Chimera Hours
Alt Philippines SMX Convention Hall, Drawing Room, Manila 2026
Performance with Sayeh Kazemi
Duration: 3 hours
Props: itlog na pula (salted red duck eggs), mung beans, black and golden pills.
The chimera, a creature composed of different beings, has become a recurring figure Cuencas work. The chimera resists simple categorization, embodies contradiction, transformation, and uncertainty. In Chimera Hours, Sayeh Kazemi and Cuenca move through the art fair as a pair of contemporary oracles. Offering visitors small gifts, strange choices, and brief encounters. Visitors are invited to choose before they understand the consequences, much as we often do in life.
The gifts are intentionally modest; an egg, a sentence, seeds, a pill. A choice may appear insignificant, yet small gestures can trigger memories, associations, and unexpected conversations, that invites to speculation, curiosity, and participation. Through humor, ritual, and playfulness, Chimera Hours creates a temporary space, where uncertainty is welcomed with possibilities that emerge, when we allow ourselves not to know.
Text by Sayeh Kazemi
