Styling the APEC Leaders’ welcome reception

MANILA, Philippines – Internationally-acclaimed designer Kenneth Cobonpue will transport the leaders and guests at the APEC Leaders’ welcome reception hosted by President Aquino on Wednesday at the MOA Arena to the Banawe Rice Terraces via a setting that makes use of multi-level platforms and rice seedlings to evoke the iconic World Heritage Site.

The leaders will gather around a six-part round central island (far right) that will also serve as the main stage for the after-dinner show. The stage will have different levels, like the rice paddies of the famed terraces, which will be accented by rice seedlings.

All around the cavernous arena will be satellite stages as in a theater-in-the-round, and to allow the leaders to watch the performances on these stages, they will sit on Cobonpue’s iconic Yoda chairs (far left), in a shade of green that matches the rice seedlings, specially crafted to swivel.

The gifts President Aquino will give the leaders is a sculpture (left) called “Sama-Sama,” also by Cobonpue, that features his signature people figures in different shades of bronze – to represent different races – intertwined with the countries of Asia Pacific, rendered in wood. The 18-inch sculpture is encased in glass and has a round carrying case made of buri.