Jacone's Polyphony: Macao, China Pavilion at the 61st International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia
Curators: Cindy Ng Sio Ieng, Feng Yan
Dates: May 9 - November 22, 2026
Venue: Macao Museum of Art
INKstudio is honored to present Jacone's Polyphony, an exhibition co-curated by gallery artist Cindy Ng Siu Ieng. Staged as the Macao, China Pavilion at the 61st International Art Exhibition, La Biennale di Venezia, the project gathers a chorus of artistic voices within the spirit of the ancient agora: a shared civic ground for encounter, exchange, and reflection.
The 61st International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia takes In Minor Keys as its central theme. Through introspection, poetic expression, and a microscopic perspective, the exhibition focuses on obscured individual memories and marginalized voices throughout history. Responding to the growing cultural divisions and anxieties of our time, it calls for renewed listening, understanding, and inclusivity among civilizations. Within this context, Jacone's Polyphony: Macao, China Pavilion at the 61st International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia, organized by the Cultural Affairs Bureau of the Macao SAR Government and implemented by the Macao Museum of Art, officially opened in Venice, Italy on May 8.
Jointly curated by Feng Yan and Cindy Ng Siu Ieng, the exhibition takes as its narrative thread the extraordinary life of Wu Li (1632-1718), early Qing dynasty painter, poet, and Jesuit convert, whose passage through Macao marks one of the earliest and most poetic confluences of Chinese literati culture and the Catholic West. From this historical pivot, the curators invite three contemporary Macao artists: Fok Hoi Seng, Vitor Ko, and Lei Fung Ieng, to revisit and reimagine that legacy through the sensibilities of their own time.
Attentive to the quieter registers of history, the marginal, the fragmentary, the easily overlooked, Jacone's Polyphony resonates closely with the Biennale's overarching theme, In Minor Keys. In doing so, the exhibition stages a cross-temporal dialogue in which East and West, past and present, faith and form, are not reconciled into a single narrative but allowed to coexist as distinct yet interwoven voices, sounding together within the polyphonic space of contemporary globalization.
As one of the celebrated "Six Masters of the Early Qing Dynasty," Wu Li occupies a canonical place in Chinese art history. This exhibition, however, illuminates a lesser-known dimension of his legacy: his transformative connection to Macao and his pioneering role in cross-cultural exchange. Over three centuries ago, Wu Li arrived in Macao an route to Rome, a voyage that would never unfold. During his time there, he embraced the Portuguese name "Jacone" and immersed himself in Western culture and Catholic thought, authoring The Collection of São Paulo (Sanba Ji), a remarkable record of his observations and spiritual evolution. For Wu Li, Macao represented far more than a departure point for his European aspirations. It became a crucible of cultural encounter, identity reimagining, and profound transformation. His extraordinary journey mirrors Macao itself, a place where centuries of East-West exchange have continuously reshaped both civilization and self.
The exhibition title, Jacone's Polyphony, carries deep curatorial meaning. "Jacone", Wu Li's Portuguese name, symbolizes his embrace of cultural difference and his synthesis of multiple identities. It represents a space where Eastern and Western civilizations converge within a single life. "Polyphony," a musical term, describes how multiple independent voices coexist without dominating or erasing one another.
Within the exhibition, this concept unfolds across three dimensions. First, it embodies Wu Li's plural identity as both scholar and Catholic, bridging Chinese tradition with Western intellectual engagement. Second, it echoes Macao's own character as a place of cultural synthesis and inclusive pluralism. Third, it encompasses the three participating artists, each bringing distinct artistic languages and media to create independent yet interconnected conversations across time and space.
Organized around the progression "Historical Tracing - Spiritual Pursuit - Cultural Convergence," the exhibition translates Wu Li's life and cultural practice into contemporary artistic form. The design engages intimately with the venue's architecture, establishing a meaningful dialogue between artworks, history, and place.
Layers of Time and Space pays homage to Wu Li's sobriquet, "Daoist of the Ink Well." At his former residence stood a well whose water was said to be as dark as ink. This "Ink Well" symbolized his profound connection to his homeland and artistic practice, encapsulating both his literati identity and cultural heritage. Coincidentally, the courtyard of the Macao Pavilion features a pool resembling a well. Fok Hoi Seng transforms this site into an evocative "Ink Well" environment, engraving the surface with visual narratives of Wu Li's life before his arrival in Macao through his own painterly language. Visitors are invited to become active participants in a dialogue that transcends time.
