Negros Museum features exhibit on PH plazas

By Glazyl Y. Masculino

BACOLOD City – The Negros Museum here unveiled its new exhibit which features different plazas in the Philippines curated by landscape architect and environmental planner Paulo Alcazaren.

Dubbed “Places of Memory, Places of the Heart: Plazas in the Philippines,” the exhibit runs from April 25 to July 31 at the JGM Gallery inside the Negros Museum.

The exhibit features plazas from Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao. Included are notable plazas of Bacolod, Negros Occidental, as well as third district cities and towns – Talisay, Silay, Victorias, E.B Magalona, and Murcia.

According to the Filipino Heritage Festival Inc. (FHFI), the exhibit highlights the history and trajectory of town and city plazas in the Philippines as documented by the curator, over the last 15 years.

As a city planner and landscape architect, each visit gave him an opportunity to record the remaining heritage of plazas, their current landscapes, and remaining structures and monuments.

Before the ribbon-cutting ceremonies of the exhibit yesterday, Alcazaren, in his message, said that Philippine communal life was celebrated in plazas before shopping malls were developed.

Alcazaren said that a century ago, towns and cities boasted well laid out and landscaped plazas, framed by elegant civic and religious structures.

Monuments, public art, and fountains graced these spaces. Fiestas and seasonal celebrations were synonymous with plaza life, he added.

He said that all this defined people’s sense and pride of place, helping to form their civic identities.

But, he noted that in the past few decades, plazas have lost their place in people’s lives.

He said that car-centric city planning and leisure patterns focusing on consumption have marginalized public plazas.

Alcazaren said that this presentation will highlight the history and present state of plazas, as well as how people could relearn the art of building humane towns and cities to enable them to pass this on to future generations better than when they were inherited.

“We must remember that plazas are life,” he said.

Through this exhibit, people can appreciate the spatial aspects of the heritage, as well as the significance of conserving whole sites and not just the buildings.

Alcazaren visited the province a few months ago to survey and check the towns and cities for the said exhibit.

He held a curator’s talk after the exhibit opening yesterday. A workshop will also be conducted on April 26.

The exhibit is part of the FHFI 2024 National Heritage Month Celebration in May.