Allegory of Dreams by curator João Miguel Barros and artists Guilherme Ung Vai Meng and Chan Hin Io has been chosen to represent Macau at the Venice Art Biennale in Italy next year. Presenting a unique perspective of “union between heaven and earth”, the work uses various media such as photography, sculpture, video art, performance art, among other art forms, blurring the boundaries between dreams and reality and revealing the abundance, density and vivacity of Macau’s cityscape.
The Cultural Affairs Bureau (IC), in coordination with the Museum of Art of Macao (MAM), recently announced the selection of Macau’s representative work for the next Venice Art Biennale, to be held from April to November next year.
The winning team is composed of João Miguel Barros, an independent curator, active in the field of contemporary photography and organizer of several photo exhibitions in Portugal; Guilherme Ung Vai Meng, who has a PhD in Artistic Studies from the China Academy of Art and extensive experience in contemporary art; and Chan Hin Io, a photographer who has held solo exhibitions in Macau and Portugal, among other places.
“As selected artists, we are very honoured and happy to participate in the Venice Art Biennale next year,” notes Guilherme Ung Vai Meng, the former director of the Cultural Affairs Bureau from 2010 to 2017. “We will be able to promote the humanistic living space and cultural environment of Macau through this international art platform.”
After a call for proposals for the Macao Pavilion, China at the 59th Venice Art Biennale, 24 excellent works from 60 local curators and artists were received by the IC. The jury then selected the best proposal in two stages in September.
According to the jury, the winning proposal meets the theme of the 2021 biennale, “The Milk of Dreams”, bringing together deep humanistic concerns and reflections on living spaces.
“By interweaving a panoramic view with a detailed gaze, the chosen work dissects Macau’s unique history and cultural miscegenation, thus creating a kind of poetic allegory that mirrors the local characteristics resulting from cultural globalisation,” explains the chair of the jury, Wang Huang Sheng, Chief Curator of the Art Museum of the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts. Wang was particularly “impressed by the prescience and originality of the work, as well as its dramatic intensity and visual expression”.
The Venice Biennale was founded in 1895 and is considered the largest platform for the exchange of contemporary art. This is the seventh time MAM has participated in this art event since 2007.
