Exposicion Filipiniana « Filipiniana.net Blog

Exposicion Filipiniana

Philippiniana is the term used in Philippine archives and libraries to identify and classify all the documentation related to the islands, generated by both autochthonous and foreign authors, based in Philippines and abroad. The origin of the term may be traced back to the Spanish religious communities and elite classes or ilustradosthe enlightenedwho began to preserve Philippine books and cultural artefacts in libraries and archives, chiefly for research purposes but also out of curiosity for exotica. Although the term was coined under a colonial mentality, over the course of time it came to confer value and singularity upon Philippine cultural production, until becoming synonymous with national identity.

This leitmotif gives way to a subjective journey through the colonial past and the global present of Philippines, analysing the various mechanisms of power, control and repression employed in the country during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Our study of works of art, objects, literary texts, documents, archive material and contemporary artistic proposals offers both a vision of Philippine social reality and a reflection on the concept of archive. In other words, Philippiniana is a device to examine the order of knowledge that embraces the production of documents and history, for in a globalised and media-influenced age, the archiveas a receptacle of memory which could disappearhas become an instrument for redefining the meaning of local in connection with global.

The exhibition are divided into three parts or historical moments. The first account alludes to the Philippine past and is entitled The Colonial Imaginary (1521-1945). By imaginary we infer that which exists only in the imagination, although we do extend the term to cover nineteenth-century imagery, a metaphor that reveals the subjectivity of all narratives, which is why we have resorted to the classical museographic approach to history exhibitions that prioritises documentary and informative readings of the objects on display. The second account, Nation (1946-1986), endeavours to outline a distinctive discourse on the singularity of the art and culture produced under the idea of national identity and reveal the paradoxes engendered by both concepts in the service of the State as official propaganda. This section displays traditional artworks such as paintings, sculptures and architectural works in a conventional installation typical of modern twentieth-century art. The third and last account, Memories of Overdevelopment (1986-2006), an ironic updating of the title of the mythical film by the Cuban filmmaker Toms Gutirrez de Alea, is a tribute to the intellectual work of Filipinos in the diaspora (in particular, Luis H. Francia) and relates Philippine reality within an international context in which the exchange of ideas, goods and people has rendered the notion of culture as national heritage obsolete. This explains the inclusion of artists from different countries whose work is inspired by or reflects on Philippine reality, and therefore worthy of being archived in our particular Philippiniana. This space is not compartmentalised, for it is designed as a laboratory in which the various different artistic proposals mutually influence one another.

The notion of Philippiniana has pervaded the very exhibition space, as the show is in itself an archive. Unlike an exhibition, an archive is an open participative space that welcomes any object without prefiguring its meaning. With this idea in mind, the architect ngel Borrego has designed a space that resembles a large warehouse, envisaging our Philippiniana as an archive shipped from Manila to Madrid in the hold of a freighter. The outline sets up a central space around which the twenty-five halls are strictly arranged, as if the space were indeed a filing cabinet. The dim light and the display materialchipboard panels made from recycled pinewood fibres from sustainably exploited forestshelp to create a neutral atmosphere, warm and welcoming, similar to that of an archive, and make a direct reference to the Philippine ethics of reuse and adaptation.

The critical gaze at the art, the history and the social reality of Philippines cast by the exhibition is the theme of the course organised in parallel to the show by Casa merica in Madrid and Casa Asia in Barcelona. This course consists of four presentations, preceded by an introduction on the genesis of independence in the late nineteenth century and followed by a round table on artistic practice in Philippines today. The course and the exhibition will be complemented by the Asia Festival next autumn, which will present a selection of Philippine theatrical arts and a retrospective of Philippine film held in the Spanish Filmotheque in Madrid.

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