If you missed Macao’s entry at the 2024 Venice Biennale in Italy, you can now see it closer to home at the Macao Museum of Art (MAM).
Local artist Wong Weng Cheong’s Above Zobeide is on display for free on MAM’s first floor until 30 April. The work draws inspiration from Italo Calvino’s dystopian novel, Invisible Cities, which features a chaotic, maze-like city called Zobeide.
The installation depicts bleak pastoral scenes with 3D animal models and abandoned buildings, but no human life – except for the viewers who become part of the artwork as they are filmed wandering through the exhibition. This echoes the theme of last year’s biennale, “Foreigners everywhere.”
[See more: Wong Weng Cheong’s journey from Macao to the 2024 Venice Biennale]
Wong, who is in his early 30s, grew up in Macao and studied at London’s Goldsmiths art college. His time in the UK, with its wintry landscapes, has influenced his work, which often includes sheep, stormy skies, and gothic scenery.
At the Above Zobeide inauguration, Cultural Affairs Bureau president Leong Wai Man said Wong and curator Chang Chan “meticulously combined their life experience from Macao and abroad” to create the installation.
“In the future, [the bureau] will continue to support local artists’ creative endeavours and contribute to making Cultural Macao shine even brighter in the field of arts,” she added.
MAM is open Tuesday to Sunday, including public holidays, from 10 am to 7 pm (last admission at 6:30 pm).
