Last month, Macau again hosted the China and Portuguese-speaking Countries Cultural Week and the Lusofonia Festival, bringing together musicians, visual artists, actors, craftsmen, chefs, entrepreneurs and many other talents from both Lusophone countries and Chinese provinces.
The whole city – and particularly the streets surrounding the Taipa Houses-Museum – celebrated this encounter of cultures. The Cultural Week, organized by the Forum for Economic and Trade Co-operation Between China and Portuguese-Speaking Countries, invited 135 artists from nine countries and territories where Portuguese is spoken. CLOSER went to check out some of the highlights.
– Global Cuisine –
Portuguese restaurant Tromba Rija at Macau Tower was the base for the World of Flavours from the Portuguese Speaking Countries showcase. Six chefs from six different parts of the world delighted visitors with recipes that tell the story of a language spread through different continents.
Ian Marc de Souza, a chef from Goa (India) is himself a product of a melting pot of cultures, from Hindu and Portuguese families.
“Our cuisine used to be traditionally Hindu, but then the Portuguese came with their influences, and now we have more sauces, with onion, with chorizo,” he says.
From Mozambique, Humberto Inácio Nhantumbo came to show dishes such as ‘Matapa’ and Shrimp Curry – some of the most well known in the southern part of the country. Cape Verde was represented by Lamine Medina, who describes the country’s gastronomy as “relatively young but with many mixtures, a Portuguese base and African influences”.
If corn is an essential ingredient in Cape Verde cuisine, palm-trees give some of the most important components of Guinea-Bissau gastronomy. Forty-nine-year-old Mafalda dos Santos, was the most senior chef to visit Macau last month. Having lived in Portugal for more than three decades, the cook owns a restaurant not far from Lisbon: O Cantinho da Mafalda.
Representing typical Portuguese flavors, there was no better choice than the host restaurant Tromba Rija. Chef Telmo Gongo arrived in Macau less than two years ago and has a clear goal: to keep every Portuguese recipe he cooks as genuine as possible, with no fusion or adjustments to Asian tastes.
“Guests who come here should feel like they’re in Portugal,” he says, highlighting dishes such as the Lagareiro Style Octopus and Spicy Chicken.
Last but clearly not least, chef Dillon de Jesus was in charge of presenting the delicious outcomes of Macanese cuisine.
“Macanese gastronomy comes from that mix of Portuguese food with Goan, Indian and Chinese,” he explains. Minchi, a famous dish on the Macanese menu, was again one of the favourites.
– Visual Dialogue –
Works by five artists – three local, one from Cape Verde and another from Guinea-Bissau – were chosen to be showcased during the 7th China and Portuguese Speaking Countries Cultural Week, and served the purpose of reflecting on this city and other Portuguese-speaking territories.
Cape Verde artist Alex da Silva, currently living in the Netherlands, is a well-known name on the international artistic circuit. He was the designer of a significant public monument in Rotterdam in 2013, to celebrate the 150-year anniversary of the abolishment of the slave trade by the Netherlands.
His works for this show called IM+ Migration at the Macau Military Club, reveal an obvious African background, but are also clearly influenced by global contemporary culture, explains the exhibition’s commissioner, Ernesto Jorge Santos.
Nú Barreto, from Guinea-Bissau, currently divides his time between his home country, Senegal and Paris. In Macau, he presented the series Preto Funguli at the Taipa Houses-Musuem. Using mainly dark colours in his paintings, drawings and collages, Barreto elaborates on the social condition of many African people. The grey shades used by the artist derive from “a dry grey layer of dust usually covering the skin of the street kids”.
Lai Sio Kit, Eric Fok and Bunny Lai Sut Weng represent a whole new generation of Macau artists. Commissioner Ernesto Jorge Santos describes the three as “geniuses” in their own different ways. Working with both urban and natural elements, historical and contemporary influences, the exhibition by these artists, all recipients of the Orient Foundation Visual Arts Award, was on display at the Official Residence of the Consul General of Portugal and represented some of the best Macau has to offer in terms of art.
– Crafting Cultures –
China, Brazil, Cape Verde, Mozambique, Portugal, East-Timor and São Tomé and Príncipe were some of the countries represented at the Guangdong Province and Portuguese Speaking Countries Craftworks Showcase, in Taipa.
From Tocantins, Brazil, Márcia Sales brought golden-coloured accessories such as purses and earrings. Luís Rodrigues Lopes exhibited a disappearing traditional style of ceramic works from Santo Antão Island, in Cape Verde; while craftsmen João Donato and Paulo Reis showcased their more contemporary approach to ceramics. Donato, from Mozambique, uses cartoon art and strong colours in his works. Portuguese Paulo Reis, who returned to Macau, has already integrated some Chinese elements into his works, after his previous visits to China.
If the previous three artists have clay and ceramics in common when it comes to their creative process, Timorese Eliseu Costa Pereira and São Tomé and Príncipe’s Miguel Bento are connected by the way they use wood to express themselves. Both have found inspiration in the lives of their people, the sea, the islander experience and the way these reflect in the art they create.
– A Stage for Cooperation –
Just like last year, theatre was a strong component of the programme of this year’s Cultural Week. Hiu Kok Theatre and Macau Art Fusion, both local troops, joined together to present A Cegueira I (Blindness I). Mozambique was represented by the theatre group Lareira Artes with the play A Cavaqueira do Poste (Post’s Chit Chat); São Tomé and Príncipe presented O Médico (The Doctor), performed by the group Os Criativos; Portugal’s Seiva Trupe presented As Mãos de Eurídice (Euridíce’s Hands); and East-Timor gave us a glimpse of their theatre scene with Babalú, by the group Tomato Leste.
On the musical and dance side, Virgem Suta (Portugal), Massukos (Mozambique), Mariene de Castro (Brazil), Guangdong Artistic Group (China), Versatyle (Goa) and Mezô Dance (São Tomé and Príncipe) performed both in Senado Square and at the Taipa Houses-Museum, entertaining large audiences. The city streets also served as a stage, with street performers from different countries joining local crews and showing off their skills all around town.
