Message of Senator Loren Legarda | Launch of Sensible Form: Essays by Patrick Flores | October 16, 2025

When art takes shape in words, thought finds its form. Words transform perception into meaning, revealing how ideas shape our understanding of the world. This is the sensibility that runs through Patrick Flores’s essays, bound together in a book, “Sensible Form.” This collection of essays stands apart from its disciplined clarity, its refusal of empty statements, and its persistent attention to the details that are most significant.
Patrick Flores’s approach is consistent: he views the act of interpretation, as it were, a companion to that of vision. On every page, one encounters a question that unfolds not in ease or obscurity but is developed in the space between the artist’s intent and the audience’s honest response. The essays are held together by comparison, critique, and a desire to see how the meaning of art changes over time and through conversation.

It is no coincidence that this launch is held in Frankfurt, as part of the Philippines’ Guest of Honour program. Patrick Flores’s career as a curator, educator, and collaborator shows the same drive to broaden conversations and connect the local to the global without losing sight of the details. The way he interacts with words is rigorous, always returning to the process by which presence becomes form.

I have a creative alliance with Patrick, one that speaks to the heart of collaboration and artistic vision. Years ago, he played a pivotal role in shaping our return to the Venice Biennale after 51-year hiatus, reminding me that art’s significance lies not only in its exhibition but in the conversations it starts and the identities it affirms.

Today, at the Frankfurt Book Fair, Patrick continues this dialogue, bridging disciplines and guiding us through the intricate worlds of art and literature, just as he once did through galleries and exhibitions. His insights and generosity have never wavered; together, we have witnessed how our shared vision has grown from the Biennale’s return to the celebration of Philippine ingenuity at the world’s largest book fair.

In much the same way, the book “Sensible Form” reflects his commitment to substance over embellishment. There is nothing ornamental in this collection. Its arguments stem from tension, dialogue, the effort of reasoning, and never resorting to broad conclusions. Through every essay in this book, Patrick Flores invites his readers to engage in sustained discourse, where every observation presents an opportunity to challenge received views, refine judgment, and recognize the work of art as an open question rather than a closed answer.

With the “Sensible Form: Essays by Patrick Flores,” we are given the power to see, to ask, to persist. The book is a resource and a provocation, a challenge to think deeply and deliberately about what art accomplishes and the forms that meaning may sensibly take.

Congratulations to Patrick Flores, and thank you for generously sharing your vision and intellect in conveying to the world the narratives of the Filipino people and the significance they hold.