“Art Macao: Macao International Art Biennale 2023”, the mega international cultural and artistic event of the city, was inaugurated in July to bring together creative forces from around the world. Featuring a total of 31 art exhibitions in 28 locations across eight sections, namely the Main Exhibition, the Public Art Exhibition, the City Pavilion, the Special Exhibition, the Invitational Exhibition by Local Artists, Local Curatorial Project, Art Exhibition of Higher Education Institutions and the Collateral Exhibition, as well as 600 sessions of outreach activities, the event gathered over 200 artists (groups) and art institutions from more than 20 countries and regions, connecting the city with fantastic ideas from contemporary visual arts, developing the International Art Biennale into a brand, and infusing this World Heritage city with a new cultural tourism experience which is both profound and fun-filled. The event has attracted participation of around 16,000,000 spectators, recording the same compared with the first edition.

The execution of Art Macao helps the city build an international cultural exchange platform, connect with more cities through the arts, create a broader network for cultural exchange, and establish an important contemporary artistic event so as to promote and inspire local artistic development. The event also enriches the cultural lives of local residents, improves the city’s overall humanistic qualities, promotes the development of cultural industries, and complements the city’s cultural tourism experience. The next edition of “Art Macao” will be held in 2025.

To promote the participation of local artists to boost professional development

Qiu Zhijie, renowned artist and Vice President of the Central Academy of Fine Arts, once again served as the chief curator of “Art Macao” and proposed “The Statistics of Fortune” as the theme of this year’s event. The Main Exhibition and the Invitational Exhibition by Local Artists, which he personally curated, have addressed the global challenges and opportunities today and offered the viewers a profound aesthetic experience by converging many notions from the past and the present and integrating images from the East and the West.

This year’s “Art Macao” included two new sections — the Invitational Exhibition by Local Artists and the Local Curatorial Project, with the “Public Art Exhibition” section featuring the participation of local curators. Exhibitions in commercial art galleries were included in the section “Collateral Exhibition” to enhance the strength and passion of local contemporary art in the areas of planning, creation, and commercialisation, thus advancing its professional development.

Enhancing Macao’s cultural ambience with global artistic resources and influential exhibitions across the city

“Art Macao” has generated a cooperation model among the Government, enterprises, artists and the public to optimise the cultural ecology of Macao with the help of global art resources. The event presented influential exhibitions at various cultural attractions and in communities across the city, thus bringing an immersive cultural atmosphere to the entire city as a gallery and an art garden.

The Special Exhibitions were organized by the six integrated resorts in various forms and on a large scale, with an equal emphasis on intellect and fun, highlighting Macao’s quality as a leisure city. Public artworks were integrated into the local cultural environment, inspiring cultural discussions and deep thoughts. The four City Pavilions showcased the unique cultural and artistic personalities of Kyoto, London, Shenzhen and Vila Nova de Cerveira (Portugal). The four Local Curatorial Projects provided local curators and artists a stage to showcase their ideas and talents. The Art Exhibition of Higher Education Institutions facilitated artistic exchange in academia, and the eight Collateral Exhibitions attracted the public’s attention to the local art market.

Introducing avant-garde contemporary art concepts to enhance the quality of Macao as “one base”

“Art Macao 2023” has given full play to Macao’s role as a “base for exchange and cooperation where Chinese culture is the mainstream and diverse cultures coexist” by introducing in avant-garde contemporary art concepts to practically facilitate the exchange and cooperation of diverse cultures in Macao and align Macao’s contemporary art development with the world. The organiser, the integrated resorts and local art groups and institutions organised nearly 600 sessions of art exchange activities and outreach activities, with more than 600,000 participants. Through an innovative way of artistic dissemination, the activities brought different types of audiences closer to art and inspired them to think in new ways, including a thematic lecture and talks hosted by the chief curator Qiu Zhijie, and various participating artists to explain curatorial ideas and exchanged views on the latest international art trends, as well as various types of artistic workshops, guided tours and concerts to lead the audience to gain a deeper understanding of the exhibitions.

In addition, a number of exhibitions were widely covered by the media and by art critics from home and abroad, attracting audiences to learn about and participate in this cultural and artistic event. A series of promotional campaigns were launched together with the Macao Government Tourism Office in multiple international cities, the Greater Bay Area and key tourist cities in Mainland China, including the “Macao Week” series, visits and introductions by Internet celebrities, and various social media platforms, digital, print media and outdoor channels, in a bid to develop this local signature event through a promotional strategy that integrates culture and tourism. During “Art Macao 2023”, media coverage and promotion on new media platforms reached nearly 170 million people.

A range of exhibitions featured in the “Art Macao 2023” have come to an end and the two widely anticipated public artworks “Theory of Time” and “Halo” will be presented successively in November. Another three public artworks and four local curatorial projects are scheduled for the end of this year or early next year. Under the patronage of the Secretariat for Social Affairs and Culture of the Macao SAR Government, the “Art Macao 2023” is organised by the Cultural Affairs Bureau, co-organised by the Macao Government Tourism Office, Galaxy Entertainment Group, Melco Resorts & Entertainment Limited, MGM, Sands China Ltd., SJM RESORTS, LIMITED, and Wynn Macau, Limited, with the participation of various consulates general of different countries in Hong Kong and Macao and various higher educational institutions from Mainland China and Macao. Some exhibitions of the “Art Macao: Macao International Art Biennale 2023” are still available.

For more information, please visit the event’s website at www.artmacao.mo, its official Instagram account “artmacao”, “IC Art” page on Facebook, or WeChat account “IC_Art_Macao”.