Behind the Scenes: Manila Galleon Exhibition at the Asian Civilisations Museum Singapore
Written by Aprille P. Tijam, Senior Manager for Exhibitions and Collections, Ayala Museum (ITP 2019, Philippines)
In late October 2023, I had the opportunity to travel to Singapore as one of four couriers of the Philippine loans to be presented in the exhibition Manila Galleon: From Asia to the Americas at the Asian Civilisations Museum (ACM) Singapore. The ACM’s website describes the exhibition:
“Manila Galleon explores a trade that connected Asia to the Americas and Europe. For centuries, Spanish ships laden with porcelain, silk, spices, and other goods sailed annually across the Pacific from Manila to Acapulco, returning with millions of pieces of silver.
Featuring over 140 extraordinary works of art from the 16th to 20th century, the exhibition reveals how people, goods, and ideas circulating through the global port cities of Manila and Mexico City created a distinctive shared cultural and artistic heritage. Looking at Manila as a precursor of Singapore, it reflects the unique qualities of Singapore’s own blended society and the important role port cities have played in artistic and cultural exchanges that shaped the world.”
My institution, Ayala Foundation, Inc, through Ayala Museum, collaborated with the National Heritage Board Singapore, through the ACM, as a Collecting Agent. As the Collecting Agent, my colleagues and I coordinated the loan processing for objects and artworks borrowed from ten lenders in Manila: Ayala Museum, Intramuros Administration, Museo Enrique Zobel, Mark Lewis Higgins, Richard and Sandra Lopez, Maritess Pineda, Rina Ortiz, Paulino and Hetty Que, Vicky Amalingan-Sales, and Fernando and Catherine Zobel de Ayala. We organized the collection of the loans from the lenders, the packing, crating, and processing of registration of the objects with the government agency – the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) – Philippine Registry of Cultural Property (PRECUP), as part of Export Permit requirements, and the palletization at the cargo terminal for shipment to Singapore.
This collaboration began in July 2022 when Clement Onn (Principal Curator, Asian Export Art and Peranakan, and Deputy Director Curatorial and Research) and Li Li Ling (Assistant Director, Exhibitions and Project Management) came to the Philippines and sat down with Kenneth Esguerra (Ayala Museum Senior Curator and Head of Conservation) and me to discuss this project.
ca. 1880s, Oil on canvas, Ayala Museum Collection, Gift of Mercedes Zobel McMicking
In the next months, a working object list was provided by Clement. From then on, we proceeded with the discussions on the recommended objects to be loaned in Manila, negotiated with some lenders on behalf of ACM, and processed all the loan documents, as well as undertook the photography of the objects for publication in the exhibition catalogue and to be used in online and onsite publicity materials.
Two couriers from Ayala Museum and two couriers from the Museo de Intramuros, under the Intramuros Administration, accompanied the shipment of eleven crates, with more than 40 artworks and objects, that traveled from Manila to Singapore on the afternoon of October 27. As a courier, one highlight of the job is the depalletization at the cargo terminal of the Changi International Airport about two hours after arrival. It is a highlight for me because not all passengers are given access to the cargo terminals. And access to these areas is pre-arranged by the art movers. Two 6-wheeler closed trucks were commissioned to transfer the crates from the cargo terminal to ACM. We completely unloaded all crates by almost midnight.
Another undertaking of a courier is to conduct condition checking of the objects with conservators collaborating with ACM. In the succeeding days, for seven days, the condition of each object was noted prior to being brought to the exhibition galleries for installation. Each step of the way was overseen by the couriers.
And it was very enriching to work with the ACM Exhibitions team, headed by Ezekiel Wong and mount maker, Rasyiqah Nabilah, experiencing first-hand their processes of exhibition preparations and installation.
The Manila Galleon: From Asia to the Americas will be on view until March 17, 2024. And I will return as one of the couriers to oversee the deinstallation, condition checking, packing, and return shipment from Singapore to Manila.
