98B COLLABoratory (98B) mounts its first biennial exhibition entitled ESCAPE which will run from February 13 - 21, 2016. It will mainly be situated at the ground floor of the First United Building in Escolta, Manila with other activities happening along the street like the Panpisco Building and the Escolta Ferry Station.

Ushering the 21st century was the emergence of the “ILoveYou” virus which was also known as the “Love Letter” and “Love Bug.” Unbeknownst to many, this computer malware was created by Filipinos; originating from a small neighborhood at the heart of Manila. It spread worldwide and created a lot of damage in the process. Viruses have other iterations in various subjects and domains like biology, marketing and communication. We have taken these convergences and divergences in order to explore how the idea of an organism can embed itself in a host in order to replicate itself and at times mutate. Can art and creativity be such an organism?

Prior to its current form, ESCAPE began as ESC Projects, a parallel event with 98B’s monthly Saturday market in Escolta, Manila. Essentially, “ESCape Projects deal with spatial negotiations, transformations and interventions. It revolves around particular locations, contexts and renditions—whether as flights of the imagination or discharges of the creative spirit. ESCape artists are given the freedom to conceive and visualize new landscapes. To ESCape is to create a 1 day project, a 1 day show, a 1 day exhibition. It is an experimental
platform.” It is from this incubator that the notion evolved ESC Projects into ESCAPE, a bi-annual exhibition that will run for a week.

For 2016, the theme for ESCAPE revolves around the various recapitulations of the “virus.” It will feature local and international artists, artworks and projects that will work around the theme’s different layers. Distinct viral facets from social, cultural, aesthetic to political representations that have critical and experiential exponents are to be showcased.