The Grand Lisboa Palace Art Gallery officially opened to the public yesterday, with The Lisboa, Stories of Macau – an exhibition bringing 500 years of history to life through cutting-edge exhibits that incorporate both visual and oral narration.
Visitors are welcomed into a circular room where an immersive five-minute animation traces Macao’s evolution from a humble fishing village into a vibrant, modern city. From there, the main exhibition room spotlights the stories of eight iconic landmarks: the Kuan Iam Temple, Hotel Lisboa, Tap Seac Square, the Ruins of St. Paul’s, Avenida de Almeida Ribeiro (popularly referred to by its Cantonese name San Ma Lo), Casa Garden, A-Ma Temple and the Dom Pedro V Theatre.
Suspended sculptures of noteworthy architecture hang from the room’s ceiling, above a colourful map of the city spread across the floor. Rare artefacts and life-sized human models recreate scenes from different eras. The creative use of animation and technology throughout the space helps inject an energy that can be lacking in more traditional historical exhibitions.
Interactive highlights of the exhibit include miniature models of buildings along Avenida de Almeida Ribeiro, which visitors can open and close. There’s also an animated diary of Harriet Low, an American woman who lived in Macao during the early 19th century, and a vintage telephone that plays recorded memories of hockey players – who used to play at what is now Tap Seac Square but was in those days the Coronel Mesquita Sports Field.
[See more: Wong Weng Cheong’s journey from Macao to the 2024 Venice Biennale]
One room in the gallery is entirely devoted to gaming operator SJM and its parent company STDM’s impressive collection of Qing dynasty court art, which includes a gold and lacquered Dragon Throne and a Dragon Boat made entirely of jade. SJM operates the Grand Lisboa Palace integrated resort.
Visitors are invited to share their own Macao stories, which can be done via the SJM Resorts website. Each month, three of these personal stories will be featured on screens at the Grand Lisboa Art Gallery, with contributors receiving a special gift.
Admission to the Grand Lisboa Palace Art Gallery is free, and the facility is open from 11 am to 7 pm. Last admissions are at 6 pm.
The museum is among a spate of recent cultural openings at Macao’s casinos, including the Poly MGM Museum at MGM Macau, and the relaunched House of Dancing Water at City of Dreams. Under the terms of their licenses, the city’s casino operators are collectively required to spend 108.7 billion patacas (US$13.5 billion) on non-gambling infrastructure over a 10-year period.
