ABSTRACT
Urban renewal is girded by a vision for the city. Whether projected from a distant past or a promising future, these visions are realized through the deployment of imagery and harnessing the potent appeal of these images to a wide latitude of publics. As much as urban renewal rests on visions of a future, these visions also embody a longing for the past. I examine these two-pronged acts of envisioning cities in the context of the urban renewal program Revive Manila. I cite major public art commissions under the program to illustrate the dynamics between these urban imaginaries. The commissioned public art pieces directly or obliquely reference the goals of Revive Manila, yet together they successfully embody the program’s campaign for the new Manileño.
