By Erin L. Cox, Publisher | @erinlcox
‘The World Deserves To Hear the Voices’
In next month’s Guest of Honor Philippines program at Frankfurter Buchmesse (October 15 to 19), the theme is “The Imagination Peoples the Air,” a line based on the work of writer José Rizal—a national hero, an artist, and required reading in Philippine schools. In July, we sat down with Patrick Flores, curator of the pavilion, to talk about what attendees can expect.
Though books are the primary focus of Frankfurt’s trade show, Flores notes that “literature would not emerge without the larger cultural context,” illustrating the importance of showing the history, culture, and interplay of other arts from which great literary works and the larger publishing scene stem.
There are four zones in the pavilion, each dedicated to Rizal; the work of national artists and national living treasures; the history of literature in the Philippines; and books on the Philippines published outside the country in the last five years.
The Philippine pavilion, designed by Stanley Ruiz, combines local materials with modular architecture that doubles as furniture. The structures are laid out to represent the 7,640 islands that make up the country, yet they’re light and airy to represent the people and their generosity of spirit.
Patrick Flores
“It’s an open situation for honoring the gifts of writing and reading in an unnerving but hopefully irrepressible world,” writes Flores in his statement about the pavilion, “conceived by a guest ‘who peoples the imagination.'”
“That the word people figures in the theme is important for us. There are 100 million Filipinos who embody this imagination,” says Flores. “The world deserves to hear the voices of this great number of our people.”
Here’s a video featuring a walk-through of the pavilion:
Related: Frankfurter Buchmesse: Guest of Honor Philippines Plans
More from Publishing Perspectives on Frankfurt’s 2025 Guest of Honor Philippines program is here, more on the Philippine market is here, more on guest of honor programs in world publishing’s book fairs and trade shows is here, and more on Frankfurter Buchmesse is here.
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