When Mio Pang Fei arrived from Shanghai some 30 years ago, Macau was still just a small town with little appeal to visitors. Now that Macau is home so some of biggest casinos in the world and attracted over 28 million tourists last year, the master’s works are being featured as a major exhibition, joining the gaming industry and the art world for a unique collaboration.
“It is good news that the casinos are interested in art. This shows their willingness to improve their image through art and culture, instead of concentrating just on gambling alone” Mio Pang Fei says, sitting in front of the big window of his study room at home, gazing out at the venue of his latest exhibition, Galaxy Macau in Taipa.
At 76 years of age, Mio has deeply influenced Macau’s art scene and art history. A teacher of many, Mio and his sturdy style has founded in Macau a solid base on which generations of Macau artists continue to grow. Mio has an incredible energy and ability to re-invent himself at almost any stage of his life. Indeed, innovation has always been the major force behind his artistic quest. Featuring his major artworks between 2004 to 2007, the current exhibition at Galaxy Macau includes pieces that best represent the master’s chef d’oeuvre collection.
Mio learnt Western style painting at an early age. Later during the Cultural Revolution he shifted his focus to concentrate more on traditional Chinese calligraphy. Combining Western abstract painting with Chinese calligraphy, Mio’s works were coined by art critic Lui Xiao Chuan as “Post-Calligraphy”.
“What the term implies is what happens ‘after calligraphy’”, Mio explains. “Lui found that my work was not to be considered as modern Chinese calligraphy in terms of the usage of material and method. It is more like a way to turn calligraphy into modern painting, but at the same time different from Western abstract painting.”
According to the artist, modern Western art is more based on theories, and artists are more concerned in terms of action and the pleasure that comes from the doing and acting on the canvas. As for oriental art, such as in the Zen tradition, Mio explains, realization in the experience is essential.
“It is not something that can be explained clearly in words. Through the experience of practices, one arrives at a stage of realization either suddenly or gradually,” he says.
When asked about his own current stage of realization, Mio laughs and explains: “Different from my previous works in the Post Calligraphy series, Chinese writing is not as conceptual. One doesn’t think about the writing, it is as if some kind of divine forces are driving your hand across the surface of the paper. We say that when one starts writing, one doesn’t know how to write, while in the middle stage, one knows how to write, with the right kind of brush and paper, but in the final stage, one forgets how to write again.”
Mio believes that calligraphy is not about what one writes, but rather the state in which one writes.
“For a calligraphy master, no matter what is written, it is not important anymore. It is the energy that was being applied that counts. For me, I am not yet at such a stage, maybe very occasionally, yes.”
Now that Mio Pang Fei has spent the majority of his life making art, looking back at his artistic journey, the master declares movingly that: “Art is my only” and doesn’t seem to be thinking of retirement at all.
“Now that I am old, certainly I can no longer make huge paintings as I did before, so I do Chinese calligraphy everyday now. I am planning an exhibition next year about this. As long as I still have force to continue, I will go on until the end.”
MIO PANG FEI ON FILM
The artist who inspired a whole generation of Macau painters is also being filmed in a documentary about his life and work. The project t, directed by Pedro Cardeira, started in December last year and should be completed by the end of this year. “Mio Pang Fei is one of Macau’s most important artists and one of its major international representatives. I’m fascinated by the strength of his work but also about the man behind it.” says the director. Pedro Cardeira, an established Portuguese cinematographer who as worked on more than 30 European feature films with directors such as Manoel de Oliveira, Carlos Saura, Pedro Costa or João César Monteiro, set himself a new and ambitious goal: to portray an artist who has gathered the best of Chinese tradition with Western Contemporary Art creating a unique set of defying artworks.
This film, which has the full support of Mio, is now following the comeback of the master and the artistic preparation of new works that will be displayed next year in a major exhibition in Macau. «This is the right moment to take stock of the life and work of Mio Pang Fei capturing, at the same time, this new artistic impulse. The artist deserves it and so does Macau.” says Pedro. Much of the shooting will take place in Macau but there are plans to shoot in Shanghai, the birthplace of the artist, and Europe. The documentary has counted so far with the support of Albergue SCM and architect Carlos Marreiros, but is currently looking for more sponsors in order to fulfill all its ambitious goals. “It would be great if more Macau Cultural Institutions and private sponsors could nurture this work about one of Macau’s finest artists.” says Edgar Medina, the producer. “It is, somehow, a bet on the cultural dignity of the territory and in what is the best of Macau – its people.»
