The mega international cultural and artistic feast “Art Macao: Macao International Art Biennale 2025” (hereinafter referred to as “Art Macao 2025”) was inaugurated today (18 July) with an opening ceremony held at the Macao Cultural Centre Small Auditorium, and the Main Exhibition was unveiled simultaneously. From July to October, the “Art Macao 2025” presents nearly 30 exhibitions across the city in six sections, namely the “Main Exhibition”, “Public Art Exhibition”, “City Pavilion”, “Special Exhibition”, “Local Curatorial Project” and “Collateral Exhibition”. Highlighting pioneering artists from about a dozen countries and regions, the event innovates artistic narratives, revitalises historical spaces, engages with community dynamics and inspires cultural vitality, transforming Macao into a city of Muses where life and art resonate in harmony.

The inauguration ceremony of the “Art Macao: Macao International Art Biennale 2025” was officiated by the President of the Cultural Affairs Bureau of the Macao SAR Government, Leong Wai Man; the Counselor and Director of the Department of Information and Public Diplomacy of the Office of the Commissioner of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China in the Macao SAR, Gao Yuan;  the Deputy Director of the Department of Publicity and Culture of the Liaison Office of the Central People's Government in the Macao SAR, Bai Bing; the Vice-Consul for Education and Culture of Portugal in Macao, Patrícia Nheu Quaresma; the Acting Director of the Macao Government Tourism Office, Cheng Wai Tong; the Deputy Director of the Education and Youth Development Bureau, Wong Ka Ki; the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Melco Resorts & Entertainment Limited, Lawrence Ho; the Executive Vice Chairman of Sands China Ltd., Dr. Wilfred Wong; the Managing Director of SJM Resorts, S. A., Daisy Ho; the President, Vice Chairman and Executive Director of Wynn Macau, Limited, Linda Chen; the President and Executive Director of MGM China Holdings Limited, Kenneth Feng; the Director of Corporate Affairs of Galaxy Entertainment Group, Buddy Lam; and the Chief curator of the “Art Macao 2025”, Feng Boyi. Over 200 participating artists and guests unveiled the mega event this year. A welcome dinner was held at the Wynn Palace Ballroom on the evening of the same day, and all participating entities wished a great success to the event.

The “Art Macao”, jointly developed by the Macao SAR Government, enterprises, artists and the public, brings together global creativity and has become a landmark cultural tourism brand of the city, injecting strong momentum into Macao’s development toward the “One Centre” and “One Base”. This year’s Biennale is curated by the internationally renowned chief curator Feng Boyi. He takes the simple question “Hey, what brings you here?” as the theme to correspond to reality, reflecting on and exploring the history, memory and current complexities of Macao in a global context while exploring the profound meaning of the symbiosis between the individual and the world.

Creative use of museum spaces to experience the beauty of multidimensional coexistence

Located on the 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd floors at the Macao Museum of Art, the Main Exhibition will open to the public on 19 July. The curatorial team seeks to innovate artistic narratives of the traditional biennale, incorporate the theme with the content of each artwork, and specifically design the exhibition spaces of the Macao Museum of Art.

The exhibition features nearly 80 pieces/sets of artworks created by 46 artists from 13 countries across 20 spaces in the museum, which are set up and named after everyday life. The exhibition serves as an anchor, microcosm and container for “locality” within globalization, folding out the visiting journey into a personal journey. The works are exhibited from “off-site” to the “space”, including: Bart Hess, who captures the subtle interaction between fashion and the human body using wax; Gregor Schneider, who reconstructs the physical laws of spatial perception through architectural installations; Tobias Rehberger, who explores the dialectical relationship between humans and their physical environments through systematic constructions in social contexts; and Xu Bing, who reflects on human civilisations through images of lakes captured by satellites. In addition, the exhibition features various interactive works for public participation. For instance, the work Not a Question, Not an Answer by Song Dong placed at the “entrance” of the exhibition venue, invites visitors to complete the “entry” procedures before proceeding to the exhibition hall; the work How to Make an Ocean by Kasia Molga exhibited in the “therapy room”, uses an AI robot to guide visitors to shed tears, which will be collected in a bottle of “ocean”. Besides, the exhibition breaks through the boundaries of conventional exhibitions, meticulously utilising unconventional areas such as aisles and restrooms. Visitors who pass through these spaces will be engaged in an artistic creation without even being noticed. This approach highlights the close relationship between art and life, offering a series of artistic landscapes in different dimensions, and allowing visitors to experience the beauty of coexistence.

Public Art Exhibition engages with the community dynamics

The Public Art Exhibition, themed “Waves & Ways,” integrates the historical, present, and everyday spaces of the Macao SAR into the urban dynamics and daily life through five works by eight renowned artists from home and abroad. Among these works, the Community Co-Creation and Mutual-Aid Project of San Mei On, created by Australian artist Jason Ho, opens a space to the public as a “neighbourhood living room” in the northern district. The other four works will be unveiled successively in the public spaces and communities across the city, guiding residents to re-examine their living landscapes and appreciate the connotation of the “Culture City of East Asia”.

The Special Exhibition presented by the six integrated resorts offer a kaleidoscopic art fair with an unprecedented line-up and diversity of forms, injecting a strong impetus in the development of Macao’s cultural industries. In the section “City Pavilion”, the Vila Franca de Xira Pavilion of Portugal and the Jinan Pavilion of China will open in September, unveiling the tension between tradition and innovation in their own cultural systems.

“Local Curatorial Project” bolsters creative power

The six exhibition proposals selected for this year’s “Local Curatorial Project” are the “After Oriental Garden”, curated by Cheong Weng Lam, “Beneath the Wetware Peninsula”, co-curated by Daisy Di Wang and Wong Mei Teng, “Genetic Duration”, curated by Ung Vai Meng, “Jacone’s Tower”, co-curated by Feng Yan and Ng Sio Ieng, “The Sea of Languages: Macao Language Research Program”, co-curated by He Jun Yan and Zhang Ke, and “A Speakable Position for WOMEN”, co-curated by Cheong Cheng Wa and Wang Jing. There are 35 artists participating in the project, most of whom are Macao residents. These proposals deeply explore the city’s pulse, covering a wide range of aspects such as cultural DNA, linguistic landscapes, female narratives, as well as technology and ecology.

In the section “Collateral Exhibition”, this year’s “Art Macao” launched an open call for exhibition proposals. Nine proposals were accepted, covering faculty and student showcases from several universities, joint and solo exhibitions from commercial galleries, and proposals submitted by individuals, all reflecting the diverse creative energy of Macao.

These two major sections foster local curatorial talent through the open calls, aiming to promote dialogue between local creations and the international context, and advance the development of local art. These exhibitions will be held successively in July.

The “Art Macao 2025”, under the patronage of the Secretariat for Social Affairs and Culture of the Macao SAR Government, is organised by the Cultural Affairs Bureau, and co-organised by the Macao Government Tourism Office, Galaxy Entertainment Group, Melco Resorts & Entertainment, MGM, Sands China Ltd., SJM Resorts, S.A. and Wynn Resorts Macau.

For more information about the “Art Macao 2025”, please visit the event’s webpage at www.artmacao.mo, follow the “artmacao” account on Instagram, the “IC Art” page on Facebook, or official WeChat account “IC_Art_Macao”.