Interview by Rui Pastorin
The first of three photography exhibitions in this year’s “The Script Road – Macau Literary Festival 2025” opened last night at the Tap Seac Gallery, showcasing the black and white images captured by lensman Wang Zhengping.
Wang is from the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.
Titled “The Wind Blows Through the Grassland”, the Mongolian community and Mongolian horses are the subjects of Wang’s latest exhibition, which is curated by João Miguel Barros and Na Risong. It offers “a poetic look at the vast open spaces of Inner Mongolia and those who inhabit them”, according to a recent statement by the literary festival’s organisers. And upon seeing the works, curator João Miguel Barros told the Post that he hopes exhibitiongoers can be amazed by Wang’s works.
Miguel Barros, a lawyer by profession and a lensman himself, said that he first saw Wang’s works when he went to a photo festival in the mainland. “I discovered his work with the communities in Inner Mongolia and I was amazed with the way that he approached the scenarios”, speaking with Wang a few months later.
He added that he was also completely impressed with Wang’s photographs of horses after being shown one of his books, likening the images to the aesthetic approach of magic realism. Referring to his curatorial statement, Miguel Barros pointed out that that this genre combines “elements of reality with touches of fantasy, surrealism or dreams”. It seeks to capture moments that may seem ordinary at first glance, but reveal “an extraordinary depth or quality when observed closely”.
These can be seen in examples such as “the way lighting is used to accentuate the beauty of an image or the narrative sequence of a set of images, or the way editing is done to better emphasise details or contrasts”, according to the curatorial statement. Regarding the photos featuring horses, they are dream-like, presenting something that seems unreal but is in fact real, Miguel Barros pointed out.
Meanwhile, elaborating on its curation, Miguel Barros said that he had to look at the space and the areas that the gallery has to better understand how he could connect the images and create a dialogue. His work involved everything from photo sizing, figuring out how to connect the images to tell stories and how to group them. “This was my work as curator and I’m very happy with the result”, Miguel Barros said, inviting everyone to come visit the gallery and admire Wang’s works.
Exhibitiongoers can catch the exhibition until April 28, with the free-admission gallery open from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily.
The Script Road – Macau Literary Festival will officially kick off today with an opening ceremony at the Former Barra Slaughterhouse Site, offering a raft of activities over its 10-day run. Aside from the three photography exhibitions, there will be discussion sessions featuring over 20 writers from different parts of the world, two concerts, six movie screenings, three workshops and two guided tours, with more details available on the event Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/macaulitfest
The annual festival ends on Sunday, March 30.
Photos: Rui Pastorin
