“After Oriental Garden,” a local curatorial project of Art Macao: Macao International Art Biennale 2025, opened grandly last night at Casa Garden, showing memories of Macau.
Oriental Garden, according to a statement by the curator, was once hailed as “the most bustling and most beautiful garden city in the Far East”. According to the statement, Macau is an exotic back garden that has seen the convergence of different cultures since the Age of Exploration.
“What species migration and power games are occurring unnoticed behind the romanticised imagination of the ‘Oriental Garden’? In an era full of uncertainties, how should we once again learn to ‘dwell’ and how can we build a new framework to comprehend a generation that is intertwined with trauma and possibility?,” the statement asked rhetorically.
The “After Oriental Garden” project attempts to unsettle stereotypical grand narratives and allow mutual penetration between historical memories and contemporary experience, thus seeking vitality for sustainable transformation and reinvention and reconstructing a space that is open to critical reflection, the statement said.
Kathine Cheong Weng Lam, who is the curator of this exhibition, said in a speech last night that the project, by using Macau as an anchor point to explore the city’s multi-layered memories, brings together five artist groups from Macau, Singapore and the United States, providing space for marginalised voices and forgotten life forms to speak anew through over 15 works including archives, video, sound installations, and sculptures.
She also said that the choice of the Orient Foundation’s Casa Garden property as the venue for the project aims to promote artistic and cultural exchange, allowing audiences to experience Macau’s rich historical heritage and cultural inclusiveness.
Yesterday’s opening ceremony featured a special music and dance performance titled “Between Margins and Remnants,” with performers Monic Chen (陳海琪) and Sonia Lao (劉嘉虹) engaging in physical and music dialogue within the garden space, offering the audience a unique sensory experience.
The exhibition, which commenced yesterday, continues until October 5. It is open from Tuesday through Sunday from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and from 2 p.m. to 7 p.m.
These photos taken last night show some of the “After Oriental Garden” exhibits at Casa Garden. – Photo: Armindo Neves
