Viva Europa 2012: A showcase of the 'best nuggets of European culture'

As the European continent emerges from the long dreary winter months to welcome the spring season, European Union diplomats and cultural officers based in the Philippines have lined up events from this Saturday (April 21) to late June to mark the Viva Europa 2012 Festival, otherwise known as “European Cultural Summer.”

 

Dr. Julian Vassallo, the EU Delegation political counselor, said summer in the Philippines is the time when the EU Delegation to the Philippines displays “some of our best nuggets of European culture to showcase the cultural values we share with the Filipinos.” 

 

“At the end of World War II, we decided it was not enough to kiss and make up. We realized that the only way to avoid a repetition was to join our destinies together making a new war impossible,” Vassallo said in a press conference, giving a historical sweep on the EU and Viva Europa.

 

“It is the success of this great, some thought crazy idea, 62 years ago that we celebrate on Europe Day,” he said. “From the Europe Day, it became Europe Week, then became Europe Month, then European Cultural Summer. We have decided to make the celebrations a European cultural showcase because we want to underscore how much we value our relations to the Philippines via culture.”

 

This year’s Viva Europa activities range from dance to music, from prose to poetry, and from visual arts to films.

 

Antonio Garcia Roger, first secretary for culture of the Spanish Embassy in Manila, said the Viva Europa 2012 opens this Saturday, April 21 with “Bersong EuroPinoy 4,” a recital of European poetry by European diplomats and famous Filipino writers at the Instituto Cervantes de Manila along T.M. Kalaw Street.

 

“Bersong EuroPinoy puts Filipino poetry parallel with the European poetry,” he said.

Jose Maria Fons, deputy for cultural affairs of the Instituto Cervantes de Manila, added that the Philippine-European poetry exchange coincides with the popular “Dia del Libro’ (International Book Day) in Spain, featuring Spanish cuisine, wines, games, and books at the Instituto Cervantes compound.

 

“A rose is given in exchange for every book sold in the tradition of Dia del Libro in Spain,” Fons told reporters.

 

On April 28, the French Embassy and the Alliance Francaise de Manille present “Songs and Symphony with the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra,” which is an evening of European repertoire with French conductor Michael Cousteau leading the PPO, said Astrid Renoux, the French Embassy’s Cultural Attache. The April 28 concert at the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) is the culminating activity of Cousteau’s one-week master class on voice organized by the Conservatoire de Paris, Renoux added.

 

Maricel P. Montero, executive director of the Museo Pambata Foundation, said the European children’s festival “Lakbayin Natin ang Europa 4” aims to introduce Filipino children to the “EU world” from May 8 to 11 at the Museo Pambata along Roxas Blvd.

 

“It’s a treat for the Filipino children to see and experience different cultures, and for them to understand their similarities with their own local culture,” Montero said in an interview.

 

On May 1-2, the Far Eastern University campus in Manila hosts the “Musica FEUropa” choral competition together with the EU National Institutes of Culture in the Philippines to popularize European classical music to Filipino students from educational institutions in Metro Manila, Laguna, Cavite, and the Visayas, said Emerson Hernandez, the Musica FEUropa competition chairman.

 

The “Focus on European Contemporary Dance” to be staged at the CCP and the University of the Philippines in Diliman from May 22 to June 29 highlights the collaboration of Filipino and European choreographers from France, Italy, and Israel, said Emanuela Adesini, the Italian Embassy’s Cultural Attache.

 

Adesini said the dance segment of the Viva Europa 2012 includes performances of the Compagnie Blanca Li (France), Le Supplici (Italy), ArtLana Dance Duo (Israel), and dance workshops called “Explore, Excite, and Expose” by Emanuel Serafini, Arco Renz, and Fabrizio Favale.

 

Martin Macalintal, the audiovisual attaché of the French Embassy in Manila, said the 17th French Film Festival in the Philippines opens on June 7 with “The Artist,” a big winner in the Oscars 2012 for clinching the Best Picture award and becoming the first silent film to do so in 83 years. 

 

“The Artist” also won the Oscars 2012 awards for Best Actor (Jean Dujardin) and Best Director (Michel Hazanavicius). Dujardin’s nomination for Best Actor award in the Oscars followed that of Gerard Depardieu who was nominated in 1990.

 

One of the events not to be missed is “300 Years of Philippine Maps: 1598-1898” exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Manila which will run from June 26 to July 30, said Spanish Embassy’s Garcia.

 

“To commemorate the 200th anniversary of the Spanish Constitution of 1812 and the Philippine-Spanish Day, the Embassy of Spain, AECID, and the Instituto Cervantes de Manila are organizing a symposium together with the National Historical Commission of the Philippines that will gather Filipino and Spanish experts,” Garcia said. 

 

“Simultaneously, on June 28, a traveling exhibition on the Spanish Constitution of 1812 and featuring the role of the Filipino delegates in its inception and the Constitution’s influence on the Malolos Constitution of 1899 will be inaugurated at the UP Vargas Museum,” Garcia said. –KG, GMA News