The historic landmark Casa Garden will officially reopen to the public on 3 June after five months of restoration and exterior repair work, the Macao delegation of the Orient Foundation has announced. The foundation, known as Fundação Oriente in Portuguese, uses the white and red building as its headquarters.
Next week’s reopening means the facility will be up and running to commemorate Portugal and Camões Day on 10 June, which also marks the 20th anniversary of the Historic Centre of Macao’s inscription on the UNESCO World Heritage List. Built in 1770 next to the Camões Grotto, Casa Garden is one of 22 structures included in the listing.
An “intense cultural programme” has been devised to celebrate all three events across the month, according to a statement from the Orient Foundation. Two exhibitions – one photography, the other puppetry – will be on display 3 to 29 June, while the 7th Portuguese Film Festival is scheduled to be screened 20 to 22 June.
The first exhibition, When the Island Casts Its Shadows: A Retrospective of Frank Lei, will feature over 60 works by acclaimed local photographer Frank Lei, who died in 2022. Spanning from the 1990s, the images were described by the Orient Foundation as “capturing the essence of urban development in Macao.”
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The puppetry exhibition, titled Objects with Soul, will display more than 1,000 traditional Portuguese puppets from Portugal-born, Macao-based artist Elisa Vilaça’s private collection. She has curated the exhibition to offer insights into puppets’ construction and the ways in which they are used for cultural storytelling.
The 7th Portuguese Film Festival, meanwhile, is set to present “a panorama of contemporary Portuguese cinema” including director Leonardo Mouramateu’s 2024 comedy-drama Greice, the Orient Foundation noted. This festival is organised in collaboration with Portugal Film and the CUT association of Cinematheque Passion.
Casa Garden’s restoration, carried out with support from the Cultural Affairs Bureau, aimed to preserve its architectural and cultural significance for future generations, the foundation said.
The Orient Foundation is an organisation dedicated to promoting cultural, educational and artistic initiatives that strengthen ties between Portugal and China.
