What has art got to do with real estate industry?
A member and patron of the Pasakalye Group of Artists has presented a way of incorporating art and creativity in the construction and design of structures, such as residential buildings and accommodations, an industry typically handled by engineers and architects.
Pasakalye member Claire Jaun-Torres recently found herself displaying her art pieces opposite products and services offered by real estate developers and an ensemble of construction firms in an exhibit featured during the regional Housing Summit exhibit held in Baguio City from Oct. 18 to 21 at the Newtown Plaza Hotel.
Torres joined the exhibit upon the invitation of Fernando Tiong, president of the Chamber of Real Estate Builders Association Baguio-Benguet, which organized the four-day summit along with the Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development and attended by industry stakeholders and local government units in the Cordillera.
An abstract artist, Torres said she considers her participation in the summit as a privilege, but more as a chance to encourage construction industry players to integrate arts in the promotion and marketing of their building projects, particularly in the interior design of the structures that they build.
She called the art collection she presented as “modern living art”, which offered sophisticated art pieces that may be used in sprucing and leveling up the designs of rooms and interior walls of buildings.
“What I do may have nothing to do with the technical aspects of building a house or a hotel. I believe the connection of art, which I create, is it can be combined when planning a structure’s interior design, or we can use art when planning a modern building’s interior. I consider that as modern living art,” Torres said.
Maricar Docyogen, one of the founders of Pasakalye, which assisted Torres in the exhibit, said their participation in the housing summit is also in support of the endeavors of the city government as a designated Creative City for crafts and folk arts by the United Nations Creative Cities Network.
“We hope to encourage the participants to put art into their different programs or projects, and to jumpstart interior designing by including artworks in their marketing,” Docyogen said.
Torres added joining the exhibit is also her way of paying tribute to the profession of her husband, Heinz, who passed away recently. He was an engineer who managed a construction firm in Zurich, Switzerland but who considered Baguio and Narvacan, Ilocos Sur as second homes in the Philippines. Torres, who staged her first major exhibit in the country last March, is known for her philanthropic works, donating most of the proceeds from her art exhibits to support less fortunate families, abandoned children, and fellow artists in the Cordillera. – Hanna C. Lacsamana