Installed on an outdoor balcony, Field of Distant Gazes employs telescopes as metaphors. One telescope, engraved with a view of ancient Rome, is directed toward the Biennale's main venue, symbolizing Wu Li's aspiration toward Europe. The other, depicting a Macao landscape, faces a nearby wall, representing the unrealized nature of that dream. Through this dual act of looking, the work reflects upon the contingencies and inevitabilities of history, transforming the tension between idealism and reality into a visual interaction while extending the exhibition experience beyond the gallery space.
Having attended school near the Ruins of St. Paul's from childhood, Fok Hoi Seng's personal geography closely overlaps with the historical sites where Wu Li once studied and lived in Macao. Drawing upon this connection, the artist recreates the texture of the Ruins of St. Paul's and transforms it into a monumental scroll installation that reconstructs a historical environment within the gallery. At the same time, he incorporates his own visual language to reinterpret Wu Li's experiences of learning, searching, and transformation in Macao, vividly portraying the artist's spiritual evolution and reconstruction of identity.
Centered on the historical absence of Wu Li's unrealized journey to Rome, Silent Travelogue takes the documented European travels of Shen Fuzong as a historical point of reference. Imagining what Wu Li's encounters and experiences might have been had he reached Europe, Fok transforms this speculation into a personal visual navigation chart. Presented through a folding screen, laser-engraved imagery evokes the screen's traditional role as a cultural boundary between eras and civilizations. Four "historical apertures" punctuate the structure, while AI technology transforms both real and imagined trajectories into moving images, allowing viewers to glimpse an alternative historical possibility. By filling historical absence with informed imagination, the work examines contingency, cultural boundaries, and intercultural exchange, creating a spiritual dialogue across three centuries.
Centered on the historical absence of Wu Li's unrealized journey to Rome, Silent Travelogue takes the documented European travels of Shen Fuzong as a historical point of reference. Imagining what Wu Li's encounters and experiences might have been had he reached Europe, Fok transforms this speculation into a personal visual navigation chart. Presented through a folding screen, laser-engraved imagery evokes the screen's traditional role as a cultural boundary between eras and civilizations. Four "historical apertures" punctuate the structure, while AI technology transforms both real and imagined trajectories into moving images, allowing viewers to glimpse an alternative historical possibility. By filling historical absence with informed imagination, the work examines contingency, cultural boundaries, and intercultural exchange, creating a spiritual dialogue across three centuries.
In Sanqu, Vitor Ko combines personal experience and collective memory through moving image. Created in collaboration with the Macao Shui Sheng Ren Choir, the work draws inspiration from the spirit of cultural exchange embodied in Wu Li's Tianle Zhengyin Pu, transforming it into a contemporary sanqu. Presented in the form of a Western church triptych, the work creates a dialogue across three centuries, exploring the multiple possibilities of identity in a globalized world and allowing historical cultural encounters to resonate in the present.
At the level of exhibition production, the curatorial team strictly adhered to the Venice Biennale's sustainability and low-carbon guidelines, selecting bamboo steel and high-strength corrugated cardboard as the primary exhibition materials. Bamboo steel, a carbon-negative material, combines structural resilience with symbolic associations linked to the Chinese literati tradition, making it particularly resonant with Wu Li's identity. Corrugated cardboard, meanwhile, is recyclable and highly durable. The manufacturing company is located near Changshu, Wu Li's hometown, creating a subtle cultural connection across time and space. Together, these materials achieve a balance between artistic narrative, historical significance, and ecological sustainability.
Jacone's Polyphony uses the life story of an individual to illuminate the cultural DNA of Macao, employing intimate artistic narratives to address broader questions of global intercultural exchange. The exhibition not only highlights Macao's unique position as a meeting point between Eastern and Western cultures but also offers a valuable model for contemporary cross-cultural curatorial practice and artistic translation. Its successful realization would not have been possible without the leadership and support of the Cultural Affairs Bureau of the Macao SAR Government, the Macao Museum of Art, members of the arts community, and the production team. Through the international platform of the Venice Biennale, the exhibition connects history and the present, East and West, allowing Wu Li's unrealized cross-cultural aspirations of three centuries ago to find a long-awaited spiritual arrival in Venice. In doing so, it continues to advance Macao's cultural presence on the international stage of contemporary art.
