Be seated at the Metropolitan Museum

By Augusto Villalon   

Published on page D4 of the August 7, 2006 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer    

AN OUTSTANDING SERIES OF exhibitions illustrating the development of Philippine character over generations marks the tenure of Ino Manalo as director of the Metropolitan Museum of Manila. His exhibition program presents the total Philippine-culture spectrum, going beyond the stereotypical visual-arts window to include objects of daily life.

Manalo uses ordinary objects to portray Philippine culture, everyday things such as baskets, carving, clothing, folk art, religious icons, old photos and commonplace stuff usually taken for granted by most Filipinos whose daily lives are surrounded by what they perceive as ordinary.

Whatever its origin, an object tells a story, whether it be an heirloom or an export overrun T-shirt manufactured in the past week.

Manalo’s sharp vision transforms ordinary objects into extraordinary storytelling icons that powerfully express attitudes, habits and beliefs of Filipinos, which makes viewers return to shared roots.

Manalo has organized exhibits that bring out our shared Philippine roots. He has presented all facets of Boholano culture from rare Spanish colonial church treasures through traditional basketry and craft items of recent design manufactured for the export market.

He has taken Metropolitan viewers on an extensive walk through Quiapo, highlighting the quarter’s treasures, from its surviving bahay-na-bato and their illustrious residents to neighborhood minutiae like the anting-anting sold outside Quiapo church.

Exhibiting everyday stuff removes culture from wrongly perceived ivory-tower altitudes, returning it to earth, and bringing culture back to the people where it rightfully belongs.
 
The present exhibition at the Met sees how Philippine life evolved through the American colonial era by showing different chairs that people sat on during those days. This is an unusual journey and a visual treat not to be missed.

At the “Upuan” exhibit, chairs go beyond their function. They are presented as social commentary.

“For many centuries,” says the exhibit catalogue text, “chairs were articles of state and dignity rather than items of ordinary use. They have their origin in the hierarchic society of medieval Europe, where only the king sat on chairs.”

Ordinary folk of the time were lucky to have a bench or stool to sit on. The world has turned full circle since. Now we all have chairs to sit on, but we can’t sit on all of them.

Chairs of authority in dining rooms, boardrooms, reception halls and on the ceremonial dais are restricted to special persons. In airports, special people gain access to airline lounges where seats are much more comfortable than outside, where ordinary folk still sit on ordinary chairs, not much change from the stools and benches of medieval days.

The rural Filipino, the exhibit points out, spends most of his day outdoors with little need for chairs. Rocks serve as stools, and branches become benches. Others just squat on the ground.

Squatting was not for all. Generations of Cordillera elders have discussed community issues while ceremonially seated on the honored stone seats of the circular dap-ay. Lowland bishops and priests have ornate seats on cathedral altars. Power comes with privilege and special seating.

Rural people traditionally sit or squat under the shade of their bahay-na-nipa to cool off from the hot sun. Inside their houses, there is a minimum of furniture since they live in a one-room, multipurpose space. Since sleeping, cooking and eating happen within the same area, too much furniture restricts movement and flexibility.

When the Spanish moved people from rural to urban areas, “a more indoor kind of living and a new social order” developed, which “increased the chances as well as the need of families to socially interact with each other within the confines of their residences to enhance their prestige and power.

“Such interaction required showing off the elegant design and grandeur of their bahay-na-bato as well as the splendor and magnificence of their furniture,” the catalogue says. Such can be seen at Casa Manila in Intramuros, Casa Gorordo in Cebu and the Museo De La Salle in Dasmariñas (Cavite).

During the American colonial period, people flocking to urban centers seeking employment ushered in a construction boom. Government offices, schools, corporate structures, and houses rose quickly all over the Philippines, all needing furniture.
 
With lifestyle changes introduced by the new colonial regime, areas within offices and residences compartmentalized into smaller, separate spaces, requiring a new range of specialized furniture for living or dining rooms, bedrooms, offices, schools.

Craftsmen designed and executed a variety of new furniture, adapting American designs to the tropics. The furniture of the era demonstrate “stylistic hybridity… making colonialism appear as a civilizing continuity rather than a disruption of a native civilization.”

Go see “Upuan” to revisit the excellence of Philippine craftsmanship. The exhibit runs until Sept. 9.

It is not only “Upuan” that completes its museum run in September. Ino Manalo ends his tenure as Metropolitan Museum director as well.

Ino deserves a solid round of appreciation for his pioneering determination in telling the Philippine story through the culture of the everyday.

“Upuan” is one of those rare Manila exhibits that expand the horizons of anyone who takes the time to experience it. The exhibit is especially enlightening for practicing or student architects and interior designers needing to take inspiration from Philippine tradition.

Interesting and educational as they may be, Metropolitan Museum exhibits are underutilized opportunities. More people should go to see them, but then the Filipino is notoriously not a museum-
going individual. Maybe exhibits should go to the malls to reach more people.

Heritage watch

“Bid for Heritage” is the annual art and design auction organized by the Heritage Conservation Society. It takes place Aug. 20, 4 p.m., at The Loft, Rockwell Drive, Makati.

Proceeds benefit the projects of the Heritage Conservation Society, particularly the HCS-DepEd Heritage Schoolhouse Restoration Program, which has completed restoration of American-period schoolhouses in Bacolod, Baguio and San Fernando, Pampanga.

In 2006-07, buildings in Teachers Camp, Baguio, and public schools in Zamboanga and Davao will be restored by the project.

Tickets for “Bid for Heritage” are available at the HCS Secretariat at Museo Pambata, Roxas Boulevard. Call 5212239 or 5222497.

E-mail the author at pride.place @gmail.com