MANILA, Philippines - Alliance Française de Manille, Yuchengco Museum, and the French Embassy in the Philippines present “Portraits de Chaussures-Histories de Pieds (Portraits of Shoes-Stories of Feet” which opens on April 29 at the Yuchengco Museum, RCBC Plaza, corners Ayala and Senator Gil Puyat Aves., Makati City. The show runs until June 20.
The exhibit, which features 62 pairs of shoes from the 18th to the 21st century from the Romans International Museum Collection and renowned French Fashion Houses Collections, recalls the history of shoes from the 17th to the 21st century beginning from its creation to its outline and how it came to be.
Curated by Yves Sabourin, it features dialogues between the old and the modern, between the know-how bequeathed by past bootmakers and shoemakers, and the creations of visual artists who have studied the subject.
The shoe, at once a functional as well as a symbolic object, has fantastic and marvelous links in cultural history, literature, and dance as seen in Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty or Puss in Boots. There is a rich field to be mined in the story of shoes and feet, that particular part of the body, the object of much sensual and fetishist interest.
Shoes can be the subject of dialogue between leather shoes, embroidered shoes or carved wooden shoes with extravagant and sensual forms, shoes produced and used by different social classes and various cultures. There are famous shoes like those of Chanel in 1957. Shoes, like fashion, can be reflections of human and social status.
For France, shoes are intimately linked to the history of dance since the 17th century to the present as seen in the House of Repetto and its famous ballerina shoes created by the mother of choreographer Roland Petit.
The selection of 62 pairs of shoes is proposed by Marie-Josephe Bossan-Picaud, chief curator of the Romans International Museum of the Shoe and assistant Laurence Pissard. The museum has one of the largest and most exceptional collections in the world.
It presents a landscape running through historical examples from the 18th century to ethnic, Turkish or African models as well as bootmakers like Roger Vivier and Raymond Massaro, with a small selection of crocheted and braided shoes.
The curator Yves Sabourin also presents the “museum” pieces side by side with works by contemporary artists in the form of drawings, photographs, videos, performances and installations.
He presents a new generation of French bootmakers as well as the portrait of “freelance” bootmakers and the brothers Rautureau.
In order to reinforce the dialogue of cultures, Filipino artists and designers will bring their contribution: “Stepping in Pinoy Style,” an exhibit curated by Yuchengco Museum, featuring traditional Filipino footwear such as the venerable bakya and beaded cochos, several pieces from the Marikina Shoe Museum collection and exciting designs by local designers such as Lila Almario, Cesar Gaupo, Emi Jorge, Brian Tenorio, Maco Custodio, Joanna Litton and Kermit Tesoro. Sculptor Pete Jimenez plays with wooden shoe moulds and his favorite scrap iron in an interesting and witty exhibition.
Composed of 180 pairs of shoes made by 42 woodcarvers from Baguio, the art installation of Hans Hangerer and Kidlat Tahimik, with the support of the Goethe Institut, will be presented.
A special screening of the film Batad, directed by Benji Garcia, where shoes appear as a key symbol of migration and ambition, will be held at Alliance Française Auditorium.
“Portraits de Chaussures–Histoires de Pieds (Portraits of shoes–Stories of feet)” will tour internationally: at the Yuchenco Museum in Manila, from April to June; at the Thailand Creative and Design Center (TDCD) in Bangkok, Thaliand, from July to August; at Sungkok Art Museum in Seoul, Korea, from September to October; at the International Shoe Museum in Romans, France, from December to January; and in 2010 in Russia, Saint-Petersbourg at the Russian Ethnology Museum/ Permanent exhibit at Musee des beaux-arts/Samara at Musee des beaux-arts/Moscow at Tsaritsyno Museum.
The exhibit is supported by Cultures France, Air France-KLM, Essilor, and Sofitel Philippine Plaza.
For details, call 889-1234.