Façade of the Asian Civilizations Museum, with banners on the Philippine show.

By Ramon N. Villegas
(guest columnist)

(Wala Lang reviewed two Singapore exhibits of Philippine art on January 25.  Ramon N. Villegas, authority on Philippine culture, has kindly agreed to write about a third exhibit that had already ended when your columnist visited.)

"Land of the Morning,” the first comprehensive show in Singapore on the Philippines and its people, was shown recently at the Asian Civilisations Museum (ACM), a set of historic colonial buildings on the banks of the Singapore River.  Some 290 sets of artifacts from Ayala Museum, National Museum of the Philippines, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, and private collectors, were exhibited from mid-October to early January.

Private lenders from Manila included Teyet Pascual, Paulino and Hetty Que, Richard and Sandra Lopez, Tony and Cecile Gutierrez, Jeffrey and Jenny Co, and Ramon Villegas; Singapore lenders included Neil and Digna Ryan, and Mark Gordon.

The Philippine show is the second in a cycle of ASEAN exhibitions, begun in 2008 and initiated by Dr. Tommy Koh, chairman of the National Heritage Board, which oversees all government museums in Singapore.  Koh is said to be one of the few people whose counsel is sought by Lee Kuan Yew.

In his foreword to the exhibition catalogue, ACM director Dr. Kenson Kwok points out that, “Many Singaporeans work with and encounter Filipinos on a daily basis… this exhibition will help the people of Singapore understand the people of the Philippines a little better.  For the Filipino expatriate community in Singapore, this project is an opportunity to take justifiable pride in their nation’s rich and diverse heritage.”

There were two other simultaneous exhibitions: An overview of Philippine visual arts and the Ateneo Art Gallery collection, both at the Singapore Art Museum. The Philippine expat community in Singapore supported the projects, particularly J.P Morgan (where former Finance Secretary Lito Camacho, who is also a member of the National Heritage Board, is connected), Ayala Corporation and the Zuellig Group, which have business interests in Singapore.

Among the important comprehensive exhibitions on Filipino history and culture abroad are the seminal “People and Art of the Philippines” organized by the University of California in the early 1980s, “Tresors Philippine” at the Musée de l’Homme in Paris in the late 1990s, and “Sheer Realities” at the Asia Society in New York and Seattle in 2000. 

David Henkel, ACM’s curator, attempted a similarly panoramic view of Philippine history.  Henkel is more ambitious, beginning from prehistoric times and ending in the EDSA revolution. Beside archeological and ethnological artifacts, he included vibrant modern and contemporary art.  For example, Henkel juxtaposed Jeannie Javelosa’s okir-inspired painting with a colorful sari-manok, which proved to be a crowd favorite.

The catalogue includes essays by Petty Benitez Johannot (formerly of the Barbier-Muller Museum, Geneva and Ayala Museum), Dr. Julius Bautista, and Lou Janssen Dangzalan, who are professors in Singapore educational institutions.

Singapore’s ACM has set high standards that future exhibitions will have to follow.  These include participation in a large show on European-Asian cultural exchange at the Palais de Beaux Arts in Brussels, Belgium this year, and one devoted to the traditional and un-Westernized aspects of Philippine culture at the Musée de Quai Branly in Paris, in 2013.

Comments are cordially invited, addressed to walalang@mb.com.ph.