Filipino revolutionary hero Andres Bonifacio has been given tribute in a large-scale solar portrait created by the Liter of Light for the National Heroes Day celebration at the Pinaglabanan Shrine in San Juan, Metro Manila.
The newest pop-up large-scale participative solar art built by the Filipino-born global grassroots movement that donates solar lamps to remote communities without electricity went live on the eve of the Philippines’ National Heroes Day on August 30, 2021, at the site that commemorates the heroism of the Bonifacio-led Battle of Pinaglabanan between Katipunan revolutionaries and Spanish Colonial Government forces in 1896.
More than 3,000 solar-powered lamps from the organization’s award-winning Light it Forward campaign lit up the image of Gat Andres Bonifacio and grounds of Pinaglabanan Shrine on Sunday night before Pinaglabanan Day.
The solar light installation was done through the partnership of the local government with the Liter of Light which has been setting up a series of pop-up large-scale solar arts across the Philippines since last year and calling on Filipinos to action as climate heroes.
The Bonifacio portrait brings the Liter of Light solar art series to a full circle as its first installation of a large Philippine flag at the Luneta Park in Manila was revealed on November 30, 2020, the country’s Andres Bonifacio Day celebrating the hero’s birth anniversary.
The large solar artwork designs by Liter of Light founder Illac Diaz were afterward seen popping up with varied images in various locations, including a portrait of Filipino national hero Jose Rizal also at the Luneta Park, the portrait of pre-colonial warrior Lapu Lapu in Cebu which inspired Filipino youth to be climate heroes, and the most recent United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) climate action solar logos at the Bonifacio Global City in Taguig – a send off to the Liter of Light team that is set to represent the Philippines at the 26th UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Scotland this November.
Liter of Light will also be participating in the special Pre-COP26 program organized for youth climate change advocates, Youth4Climate: Driving Ambition, hosted by conference co-host Italy in September.
Light it Forward is a video challenge that paid tribute to medical frontliners and mobilized thousands of youth from across Metro Manila, celebrities, and everyday heroes to take action for energy poverty and the 13 million Filipinos still without light, making an impact from the safety of home and giving these communities a new means of livelihood even in the middle of a global health pandemic.
Everyone who participates in the LIGHT IT FORWARD campaign receives a kit that they will use to build a solar light, which takes less than 30 minutes to assemble. Liter of Light has created online videos to guide participants on how to assemble the devices. Challenge participants are asked to dedicate their light to an essential worker or frontline that has impacted them during the COVID-19 pandemic. After recording their solar light building, each participant must challenge their friends to build a light.
Liter of Light’s large-scale solar artworks series is the continuation of its 2020 Solar Messages of Hope project with GoodNewsPilipinas.com. With the Philippines in lockdown, Diaz and his family created solar messages from Filipinos who sent their inspiring words through the Good News Pilipinas team and its online platforms.
The Philippines-based organizations have again partnered to shine a new series of solar Messages of Hope aimed at delivering Filipinos’ concerns and wishes to the 26th Climate Change Conference through the human-powered solar Twitter messaging.
The campaign is part of a broader strategy for Liter of Light, a UN FCCC “Momentum for Change” Awardee and the Philippine private sector representative to the upcoming World EXPO, which will take place in Dubai from October 2021 to March 2022. The organization will use its platform to shine a light on how Filipino malasakit is paving a way for a brighter future in a tangible, measurable way.
To learn more about Liter of Light and its Light It Forward campaign: visit the Light it Forward website here, and the Liter of Light Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube.
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