Paris, 9 April 2013
The event titled “Philippines, Archipel des échanges” (The Philippines, An Archipelago of Exchange) will be held from 9 April to 14 July 2013.
It will be organised under the curatorship of Constance de Monbrison, the head of the Insulinde collections at the Quai Branly Museum, and Corazon Alvina, an anthropologist. In an interview published in the Tribal Art Magazine, Stéphane Martin, the president of the museum explained that “there has never been in Europe so great an exhibition on pre-colonial art from the Philippines. The preparation of this exhibition was accompanied by the signing of an intergovernmental agreement in order to strengthen the cultural cooperation between the Republic of the Philippines and the Republic of France. This agreement has strengthened Filipino museums and allowed us to borrow some very prestigious works – namely works of great value as well as rare archaeological objects – that only go out of the country on exceptional occasions.”
Corazon Alvin added that “this does not mean that all the objects in this exhibition were created during the pre-Hispanic period, but rather that they were created according to the tradition, way of thinking and form of pre-Hispanic, ancient and indigenous art, in a sense.”
This event will be structured into two different sessions. First, the exhibition will be centred on the arts of the Highlands of Luzon and Mindanao. The second part will be about the catalytic role of marine routes, which stimulate the circulation of objects, ideas and men. Visitors will then be able to discover the universe of the Ifugao, who were the sculptors of the powerful divinities of rice called bulul and the only groups to express themselves through anthropomorphic sculptures. The event will deal with exchange, in part by the means of barter exchanges that allowed materials like the mother-of-pearls, Chinese pearls, pearls from Venice and glass to travel from the coast of the lowlands to the mountains. The objects will illustrate Arabic, Indian, Malaysian and Chinese influences. The exhibition will come to a close with funeral objects from archaeological excavations.
The event will allow visitors to observe works issued from the collections of the three main museum institutions of the Philippines, the National Museum, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas and the Ayala Museum. The stenography is designed by architect Gaëlle Seltzer. Finally, a scientific colloquium will be held from 25 to 26 April 2013 on the current situation and future of the indigenous peoples of the Philippines, their culture and their traditions. This colloquium will be moderated by Charles Macdonald, an anthropologist, Anne-Christine Taylor, the director of research and education at the Quai Branly Museum, and Constance de Monbrison.
Among the works that will be up for viewing:
- A pair of bulul, Ifugao, North of Luzon, 19th century, narra wood and ritual patina, issued from the Alain Schoffel collection;
- A jar, Ifugao, North of Luzon, 19th century, Chinese porcelain from the Qing dynasty (1644-1911), wood, rattan, issued from the Itzikovitz collection;
- A house door, Bontoc or Kankanai, North of Luzon, 19th century, hard wood;
- Ritual fabric from Kusikos Tinggian, Northwest of Luzon, 19th-20th centuries, cotton, issued from the Ramon N. Villegas collection;
- Brahamuddin, sultan of Sulu, accompanied by two datu, photograph taken by Dr Joseph Montano during his voyage with Dr Paul Rey to the Philippines in 1879-1881;
- A royal sword, Northeast of Mindanao, Butuan, Agustan, 10th-14th centuries, iron and gold of 20-22 carats, issued from the Richard and Sandra Lôpez collection.