Traditional & Creative Rabbit Lantern, an Exhibition by Carlos Marreiros and Friends”, is a wonderful example successfully blending 400 years of mixed culture and traditions with contemporary art and design. The exhibition simultaneously showcased Macau’s own long-standing lantern design tradition, by inspiring modern designers, artists as well as ordinary people to use this art form to express their identity and cultural influences.
A collection of 72 rabbit lanterns made by writers, lawyers, doctors, fashion designers, students and policemen was on display at One Central Macau from September to November as well as at Marreiros’ studio, at Albergue SCM.
Marreiros has previously held four bi-annual exhibitions for both Mid-Autumn and Lantern Festivals. This year, the lanterns from Parts One to Four were shown together for the first time at One Central due to the larger exhibition space. An ongoing smaller selection Part Five at the A2 Gallery – Albergue SCM was on display until earlier this month. The lanterns will soon leave Macau and travel around Portugal, Italy and Spain. The goal is to pioneer the export of this unique blend of Macau’s tradition and creativity in Europe.
As a Macau-born-Portuguese who has also lived and studied abroad, Carlos Marreiros is an ideal illustration of multicultural Macau. Based on his understanding of Macau’s distinctive charm and his own childhood experience celebrating the lantern festival, the architect decided to highlight the city’s multicultural society by presenting works by artists from Macau, China, Portugal, Italy and Holland, all using a single symbol of the rabbit to showcase this cultural multiplicity. The idea of the rabbit first came to Marreiros in 2008 when he was creating an entry for the competition to design the Macau Pavilion for the Shanghai World Expo in 2010.
“The rabbit shares similarities with Macau as it is tiny, loveable and clever,” explains the architect. “In Macau, not only Macanese and Chinese play with lanterns, but also foreigners too. In this way they represent a universal culture in such a demographically diverse city. The rabbit as a symbol was therefore both popular and well-loved by the population, especially children, as well as being able to generate sympathy and conquer peoples’ hearts.”
It is for these reasons that the jury selected the rabbit design as the winner of the Macau pavilion competition. It was so successful that it also generated a wave of interest in Macau itself, and in 2009 Marreiros decided to harness this interest by creating an exhibition for the Mid-Autumn festival based on the idea of the rabbit.
Instead of using advanced modern technology, he opted to use traditional lantern making methods as a means to focus his creativity. By following traditional techniques and working only with wire, split-bamboo, rattan, paper, colours, fabric and wrapping paper, the artist was forced to be innovative with traditional elements.
Inviting other artists from overseas to design the lanterns, allowed a long-established Chinese art form to renew itself and become fused with the creators’ own personal cultural perspectives, combining the traditional with the contemporary. The lanterns on display are all an organic synthesis of East and West as some of the contributors are from Europe, some are Europeans living in Macau, and some are Chinese. Many have no formal arts training, but this is precisely what Marreiros envisaged – for people with no artistic background to produce creative objects.
Some of the lanterns are Chinese traditional designs; whilst others utilise Western cultural influences as diverse as Edith Piaf, Jack the Ripper, David Copperfield and Nefertiti. Certain lanterns make use of Macau’s cultural heritage as inspiration (such as the Guia lighthouse and cannons); whereas others draw on the creator’s own personal life – fashion, motor cars and cocktails – to name a few.
In order to promote traditional lantern making and prevent a local Chinese tradition from fading away in a city as materialistic as Macau, Marreiros’ gallery, Albergue SCM, also held “Traditional Chinese Lantern Workshops” in conjunction with the exhibition. Master lantern-maker and retired policeman, Sou Wai Gui, teaches ordinary members of the public the techniques and skills of making Chinese lanterns. Altogether four editions of the workshop have been held with a total of one hundred participants.
For Marreiros, it is not just the lantern itself that is important.
“The philosophy of doing simple art together, fostering inter-generational debate and cultivating human relationships is crucial in such a money-oriented society”, he says.
