called The Art Fair is Full of Objects, More or Less Interesting; I Wish to Add 24,124 More, Mr. Ilarde’s installation riffs on a statement written by American conceptual artist Douglas Huebler: “The world is full of objects, more or less interesting. I do not wish to add any more.” Mr. Ilarde’s 24,124 toy cars do add a considerable number of objects to the many others in the art fair — now on its 6th year — which are often less interesting, and occasionally interesting enough to make the time spent at The Link car park at the Ayala Center worth it.

A new section allocated to photography, ArtFairPH/Photo, deserves a visit. Presented by Swiss private banking group Julius Baer, ArtFairPH/Photo includes an exhibition of archival photographs of Luzon’s mountain tribes taken by Eduardo Masferré organized by 1335Mabini, a harrowing exhibition on extrajudicial killings called Everyday Impunity: Ang Walang Pangalan, and a group show curated by Neal Oshima and Angel

The latter gathers emerging and established photographers who show a wide and wild range of images — from Nana Buxani’s prison images to Geloy Concepcion’s portraits of elderly transgender women, Jose Enrique Soriano’s scenes from a mental hospital to Kawayan de Guia’s dreamlike images of Baguio.

The images are intriguing, and demand a lingering look, time spent to ponder both subject and style, but during the vernissage on Tuesday, the crowd often just glanced at them then hurried on to the next booth.

Can’t really blame the visitors though — after all, there are 51 galleries filled with artworks arranged throughout several floors totaling 13,000 square meters of space. That makes for an awful lot of objects. Here are some of the galleries and their works that will catch your eye. —