Mozambique-born local artist Mónica Coteriano presented “monochrome” last week, an installation combining black-and-white mobile photography and collages, at the Portuguese Bookshop (Livraria Portuguesa) in the city centre, reflecting on Macau’s cultural identity, collective memory and connections with Portuguese-speaking communities.
According to the exhibition’s information message board, “monochrome” also considers Macau as a place of cultural exchange, where connections with Portuguese-speaking countries (PSCs) emerge through encounters, inherited histories and shared experiences rather than a single linear narrative.
According to the message, Coteriano, who trained in contemporary dance in Lisbon, draws on photographs taken during her 12 years in Macau to explore how personal experiences and shared histories intersect through images, words and everyday fragments. Coteriano, an artist, performer and curator who founded the 10 Marias Cultural Association in Macao in 2016, works across photography, dance, performance, installation, sound and writing.
Speaking to the Post at the exhibition’s opening ceremony last week, Coteriano said that the exhibition developed from her interest in combining mobile photography with collage, a practice she had begun exploring some time ago. “I wanted to take out the colour, because Macau is very colourful, because of the lights, the neon lights and all of that,” she noted, elaborating on her decision to present the photographs in black and white.
Coteriano said she wanted to explore how viewers would perceive Macau without its familiar colours, adding that she found the images beautiful and meaningful both with and without colour.
The installation also uses small photographs alongside boxes that display titles associated with the images’ stories. Coteriano said she wanted the titles to become part of the overall objects rather than remain small captions beneath the photographs.
The project began last year, when Coteriano decided to bring together photographs she had taken over the years, focusing specifically on images of Macau. The creative process involved selecting from a large collection of photographs, developing titles and arranging the images into collages.
Coteriano also said the process also involved reading newspapers and encountering words or phrases that reminded her of particular photographs, as well as finding images that suggested ideas for the wider installation.
At one stage, she considered incorporating more text, almost turning the project into a book, before deciding to adopt a more restrained approach.
The exhibition builds on her earlier projects, including From Where I Stand – Mobile Photography (2017), which used photographs taken with an iPhone to explore family, travel and the construction of an imagined reality; 4 Steps into the Clouds (2019), which combined cotton structures with texts in Portuguese, Chinese and English; and Safe As (2020), a group exhibition she curated that examined masks, confinement and virtual communication, the message noted.
With free admission, the exhibition remains open to the public in the bookshop’s basement until November 15, daily from 11:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.
Photos taken at the Portuguese Bookshop in the city centre last Wednesday – Photos: Khalel Vallo
