Philippine Tatler – August 2018

It was through the tenacious efforts of Senator

Loren Legarda, in close cooperation with the

National Commission for Culture and the Arts

(NCCA), the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA),

and the Department of Tourism (DOT) that

the Philippines made its return to the Biennale

through Dr Patrick Flores’ “Tie a String Around

the World.” The year after was once again, a cause

for celebration, as the 2016 Venice Architecture

Biennale marked the country’s first official

participation in the architectural exhibition (the Art

and Architecture Biennales are staged on alternating

years) with “Muhon: Traces of an Adolescent

City,” curated by the Leandro V Locsin Partners

(LVLP) team. Both exhibitions were housed at the

Palazzo Mora.

For the 2017 Venice Art Biennale, the

Philippines had the prestige of exhibiting at the

Arsenale (“The Spectre of Comparison,” with

Joselina Cruz serving as the curator), one of the

two main locations of the Biennale, with the other

being the Giardini. Of this impressive triumph,

Legarda said, “The Philippines’ presence in the

Venice Architecture Biennale is an advocacy

in itself. Through our participation, we relate

our truths while learning from the realities of

other nations. It serves as a reminder of how

architecture is not only about building structures

but also about inspiring life, shaping society, and

building a nation.”

Established in 1980, the Architectural Biennale has

steadily developed its own identity—it now enjoys a

popularity close to that of its Art counterpart—and

amassed its own following over the years. In June of

last year, an open call for curatorial proposals was

announced, with the concept of each submission

expected to serve as a response to the issues being

faced by contemporary architecture in the Philippines

as well as to represent an idea that would jive with

“Freespace”—or “pookginhawa,” as coined by NCCA

Chairman, the National Artist Virgilio S Almario—

the theme chosen by Grafton Architects co-founders

and Biennale directors Yvonne Farrell and Shelley

McNamara for this year’s edition. Out of 12 proposals,

it was Cabalfin’s “The City Who Had Two Navels” that

was chosen by the jury to represent the Philippines in

the 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale.

“In coming up with my curatorial concept for

the Pavilion, I looked to The Woman Who Had Two

Navels by Nick Joaquin, which explores the dilemmas

faced by the characters who are struggling with their

identities,” Cabalfin shared at a press conference.

“I find that this resonates with us Filipinos through

our built environment because it is also affected by

similar struggles. We as a people are embedded in our

past; will we take it as a challenge to move towards

progress or will we simply allow it to become a

burden we must bear?”

Cabalfin zeroed in on the concepts of colonialism

and neoliberalism—or “navels,” as referenced by the

exhibition—as points of discussion for the Pavilion

to explore. With the goal of making the exhibition

a showcase of different perspectives, the curator

assembled a think-tank consortium and tasked its

members to research on the current state of the

built environment of three major Philippine cities

(Manila, Cebu, and Davao), and produce outputs that

responded to the identified issues as well as proposed

solutions for the future. The team was composed of

contemporary artist and filmmaker Yason Banal; PHOTO OF SEN LEGARDA BY RAYMUND ISAAC; PHOTO OF SEN LE-GARDA AND EDSON CABALFIN BY GIL NARTEA

uring the pre-natal development stage, an infant is completely

reliant on the umbilical cord, which provides support by

supplying it with nutrients from the placenta. Once the cord is

severed, what remains is the navel, a depression in the abdomen

that marks where it was once attached to the newborn’s body.

In Philippine National Artist for Literature Nick Joaquin’s

novel, The Woman Who Had Two Navels, the character Connie

Escobar flies to Hong Kong to undergo surgery to remove her

avel, an imagined condition that may have been brought upon

by anxieties from her past. It is this inquiry into national identity that inspired “The

City Who Had Two Navels,” the Philippine Pavilion’s curatorial concept for the 2018

Venice Architecture Biennale. The exhibition examines, probes, and even confronts

how the built environment contributes to the development of our national identity,

highlighting two “navels”—colonialism and neoliberalism—which, according to

curator Edson Cabalfin, are forces that affect not only the Philippines, but the world

at large as well.

THE PRIME
MOVER
Senator Loren
Legarda at the
Vo Trong Nghia
Architects’
bamboo
stalactite
installation

190 philippine tatler. august 2018