MANILA ESTUARY IN FOCUS AT PH PAVILION IN VENICE ARCHITECTURE BIENNALE

A BAMBOO installation inspired by Metro Manila's longest creek is now on display inside the Philippine Pavilion at the 18th International Architecture of La Biennale di Venezia, better known as the Venice Architecture Biennale, which opened in May and will run until late November.

Located at the Arsenale, the installation is called "Tripa de Gallina: Guts of Estuary." It is mounted by The Architecture Collective (TAC), composed of Bien Alvarez, Matthew Gan, Lyle La Madrid, Noel Narciso and Arnold Rañada. Choie Funk and Sam Domingo co-curated the exhibit.

The actual Tripa de Gallina — or "guts of the rooster" in Spanish — is the longest estuary in the National Capital Region, and serves as a tributary among larger bodies of water in the area. Over the centuries, the estuary — which traverses the cities of Makati, Parañaque and Pasay — has been functioning mainly as a channel to mitigate flooding and drain water from various parts of Metro Manila, but has become congested with residents and, subsequently, trash.

The exhibition aims to address the unsustainable environmental and social circumstances in the creek's area and proposes an architectural solution that promotes empathy, collaboration and reflection.

The exhibit offers a diagnosis of the water's condition and a prognosis of the people's future. It features a bamboo structure — erected as a kind of modular urban acupuncture — that serves as a site for visitors to gather and inspect the estuary's guts: a flawed ecology of humans, waters and dregs. It serves as a buoy for this mesh to be carefully unraveled and mended sustainably through collaborative action in the name of resilience.

The windows in the installation provide a screen on which moving archival materials are played, showing a tenacious urban struggle. The narrative these materials create leads to the center, where videos directed by filmmaker and educator Jag Garcia offer visitors an immersive audiovisual encounter with the estero. From the groundwork, a lively prospect of the state of the estero's entire ecology is imagined through the structure's ethnographic projections.

The bamboo structure stems from the intention of TAC, made up of independent architecture and community-development practitioners who have collaborated to develop responsive projects, to empathize and deeply connect with the people they are building for while leveraging on architecture as an enabler for social connection and sustainability.

Co-curator Funk steered the group to explore the circumstances surrounding Tripa de Gallina and those who live near it, with the hopes of creating a space that will cultivate a deeper sense of care and collaboration in the community. The pollution in the waterway illustrates an issue that has been aggravated over the past century, indicating a seeming disconnection between mankind and its surroundings.

Alvarez, the computational designer for the installation, hopes the exhibition is "one step [toward] more action for our country to realize that that water is a part of our lives more than most nations."

"Hopefully, it's the thing that makes people realize that we should have a relationship with water," he said.

Narciso, the group's project coordinator, said he saw "it is a return to the water. Water is becoming less accessible every day. And I think if we don't return to it, or put it as a guiding principle in design, which is the core resource of humanity, then it is of consequence."

Sen. Lorna Regina "Loren" Legarda, the chief advocate of the Philippines' participation in the Venice Architecture Biennale, urges Filipinos to be more mindful of their relationship with the waste they produce, as well as their relationship with their environment.

"The problem affecting Estero Tripa de Gallina — and many other estuaries and waterways in the country — is no longer merely a cause for concern, but a clear and urgent emergency. The Philippine Pavilion creates a pathway for exploration and discussion on how we can take intentional action toward a more sustainable future. This exhibition serves as a foundation for the hope of cleaner surroundings and stronger relationships," Legarda said.

"Through the exhibition, the world will have the opportunity to understand the realities faced by Filipinos and realize that this issue is something that they too are facing, potentially cultivating more in-depth and meaningful discussions that leads to collective action and a more sustainable future," said Victorino Mapa Manalo, National Commission of Culture and the Arts (NCCA) chairman and Philippine Pavilion commissioner.

The Philippine Pavilion will be made accessible through its digital programs and virtual tours to the public worldwide. For more information, visit philartsvenicebiennale.org.

2023-06-05T16:28:34Z dg43tfdfdgfd