Culture | Le French May ends with record turnout

Macau painting featured at the Auguste Borget exhibition

Le French May 2016 ended with a record-breaking number of visitors and audience numbers according to organizer Association Culturelle France, as it registered some 200,000 spectators at screenings and performances and over 400,000 visitors at exhibitions and public events.
According to organizers, “Claude Monet: The Spirit of Place” – an exhibition held at the Hong Kong Heritage Museum – received “overwhelming response from the public.” It received around 250,000 visitors across its 69 exhibiting days, or about 4,000 visitors per day on average.
The festival’s activities were spread between Hong Kong and Macau, and supported most prominently by the Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust, which contributed HKD11.47 million.
The festival which just concluded was the 24th edition. This year’s festival had  over 110 programs offered under the theme of “Dreams and Wonders.” The selection of programs ranged from classical music and opera like “Mozart in Love” and “Romeo and Juliette,” to jazz and electro music like “Jazz Duet” and “Charles Baptiste: World Music Day Concert.”
It also included neo-classical ballet dance performances like “Cinderella” and “Beauty and the Beast”, hip-hop “Bliss” and circus show “Extrêmités”, among other shows.
Heritage and contemporary art exhibitions were also held as part of the event, including the MGM-
hosted “Edgar Degas: Figures in Motion” and “Paris Extended”, in addition to a number of other public events and gastronomy programs which were organized.
“The popularity of this French impressionist’s masterpieces among the Hong Kong community is very encouraging,” said Andrew Yuen, chairman of the board of Le French May, commenting on the Monet exhibition. “It shows how we are realizing our mission – to bring art to everywhere for everyone. We will definitely try to arrange more similar exhibitions in the future, bringing national masterpieces from France to Hong Kong for public viewing.”
Xavier Garnier, the director of L’Alliance Française de Macao, told the Times that Le French May plays an important part in the relationships that Hong Kong and Macau enjoy with France, helping to strengthen Sino-French relations using “soft power”, or diplomatic influence.
He also explained that the most prominent event on the Macau side of the event was the exhibition of French painter Auguste Borget, which showcases various sketches, watercolors, oil paintings and prints of the artist’s travels in Macau and Guangdong Province.
“For us [in Macau], the main event was the inclusion of the Borget exhibition at the Macau Museum of Art,” said Garnier. “This year it was really a big event and will actually continue [to be open to the public] until October 9.”
Established in 1993, Le French May is a cultural event held annually in Hong Kong and Macau. In 2008, the festival was awarded the “Gold Award for Arts Promotion” from the Hong Kong Arts Development Council and the patronage of the Consulate General of France in Hong Kong and Macau.
It is also announced that the program for Le French May 2017 will be released early next year.
“We are very grateful for the support of our sponsors and partners […] in making this year a great success,” said Julien-Loic Garin, CEO of Le French May. “Stepping towards our 25th anniversary, Le French May will be bringing more excitement to town in 2017.” DB