SILVERLENS is thrilled to announce that Filipino artist Bernardo Pacquing’s interactive outdoor art installation Domes Village (2019) can now be explored in New Clark City River Zone.

Domes Village is a playground to be explored and climbed. The 10-Sticks Dome, Coral Dome, Natural Dome, Mangrove Dome, and Geodesic Dome have been constructed from century-old, reclaimed, endemic hardwood—molave, guijo, yakal.

Bernardo Pacquing’s idea for Domes Village was born in 2009. From the continuous human re-engineering of the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem to the ceaseless ingenuity of termite mounds in Africa, Pacquing started thinking of earth mounds. His first Earth Mound (2018) was built in Lubi, Davao from driftwood. Pacquing builds this Domes Village in New Clark City, Tarlac from Philippine hardwood.

The scars of survival from the 1991 Mt. Pinatubo eruption and termite invasions mark this art installation emerging from the ground. Linked by hanging bridges engineered to carry a hundred people, Domes Village stands to emphasize the relevance of resilience, interconnectedness, and strength, a message in wood to again defy time and the elements.

Bernardo Pacquing continues to approach the expressive potential of abstraction in painting and sculpture through the use of disparate found objects that confront and disrupt perceptions of aesthetic representation, form, and value. By focusing on the organic shapes of visual reality, his work displaces notions of indisputable forms and opens possibilities for coexisting affirmations and denials.

Pacquing was born in Tarlac, Pampanga in 1967. He graduated from the University of the Philippines College of Fine Arts in 1989 and was twice awarded the Grand Prize for the Art Association of the Philippines Open Art Competition (Painting, Non-Representation) in 1992 and 1999. He is also a recipient of the Cultural Center of the Philippines Thirteen Artists Award in 2000, an award given to exemplary artists in the field of contemporary visual art. Pacquing received a Freeman Fellowship Grant for a residency at the Vermont Studio Center in the United States. He lives and works in Parañaque City.

Domes Village project is an international collaboration among Silverlens, artist Bernardo Pacquing, project managers Jasper Niens and John Colenbrander, Rotterdam-based Superproject, and Summum Engineering.