Inspired by Zobeide, one of Italo Calvino’s invisible cities, Wong Weng Cheong explores the historical impact of materialistic desire within the context of colonization and globalization. A series of large-scale installations and digital prints recreate an urban-pastoral landscape inhabited by mutant herbivores with unnaturally long limbs.

The contrast between civilization and mutation reflects a universal apocalyptic anxiety, inviting to reflect on the intricate relationship between mankind and its environment. As soon as visitors enter the exhibition space, they step into a world where the boundaries between natives and foreigners become blurry, blending and interpenetrating. The artist invites observers to navigate a terrain that strangely manages to reveal itself as both familiar and alien at the same time, a direct reflection of a condition of physical and spiritual dislocation that art induces, causing it to linger in the visitor long beyond the moment of experiencing the installations. This is an exhibition that becomes a journey of self-exploration and self-projection, particularly significant in a historical context like the present one, increasingly marked by geographical disputes and structural cultural conflicts: Wong’s extraterrestrial creatures serve as a reminder of the idea of an ‘other’ place, which goes far beyond the pursuit of individual desires, revealing instead their total, ephemeral absurdity. Since 2007, the Macao Museum of Art has participated as a collateral event in the Venice Biennale, successfully introducing representative contemporary artworks from Macao to the international context and showcasing its unique charm on the international stage.

Featured image: Wandering In Wilderness #4, 2024 – Courtesy of the artist Wong Weng Cheong