Contemporary artists turn corporate space into artistic experience

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MANILA, Philippines — It’s not often that art interrupts the logic of an office building.

But in RCBC Plaza in Makati City, a business hub known for its polished efficiency and formal rhythms, the exhibit "Here & Now & Now & Then" did exactly that — not by building a new gallery. Not by asking people to go elsewhere. But by placing art right there — in the middle of an empty, corporate space.

This exhibit wasn’t just remarkable for the artworks themselves, but for where and how they were encountered. What made "Here & Now & Now & Then" truly compelling was the decision — made deliberately by its producers and organizers — to activate a space rarely considered for art.

In doing so, they turned the abandoned space in RCBC Plaza into something far more than a venue. They turned it into an experience.

The idea was simple but radical: bring art into the middle of everyday life. Don’t hide it in a white-walled gallery. Don’t wait for people to seek it out. Instead, place it in their path — in the friction of the commute, the blur of the workday, the in-between moments that often go unnoticed.

By choosing a corporate setting — an unlikely and unassuming canvas — the organizers reframed what art could be, and who it could be for.

RCBC Plaza, with its towering interiors and endless flow of bodies, became a stage for a new kind of engagement. Artworks appeared where you did not expect. Sculptural interventions emerged between columns. Design pieces disrupted the background hum of corporate life and business casual. And every piece challenged the assumption that art belongs somewhere else — somewhere cleaner, quieter, curated. This was the point — that art was not meant to be merely seen — it was meant to be encountered — sometimes unexpectedly. Sometimes by accident. And often in ways that caused people to pause, tilt their heads, ask questions.

In a world trained to walk past everything quickly, this exhibit invited the opposite: to slow down, to see, to reflect. The space did more than house the exhibit — it transformed it.  A sculpture in a gallery has context. The same sculpture between two concrete columns has tension. That tension became the energy of "Here & Now & Now & Then." The works weren’t there to decorate — they were there to intrude, to provoke, to awaken. This was not art as intermission from life. This was art embedded in it.

In doing so, the exhibit asked a larger question: What does it mean to make art public — not just in terms of access, but in terms of proximity to everyday experiences?

For too long, contemporary art has remained cloistered in controlled environments, with its audience already primed to interpret. But the producers of "Here & Now & Now & Then" made a bold move — they put art in a place where interpretation isn’t guaranteed; where viewers aren’t prepped; where people aren’t expecting to have a “museum moment.”

That unpredictability became part of the artwork itself. By choosing RCBC Plaza, the organizers made a profound statement: art doesn’t have to wait for ideal conditions. It doesn’t need a clean white wall to be powerful. It can exist in the ambient mess of working life, in the space where real people do real things. It can change a space by "being" in the space — not separated from it.

Perhaps the most lasting impression left by "Here & Now & Now & Then" is not a single artwork or moment, but the way it recharged the every day. It took the ordinary and — through the precise collision of art and architecture — made it strange, reflective, and alive. It didn’t demand reverence. It simply asked for attention.

"Here & Now & Now & Then" didn’t just exhibit art. It exposed the possibilities of space.

In doing so, the exhibit asked a larger question: "What does it mean to make art public — not just in terms of access, but in terms of proximity to everyday experiences?"

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