Lantern-making showcase hopes to stir participants’ creativity

Albergue SCM launched “Little Rabbit Lanterns – An exhibition by Carlos Marreiros and Friends Part 13” with its Mid-Autumn Festival party on Thursday.

The event featured music performances, festive delicacies such as mooncakes, riddle games and offerings of limited- edition traditional rabbit lanterns.

The festival also featured a Chinese calligraphy demonstration, titled “Master Choi Chun Heng Chinese Calligraphy Art Exhibition”.

The Little Rabbit Lanterns exhibition was also a celebration of the 68th Anniversary of the People’s Republic of China.

Showcasing 29 different lanterns, the works were created by artists and designers from different sectors.

Architect André Lui, who also participated in the exhibition, told the press that he hoped to keep the lantern-making tradition alive in the region.

Lui depicted the Guia Lighthouse in a lantern he created a few years ago, and said he chose the lighthouse as his subject because it is “one of the landmarks in Macau.”

“Some years ago, because of the heritage protection [issues], there were some problems with this landscape, so I chose this subject for my design,” he explained.

The architect remarked that his creation is personally significant as it enables him to express his feelings towards the traditional architecture and heritage of Macau. “I think lantern-making is a good tradition to keep,” he added.

Carlos Marreiros, director of Albergue SCM as well as of the exhibition, said that the event was, as usual, open to participants of all kinds, even those who are not designers and artists by profession.

“This is the idea; to take the stress out of the modern, complicated life. [I] want to prove to people that the attitude to be creative and love arts can be inside everybody,” said Marreiros.

Albergue SCM has celebrated Moon Lantern Festival and the Mid-Autumn Festival since 2009.

The exhibition combines traditional Chinese techniques with modern creativity.

This year’s edition also features students’ works from the Macau Creative Lantern Workshop, which teaches the craft of Chinese lantern- making.

Marreiros recalled that traditional lanterns became a symbol of Macau after the pavilion representing Macau in the Shanghai world expo in 2010.

“I had to think of something extravagant [that would] arouse sympathy among the visitors,” he said. “My focus was on something that […] could reflect Macau.”

The architect noted that, lantern-making was halted in China over the past hundred years, adding that Macau fought to keep the tradition.

“In Hong Kong it was substituted by plastic [but] Macau kept [the tradition], so it’s ours. If we don’t fight for it to be ours, it’ll never be ours.”

When asked about the significance of creating rabbit lanterns, Marreiros said that the lanterns are also a way for the public to express themselves, noting that lantern-makers are free to create abstract lanterns instead of particular models.