The first weekend of the Macau Literature Festival was based at the Portuguese Bookstore, introducing a number of local authors and discussions relating to wide range of topics including the 500th anniversary of The Romance of the Three Kingdoms among other historical issues. The second weekend of the Festival took up residence at Art Garden, the headquarters of the Art For All Association (AFA) and continued with historical themes, as well as a series of debate sessions, seminars, concerts and performances exploring the female condition.
A special project based on Virginia Woolf’s work, A Room of One’s Own, was the closing event of the Festival, held to commemorate the 140th birthday of the English writer, discussing her vision of the world through women’s literature.
Published in 1929, the novel A Room of One’s Own is based on a series of lectures given by Woolf at university institutions in the UK, where she argued that “a woman should have money and a room of her own if she wants to dedicate herself to writing”.
This idea of the need for women to have a free and independent space was revolutionary for its time, according to Agnes Lam, a professor at the University of Macau, and a participant in the discussion panel.
“At the beginning of the 20th century, in a patriarchal society with pressure put on women, Virginia Woolf became an icon of feminism,” Agnes notes, adding that she was impressed by a story told in the essays in which a female university student was forbidden to enter the library without the company of a man.
A Room of One’s Own was also the basis for an innovative performance of spoken word, music and movement, held on the rooftop of the Art Garden terrace, combining the talents of Hong Kong meditative musician Paul Yip, local poets m.chow and Ezaak Ez, and dancer Tina Kan, curated by Alice Kok.
The four artists had just a few days to come up with ideas for the performance and to work together in multiple languages and disciplines.
“It was really challenging,” notes m.chow. “This show was really an experiment in 'Art-jamming’. But if we were given more time, the story would have been different, so actually, less was more.”
“We met each other on Monday, on Tuesday we started to rehearse and then the show was on Friday and Saturday,” comments Tina.
“I did not know their work and vice-versa, but minute by minute we trusted in each other’s ability to face the challenges,” adds Ezaak.
The four artists needed to very quickly come up with an interpretation of Woolf’s work, together with a strong personal narrative that they could relate to and that would impact the audience.
“Since my performance work is mainly based on autobiographical materials, I shared some personal stories and proposed writing a text that could work well as a starting point for our performance,” explains Ezaak. “We all agreed on this idea. The next night we met again and I read them a text that I had written that afternoon. That text combined some stories with the historical context I lived through during my childhood in Portugal. In general, it talks about the feelings of a boy who did not have his own physical room, in a historical context dominated by a far right dictatorship known as ‘Salazarismo’ ideologically very near to fascism.”
Ezaak notes that during Salazar’s dictatorship in Portugal women also had very limited freedoms, with society organized in a very strict patriarchy. This story was thus the starting point and was gradually intertwined with m.chow’s poetry, Paul’s music and Tina’s dance.
“I read the words from Virginia Woolf and then I composed my poetry as responses to her words,” notes m.chow. “I used text as the woman’s inner voice (performed by Tina) and the response to the boy (Ezaak) and the woman. Music and dance are the visual, musical presentation of a feeling that we struggle, yet we are still alive, and here we are, our stories yet to end.”
“I really like to explore how I can present the words visually instead of just printing them on the wall and letting people read them. I believe using performance or installation can allow people to think more about themselves, not only what I present to them,” m.chow adds.
On interpreting the text into dance, Tina comments: “I loved Ezaak’s story about his childhood. It was sad but also beautiful. He can really express the details of his feelings in writing, just like Virginia Wolf. So I started with his story and as I performed I felt as if I were a mother, a woman. Isaac writes from the point of view of the boy, and I am a mother so I could feel the story from her perspective.”
“For Virginia, all her emotional expression is through her writing. When I dance, I express everything through my movements. Dance is also a language, I just use my body to express the ideas to the audience,” Tina adds.
Adding to the dramatic atmosphere of the roof top performance was the ethereal music of Paul Yip, a DJ and sound healer from Hong Kong.
“Paul plays the singing bowls,” comments Tina, “We have worked together before so we know each other, we feel each other, we don’t need to talk about what we will do, there’s a very strong connection between the two of us, which is interesting.”
During the preparation for the show, Paul created music to fit in with the performances, choosing the right sounds to express the right emotions, combining the singing bowls with electronic music to give it a stronger, more dramatic feel when needed.
Ultimately, the four artists delivered a powerful and moving performance that ran for nearly an hour and was very well received by the Festival audience, and a fitting tribute to the ideas and social commentary of Virginia Woolf almost a century earlier.
“When you are involved in an ensemble which unites people who do not know each other, sometimes it can be a great barrier and the work does not result well. However, I think that we managed to find a fortunate path to break down those barriers,” comments Ezaak. “This was one of the most beautiful experiences I have ever had as a creator and I also felt that the audience enjoyed the experience too.”
“Virginia Woolf’s works have been around for more than a hundred years and continue to this day. Her modernist proposal of gender openness is the pinnacle of contemporary literary exploration,” says Alice Kok, excutive director of the Literary Festival Festival. “Our project started with the writer’s spiritual connection and it continued the exploration of human nature, where there is a space with a door between one’s own room and another’s, where people enter and leave each other, saying good morning, good night, hello and goodbye. And the next phase of the project will soon start again in March. We look forward to seeing you soon.”
