TRUE TO the ideals set by its founders a decade ago, Movement 8, a group composed of design visionaries who won acclaim here and abroad, continues to inspire and surprise Filipinos and foreigners alike with its innovative output.

This was evident anew Monday night when Movement 8, led by renaissance man Antonio ?Budji? Layug, celebrated ?10 years of friendship? with a group show at Serendra Sales Pavilion in Bonifacio Global City. It?s been more than three years since the group did a show together.

?We were initially drawn together because of our love for design,? said Layug. ?But it?s not just all about design. I?ve always instilled in them that Movement 8 is more about a relationship. [It?s] a friendship.?

Apart from Layug, Movement 8 has core members Milo Naval, Kenneth Cobonpue, Tes Pasola, Tony Gonzales, Ann Pamintuan and Luisa Robinson.

?Movement 8 has never been a formal arrangement,? said Naval. ?It?s more like one big barkadahan [gang]. We?ve done quite a number of shows, but we still manage to surprise each other every time.?

Other forms

Produced by Inquirer Lifestyle and Cocoon home magazine, the ongoing show is supported by Samsung, Ayala Premier, Serendra 1 and 2, Alveo and HSBC. Chef Gilbert Pangilinan of Kai restaurant prepared the food on opening night.

Guests were treated to more than the usual, as Movement 8 ventured beyond furniture and home accent pieces into other forms of art such as paintings and conceptual installation pieces.

Layug unveiled 12 impressionist and figurative paintings done over the years, evoking movement and blurry human figures through fluid strokes and gradating shades, sometimes a dash of color. The neutral, Zen-like images, he said, were inspired by nature and his travels.

His recent two-week vacation in Provence gave him a lift -- psychologically and emotionally.

The vibrant landscape of southern France served as stimulus -- it led him to see color in the world at a time when he was feeling blah, and to put color onto his canvas. It added diversity and feeling to his works.

Curating the show, he mounted an overhead installation fashioned from an intricate network of bamboo poles running across the ceiling of the pavilion.
The walls of the entire pavilion were covered in black cloth, creating a feeling of containment. Against this blank backdrop, the works on exhibit, whether furniture, chandelier or paintings, stood out.

?I?m not yet done with furniture,? said Layug. ?My thrust these days is more of the total approach. You will be seeing more of my furniture pieces and paintings.?

The installation is made up of 300 bamboo poles, all tied together -- by hand -- with a string; no nails were used. This is the same craft Layug has been employing for decades in his famous bamboo furniture.

Layug worked with fishermen from Matabungkay, Batangas, led by Carling Bausas, to secure the poles using the same technology to make balsa (bamboo raft).

He did a similar overhead installation before, he said, but no two works would ever be the same due to differences in venues.

Unexpected

Gonzales, who began as a graphic designer before venturing into furniture, also went for the unexpected by juxtaposing his iconic sculptural chair and sofa made of abaca and salago with his huge abstract painting rendered in metallic shades.

?I don?t see the point of doing certain things to the point of boredom,? he said. ?It?s always an enriching experience for a creative person to venture once in a while outside his comfort zone.?

Founded by Layug and the late visionary Araceli Pinto-Mansor (Movement 8?s eighth member), then executive director of the Center for International Trade Expositions and Missions, the group is tasked to advance and showcase some of Brand Philippines? best furniture designs on the world stage.

As Pamintuan said, their collective goal, as envisioned by Pinto-Mansor, is to act as the country?s ?design ambassadors? to the rest of the world.

For the exhibit, Pamintuan did away with her trademark airy, almost see-through and seemingly delicate wiry chairs such as ?Cocoon? and ?Oxygen,? in favor of solid and massive pieces made of recycled and compressed aluminum.

Dubbed as ?Quadro,? the block-like pieces function as benches, but can be moved around to double as coffee tables. Although ?Quadro? has a distressed look, its stainless steel base gives it a ?finished take,? said Pamintuan.

?I wanted to show resiliency in the use of materials and techniques,? she added. ?It was a deliberate move to do something that I don?t usually do. Its simple line is something similar to my jewelry collection.?

?Natural High?

Naval also went for the unexpected. In lieu of his more conventional furniture pieces made mostly of indigenous materials, he presented a ?vegetal? collection consisting of a series of apple green stools with black cushioned seats and extended backrests that were supposed to mimic trees, down to their green acrylic leaves.

Dubbed as ?Natural High,? the multiple seats, he said, simulate a forest. Strategic lighting added a sense of drama and whimsy to the entire setup.

?This is my take on a previous solo exhibit I did,? he said. ?Whereas I opted for wood in its more natural state before, this time I went for processed pieces.?

Pasola and Robinson, both of whom initially made a name for themselves here and abroad for their deft use of paper before going in other directions, did their respective ?fun? takes using their favorite medium.

In Pasola?s case, she combined her signature ?James Bound? technique (the same one she uses to produce colorful and clever lanterns, candle holders and lamps) to produce streamlined black wooden stools with bound paper components underneath each seat. The drum stool collection is aptly named ?Tambol.?

One chair?s paper component was produced from recycled pages of the country?s number one newspaper. A good number of chairs were done in sturdier and more colorful cartolina.

?Paper is durable enough to last a long time,? she said. ?And anything that gets wet eventually gets dry. These chairs may appear a bit whimsical, but they?re definitely sturdy enough to be sat on.?

Robinson, for her part, fashioned a series of hanging lamps made of resin and spruced up with intricately folded, off-white paper in amorphous shapes that, in the artist?s mind, resembled a ?Dragon?s Tail.?

Using classic origami techniques, the designer took her collection to the next level as the folded and glued pieces curved in various directions, depending on their shapes and sizes. This particular aspect made the seemingly easy and ephemeral-looking pieces hard to execute, she said. To achieve certain shapes, she had to constantly modify the folds? sizes.

?I?m focusing on these items for the moment,? said Robinson. ?But I also designed home accessories and furniture pieces in the past.?

Eagerly anticipated

One of the evening?s most eagerly anticipated showcases was arguably Cobonpue?s. But even before he earned a global reputation as one of Brad Pitt?s favorite designers, the Pratt-educated Cobonpue had been reaping his share of accolades both here and abroad.

For Movement 8?s reunion show, the Cebu-based designer decided to juxtapose bigger pieces from his ?Doodle? series (named as such because they resembled scribbles) with a pair of accent pieces he called ?Harry? rocking stools.

The effort was both a contrast in size, materials and inspirations. While he chose to go back to basics by using the old, reliable rattan, admittedly one of his favorite materials, to fashion his ?Doodle? collection, the designer experimented with microfibers to produce his rather small and backrest-less ?Harry? series.

Cobonpue somewhat echoed his colleagues? thoughts on why a big group composed of creative and highly opinionated members such as Movement 8 has managed to thrive and last this long.

?We often draw strength and inspiration from each other,? he said. ?By placing friendship above everything else, including business, we?ve managed to grow as a group and as individuals.?
That?s a sense of values that transcends art and design.

The Movement 8 show runs until Sunday at the Serendra Sales Pavilion, Bonifacio Global City, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. It is open to the public.