Dates: Thursday, 12 February 2026 to Sunday, 12 April 2026 @ 5PM – 8PM
Venue: Museum of Contemporary Art and Design, De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde, Design and Arts Campus (D+A Campus), Dominga Street, Malate, Manila

On 12 February 2026, The Museum of Contemporary Art and Design (MCAD) Manila will open “Poets of Physics,” featuring the works of Aki Sasamoto, Bagus Pandega, David Medalla, Fischli and Weiss, and Ian Carlo Jaucian, as part of the Benilde Open Design + Art with its theme “Extension of Nature.”

In 1964, David Medalla presented the first iconic bubble machine, an auto-creative work he called “Cloud Canyons,” which continuously generates foam or bubbles to produce ever-changing sculptural forms that exist only temporarily before dissolving and reforming. Medalla would later refer to himself as “a poet who celebrates physics”; after several iterations of the bubble machines, he expanded his exploration of these biokinetic works using sand and mud as active materials.

Drawing its title from Medalla’s quote, “Poets of Physics” explores how contemporary artists have continued this radical proposition of art machines that examine natural conditions while exploring their capacity for transcendence. By working with scientific phenomena not as subjects to be illustrated, but as “collaborators” in the creation of experiences and understanding, the exhibition becomes an opportunity to remind us that wonder itself is a form of knowledge, and that deep insights about our world emerge when art and science converge in the spirit of poetic discovery.

EXHIBITION OPENING
Thursday, 12 February 2026, 5–8 PM

RSVP via bit.ly/BO-POP
Admission is free.

To learn more about Benilde Open, visit https://benildeopen.com