The selected proposal for the “59th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia – Collateral Event from Macao, China”, organized by the Macao Museum of Art (MAM), under the auspices of the Cultural Affairs Bureau (IC), was announced. The exhibition proposal “Allegory of Dreams”, submitted by curator João Miguel Barros and artists Ung Vai Meng and Chan Hin Io, was selected to represent Macao at the Biennale in Venice, Italy next year.
The open call for submission of proposals aims to select the outstanding work for participating in the “59th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia – Collateral Event from Macao, China”, hoping to promote Macao’s contemporary art on the international stage. A total of 24 exhibition proposals by 60 curators and local artists in groups were received in this open call. The adjudicating panel was comprised of the Chief Curator of Art Museum of Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts, Wang Huang Sheng; the Director of the School of Intermedia Art of China Academy of Art, Guan Huai Bin; renowned curator, Feng Bo Yi; Macao contemporary artist, Bianca Lei; and representative of the Cultural Affairs Bureau, Noah Ng Fong Chao, who reviewed in two rigorous selections on 10 and 11 September, and selected the exhibition proposal “Allegory of Dreams”.
With the unique perspective of “unity of heaven and earth”, the exhibition proposal “Allegory of Dreams” employs creative media such as photography, sculpture, video and performance art, blurring the boundary between dreams and reality, revealing the rich and dense hidden corners in Macao and vitality of Macao, and presenting the collective memory and current status of Macao. The adjudicating panel deems that the proposal echoes the theme of the Biennale “The Milk of Dreams” and has profound humanistic concern and reflection on the space of existence. With the interplay of remote and microscopic views, the distinctive history and mixed cultural forms of Macao are transformed into a poetic allegory, embodying local characteristics of cultural globalization. The work is avant-garde, unique and dramatic, it also creates visual tension.
Members of the participating team include João Miguel Barros, an independent curator who is active in the field of contemporary photography and has curated a number of contemporary photography exhibitions in Portugal; Ung Vai Meng, an artist who obtains a PhD in Fine Arts from the China Academy of Art and has participated in various large-scale contemporary art projects in Lisbon and Singapore; and Chan Hin Io, a senior photographer nationwide who has held a number of solo exhibitions in Macao and Portugal.
Established in 1895, the “Venice Biennale International Art Exhibition” is the oldest biennale and largest international contemporary art exchange platform. It has been the seventh time that MAM has participated in the Biennale under the name of “Macao-China” since 2007. This time, two experienced Macao artists will showcase all kinds of illusory memories of Macao on the world stage, allowing audiences from all over the world to get to know Macao from different perspectives.
