Portuguese Contemporary Artists from Macau in MGM

 

Macau has a unique combination of various cultural influences with a shared history of eastern and western cultures mixing together for centuries. It is a sort of alchemy that keeps reconstructing and attracting Macau artists to work with. This exhibition illustrates how Macau influences the artistic practice of 12 Portuguese artists from Macau and how their investigation is accessible to both local and global communities. MGM and AFA proudly presents Saudade with works in the areas of painting, photography, objects and video art in the first exhibition made only with Portuguese artists from Macau after 1999.

 

Saudade can be considered the most Portuguese of the feelings. It is considered that Saudade is a feeling with a much profound and passionate fondness than longing. It describes a deep emotional state of nostalgic and melancholic longing for an absence of something or someone that one loves. It is an inexplicable sense of longing, an unnamed and enigmatic yearning of the soul. It is a feeling that lives in the realms of imagination and inspiration of Portuguese Poetry and Portuguese Fado.

 

Saudade means that, more than anything, love remains for the past experiences with people, places and events that once brought well-being, and, in that sense, is a feeling that still triggers the mind and the soul and makes one live with the hope that sometime in the future he will relive it. We feel saudade for something that is gone and absent and that might return in the future or might never really return, but it is not a discontentment or a poignant sadness - on the contrary it is an indolent dreaming wistfulness.

 

In this exhibition the artists acknowledge the memory of their own roots, while, at the same time, they relate and assume their sense of community and belonging to the place that welcomed them - embracing and integrating them as a vibrant part of the city of Macau. The imagery, style and diversity of the art works clearly translates how the impact of Chinese inspiration and Portuguese saudade blends in Macau culture. Once again art is the perfect channel to claim from each individual perspective the narration of a collective memory. 

José Drummond

Curator