One Friday last July, I was invited to attend what turned out to be a very meaningful event. Vivere Hotel & Resort’s The Nest hosted an intimate get together to celebrate the posh restaurant’s fourth year anniversary. As it was an early dinner gathering, the atmosphere was relaxed, fine and cultured.
“The Nest is cited by Esquire Philippines as one of Manila’s 7 coolest rooftop bars and was featured as one of the Top 10 Manila Restaurants with breathtaking views by Spot.Ph. On our fourth year anniversary, we have partnered with Niccolo Cosme, one of the country’s most sought-after high-fashion photographers to showcase his latest work “Beauty that Moves” from July 28 – August 4, 2017. This photo exhibit features portraits of singer and host Angel Jones, comedian KitKat, actress Kakai Bautista and Dionne Monsanto, world boxing champion Nonito Donaire Jr and his wife Rachel to name a few. All of the portraits are embedded with Augmented Reality technology that transforms the photos to peace-evoking images when viewed via a smart phone app. This project is for the benefit of the Teach Peace Build Peace Movement for their psychosocial peace-building activities that reach out to children in distress of war in Marawi.” #VivereMoments #NestTurns4 #BeautyThatMovesPH #StrokesPremiere #TheMermaidTravels
I am not quite used to attending these kind of events. But when I learned that it was for a cause, I didn’t have second thoughts and signed up immediately. The Nest invited photographer Niccolo Cosme who humbly graced the event. Niccolo Cosme’s artworks were on display. At first glance, the pieces were nothing out of the ordinary. But during the program itself, we were familiarized how to properly ‘view’ it with the help of an app called Artivive (downloadable in Google for free) where when the app is hovered over by a compatible work of art, it shows an augmented reality e.g. a cloud moves over a mountain.
To see the artist’s works come alive was pretty amazing that I ended up viewing all the pieces over and over again. But what gave it a deeper meaning was when all the proceeds from the sales of the reproduced photographs at the gathering were to be given directly for the psycho-social and peace-building activities for the young victims of Marawi siege. Actually, I observed that Niccolo’s masterpieces include humans and nature which greatly summarizes the cause’s aim to create images which are peace-evoking. All of the portraits were created using Augmented Reality technology which for me was very modern and cool.
The night was capped off with amiable conversations and great food. I was given the opportunity to meet new friends from a different industry. The night was a welcome change from the usual gatherings I go to. I am actually looking forward to gracing similar events which I think has a heart because of their advocacy in being an instrument of peace and hope to others. And using one’s talent to do so is even more awesome.
*Thank you and Kudos The Nest and Vivere Hotel for the invite! 🙂
