Heritage, Memory, and Modernist Art: At Home with Jose Mari Treñas

Lawyer Joe Mari Treñas consciously seeks objects that speak to his heritage—and the greater Filipino cultural space.

- LISA GUERRERO NAKPIL

The ship of history can run shallow or run deep, follow not just maps outlined by ancient documents but also sail down the rivers of recollection, docking here and there in the places of distant memory.

For Jose Mari Treñas, the act of collecting is just as slow and deliberate. It's a meandering journey to connect to fragments of the past, a languid tale that both discovers and retraces roots of identity and family.

It combines the thrill of the chase, as well as a steady accumulation. In his universe, there are legacy objects that have been handed down in the tight Ilonggo community but also finds pursued across the country (and other collections).

There are fabulous pieces from the famous stewards of Philippine culture but also precious objects trawled from other families' personal histories. Thus, there are reliquaries and church pews—but also magnificent porcelains encircled with dragons from the Arturo de Santos collection or silver treasures from Ramon Villegas, both legendary stewards of Filipino culture.

A pair of slender, fluted columns from an ancient "visita" in Oton stands in one corner of Joe Mari's home. Oton was one of the major ship-building centers in the country—pre-dating the Cavite shipyards in Luzon. "Visitas" are smaller Catholic missions intended "to extend the Church's reach to native populations at a more modest cost" without the pomp of a proper church and convent and with fewer friars.