GUAGUA, Pampanga — Nine Kapampangan sculptors, including Presidential Merit Awardee for Ecclesiastical Art Willy Layug, are to create Vigan City’s centerpiece mural in time for its hosting of UNESCO’s International Council on Monuments and Sites Conference on Cultural Tourism next month.
“Our wooden mural, which is 3.8 meters high and 6.8 meters wide, will encapsulize Vigan’s rich culture and history.
It will be displayed at the lobby of the city’s convention center during the November 7-8 event,” Layug said.
Layug, who was born in this town, also said that “the techniques we have used include letras y figures – wherein letters are shaped in the form of human figures, embroidery, and estofado which is a method where color is painted over gilded wood.”
He said he learned this technique in Spain.
The forthcoming conference will carry the theme, “Cultural Tourism for Community Development 40 years of the World Heritage Convention.”
In a statement, UNESCO said, “Vigan was chosen as it is the best-preserved example of a planned Spanish colonial town in Asia. It is an exceptionally intact and well-preserved example of a European trading town in East and South-East Asia.”
Its architecture reflects the coming together of cultural elements from elsewhere in the Philippines, from China and from Europe, resulting in a culture and townscape that have no parallel anywhere in East and South-East Asia, UNESCO added.
UNESCO also noted that Vigan “represents a unique fusion of Asian building design and construction with European colonial architecture and planning.”
