Artist Ivan Co’s Harbinger Metropolis transforms Gallery C into an interactive art experience, with nine moving sculptures on display until July 25.
Some artworks are meant to be admired. Ivan Co’s are meant to be set in motion, inviting visitors to watch as each sculpture slowly returns to stillness.
That’s the experience awaiting guests at Gallery C in Conrad Manila, where the Filipino artist’s latest solo exhibition, Harbinger Metropolis, is on display until July 25. The collection features nine interactive kinetic sculptures that encourage visitors to become part of the experience before taking a moment to simply observe.
Unlike perpetual motion machines, Co’s sculptures are designed to stop.
“They’re pendulums. They’re kinetic art, but they’re not perpetual because they eventually stop,” Co told radar. “I actually want them to stop. I want them to give you a moment of focus. Then afterward, you can decide if you want to interact with them again.”
That meticulous craftsmanship also traces back to Co’s roots. A third-generation jeweler, he brings generations of metalworking expertise into each sculpture, incorporating natural semi-precious stones and finely crafted metal components that make many of the pieces resemble oversized works of jewelry, except these are designed to move.
The movement lasts only a few minutes—”enough for a cup of coffee,” he said—but that’s exactly the point.
“It’s so hard to focus these days. It takes so long to get yourself to focus, and it takes so little to get distracted.”
That philosophy shapes Harbinger Metropolis, the latest installment of Conrad Manila’s Of Art and Wine series. While the sculptures are mesmerizing for their intricate movement, they’re also meant to encourage visitors to pause, take their time and experience art differently. Instead of keeping viewers at a distance, the exhibition invites them to gently set the pieces in motion before watching them gradually settle into silence.
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The exhibition’s title hints at a much larger idea. Co explained that a “harbinger” is a sign of something yet to come, while a metropolis represents a great city. Together, they form an imagined world that asks a question rather than offering an answer.
“I wanted to create a world—a super city,” he said. “The harbinger is the sign. It’s asking whether we’re moving toward another golden age or another dark age. We don’t know.”
Some of the sculptures draw from scenes that feel surprisingly familiar. One piece depicts people standing in line, inspired by the everyday experience of commuting or waiting at government offices.
“Every day, that’s what we face,” Co said. “We’re always lining up. I wanted to ask where all of this is leading.”
The exhibition is part of a fictional universe that has occupied Co’s imagination for years. He likens it to his own version of the lost city of Atlantis, not a perfect utopia, but a place where progress and struggle exist side by side.
That idea also shapes what he calls “Ancestral Futurism.”
“To design the future, we must first master the weight of our past,” Co said during the exhibition’s opening.
With Harbinger Metropolis running only until July 25, visitors have just the last three weeks to experience the exhibition at Gallery C in Conrad Manila. Whether drawn by the engineering behind the sculptures, their intricate craftsmanship or the chance to interact with contemporary art in an uncommon way, guests may find that the most memorable part of the exhibit isn’t watching the artworks move, but watching them come to rest.
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