Civic and municipal affairs bureau, Macao Museum of Art

Macao is a tiny peninsula on the southern tip of the mighty Pearl River Delta of China. From the mid-16^th Century – when the Portuguese first settled in Macao – this little fishing village, surrounded by water, was soon developed into an important international trading port in the Orient.

Today, we can see those brooding Baroque churches and the solemnly magnificent Chinese temples complementing each other yet. Ancient thoroughfares and pebbled plazas conjure up the image of walking through a time tunnel for visitors and locals alike. In July 2005, the old city proper was inscribed on the World Heritage List by the United Nations, thereby increasing the charm of Macao to foreigners in a single bound. The historical experiences of the city and its openness over the centuries have fashioned the artistic temperament and traits of Macao we see today.

Venice enjoys the elegant name of City of Art, with fine museums and art galleries to be found in abundance, and the Venice Biennale attracts world attention. The Macao Museum of Art, under the Civic and Municipal Affairs Bureau, is extremely honoured to be invited to participate in the OPEN2OO6 9^thInternational Exhibition of Sculptures and Installations this year, enabling so many more art enthusiasts to appreciate the recent creations of Macao’s contemporary artists.

Participating Macao artists include Chan Pan, Wong Ka Long, Ng Fong Chao and Ieong Chi Kin. With their experiences of life, creativity and inspiration steeped in a confluence of Chinese and Western culture, a unique language of art has emerged.

Chan Pan went to Lisboa in Portugal for four years to study and travel. He participated in Chinese contemporary art exchanges on many occasions and has been awarded several prizes. His works mainly investigate the state of existence of material in space – his display for this exhibition is titled ‘Music’: huge steel bars are used to arouse the imagination of the audience about energy, rhythm and life.

Wong Ka Long is a young artist who graduated with a Master’s Degree from the Faculty of Sculpture, Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts. He has won several prizes in the Art Competition, from The Philippe Charriol Foundation and other prestigious organisers. His display in this exhibition utilises traditional paper-cut art to symbolize Chinese culture. It also employs pictures to express the good wishes of citizens in traditional folk culture in a Chinese society that has become increasingly internationalised. Traditional folk culture is still transmitting the good wishes of citizens in life.

Ng Fong Chao is an artist with several identities: he is an artist, painter, photographer and art administrator. He has planned numerous large-scale art exhibitions for the Macao Museum of Art. His work for this exhibition is titled ‘Munificent Gift’. In the rural areas of China, pigs are not only one of the most important sources of food but are also an important sacrificial offering and a valuable gift in social communications. In Venice, the ‘Pig’ of Ng will forfeit its value to become a symbol of cultural difference.

‘Dice’ is the recent work of the Macao artist Ieong Chi Kin, an outstanding graphic designer whose works have garnered prizes repeatedly and been collected by museums and art galleries in Europe, Japan and China. He is one of the active young artists in Macao. ‘Dice’ mainly expresses the regulations of a modern city, law and order in legislation and social and value contradictions that result in a perplexed state without order. What is the way out for contemporary man in the future? Perhaps this is a question that can never be answered.

I would like to express my gratitude to Arte Communications and the government of Venice, which have enabled Macao artists to show their work through this valuable international exchange opportunity. Macao Museum of Art, the sole art museum of Macao, is looking forward to seeing you.

Director of Macao Museum of Art
Ung Vai Meng