FRANKFURT, Germany — Senator Loren Legarda joined cultural figures in launching Sensible Form: Essays by Patrick Flores at the Frankfurt Book Fair 2025, underscoring the global significance of Filipino scholarship in shaping dialogues on art, meaning, and memory.

The book launch was held as part of the Philippines’ Guest of Honour program at the international book fair, where Flores also serves as curator of the Philippine Pavilion — the centerpiece of the country’s participation.

“This collection of essays stands apart from its disciplined clarity, its refusal of empty statements, and its persistent attention to the details that are most significant,” Legarda said.

As chairperson of the Senate Committee on Culture and the Arts, Legarda praised Flores’s interpretive approach, describing it as a “rigorous engagement with vision and response.”

“He views the act of interpretation, as it were, a companion to that of vision,” she said.

Legarda also reflected on her long-standing collaboration with Flores, recalling his key role in the Philippines’ return to the Venice Biennale after a 51-year hiatus.

“Years ago, he played a pivotal role in shaping our return to the Venice Biennale after [a] 51-year hiatus, reminding me that art’s significance lies not only in its exhibition but in the conversations it starts and the identities it affirms,” she said.

Legarda concluded her remarks with a tribute to Flores’s lasting influence on Philippine cultural discourse. “With the Sensible Form: Essays by Patrick Flores, we are given the power to see, to ask, to persist,” she said.

The launch is among several key events under the Philippine Guest of Honour program, which highlights the country’s literary and intellectual contributions on the global stage.