Hibla Travelling Exhibition Goes to Japan

The Hibla ng Lahing Filipino Travelling Exhibition will be launched in Tokyo, Japan, Senator Loren Legarda announced today.

The National Museum of the Philippines, in partnership with the Office of Senator Loren Legarda, the Embassy of the Republic of the Philippines in Tokyo, Japan, and the ASEAN Promotion Centre on Trade, Investment and Tourism (ASEAN-Japan Centre), will launch the Hibla Travelling Exhibition at the Siazon Hall, Philippine Embassy in Tokyo, Japan on March 8, 2019. This will be the exhibit’s first launch in Asia after a successful run in Europe and the United States.

It features piña-seda woven fabrics including those handwoven and embroidered by Balete, Aklan weavers Raquel Eliserio and Carlo Eliserio, and Laguna embroiderers Lolita Pereza and Loreto Maestre, Jr.

“I am proud of our efforts to promote our local weaving traditions in the international community and to bring them closer to Filipinos abroad through our Hibla travelling exhibitions,” said Legarda.

She added, “Traditional textiles are ties that bind. It links the past to the present and brings together cultures, which, no matter how diverse, has a commonality. It is in this premise that the Hibla ng Lahing Filipino textile gallery was born in 2012 and now has gone international.”

Legarda said that the travelling exhibition is an offshoot of the Hibla ng Lahing Filipino: The Artistry of Philippine Textiles permanent gallery at the National Museum of Anthropology, which is her brainchild. The first Hibla Travelling Exhibition was held in London in October 2017, and was incorporated in the Cultural Diplomacy Program of the different Philippine Service Posts in Europe and United States of America, namely: Lisbon, Portugal; Madrid, Spain; Frankfurt, Germany; Washington, D.C.; New York City; and Hawai’i.

The Hibla ng Lahing Filipino Travelling Exhibition in Tokyo, Japan, will run from March 9 to 31, 2019, at the Siazon Hall, Embassy of the Philippines, 5-15-5 Roppongi, Minato-ku, Tokyo, Japan.

About Hibla Textile Gallery

The Hibla ng Lahing Filipino: The Artistry of Philippine Textiles at the National Museum of Anthropology in Manila is the country’s first permanent textile gallery. It is a project spearheaded by Senator Loren Legarda.

During the soft opening of the gallery in March 2012, the National Museum also launched the Senator Loren Legarda Lecture Series on Philippine Traditional Textiles and Indigenous Knowledge, which explores the aesthetics, material culture and processes of ethnic identity along with skills and information-generation through fabric. It later evolved into interactive lectures and demonstrations featuring weavers and embroiderers from different parts of the country.

In July 2017, the National Museum launched the first Hibla regional gallery, the Abel Iloko at the Ilocos Regional Museum and Satellite Office in Vigan, Ilocos Sur, which was also supported by Legarda. In December 2018, the National Museum also launched the Habol Panay: the Woven Artistry of Western Visayas, a permanent textile gallery in the Visayas.

In October 2017, the first Hibla ng Lahing Filipino Travelling Exhibition was held at the Philippine Embassy in London.

“We will have more Hibla travelling exhibitions and many more Hibla regional galleries will soon rise in our country, and we hope that someday we will have not only galleries, but one whole Hibla Museum. Through these we hope to promote greater support for cultural enterprises and creative industries of our indigenous peoples and deeper appreciation of our heritage,” said Legarda.