21st Macao City Fringe Festival inaugurated starting an exceptional journey of art
The opening ceremony of the 21st Macao City Fringe Festival, organised by the Cultural Affairs Bureau (IC, from the Portuguese acronym), was held this afternoon (12 January) in the Leisure Area in Rua Oito do Bairro Iao Hon. The ceremony was attended by the President of the Cultural Affairs Bureau, Mok Ian Ian; representatives of the participating art groups of this edition of the Fringe Festival; the Head of the Department of Performing Arts Development, Iu Wai Man; and the Acting Head of the Division of Performing Arts, Tong Pui I, followed by the successive launch of a number of programmes, featuring games with various themes for public participation. Adopting the concept of “All around the city, our stages, our patrons, our artists”, the Fringe Festival reaches out to the community and opens a broader door to the art world for audiences from all walks of life.
Themed “Margin Break”, this year’s Fringe Festival features more than 20 extraordinary programmes and 15 outreach activities, breaking down the barriers of space and distance and offering diverse artistic experiences to the audience. The Sound Theatre Back Home, a participatory performance in a series of sessions, will be staged at General Ye Ting’s Former Residence at 7pm tonight, taking the audience to the Wuhan after the outbreak of the novel coronavirus two years ago. In this original production from the Edinburgh Fringe Showcase, spectators will play roles and tell several stories about returning home and facing the unexpected future. More sessions will be held between 13 and 16 January, and the public is welcome to participate. In addition, the participatory exhibition “Art Exhibition for All” opened in the space next to Flower City Park on the same day, providing a platform for the public to display their creative works.
The Fringe Festival offers many intriguing performances. AΦE from the United Kingdom will present its Asian premiere 0AR, a programme combined with Augmented Reality (AR), taking the audience into a new world of interactive art. The performance Macao Magic Cinema combines magic and film and will take both adults and children on a magical journey. The costume theatre Fragment incorporates modern technology into art and creates a collision between the iron forging industry and modern fashion, taking the audience into a forgotten world. The interdisciplinary performance Lift Left Life Live will lead the audience to embark on an unplanned trip and enjoy the pleasant time of travel. In the show The Inside, dancers from Macao and Korea join the participants online to further develop their art across boundaries. In the series “Crème de la Fringe, the subtheme “Iao Hon” seeks to interpret the world in the eyes of Iao Hon residents through artistic creation, while the subtheme “Todos Fest!” aims to demonstrate the beauty of bodies through artistic dance performed by people from different walks of life. Due to the staging of the performance Dancing Veins, the cloister and Yuqing Mansion of the Mandarin’s House will close from 2pm to 6pm on 14 January, from 11am to 6pm on 15 January and from 1pm to 6pm on 16 January.
This edition of the Fringe Festival also features a series of outreach activities. The “Sharing on the Creation of Real-time Digital Interactive Ink Installation” shares the process of producing Finding Season and how to create art through science and computer language. In the “Symbiotic Dance Workshop”, the participants create their own unique dance moves based on the Danceability method. In the dance tutorial “Street Dance Tutorial”, young dancers lead the participants into the world of street dance.
Tickets for the 21st Macao City Fringe Festival are available through the Macau Ticketing Network. The public is advised to purchase tickets as soon as possible as tickets for some of the programmes are limited. Online registration for outreach activities can be made at www.icm.gov.mo/eform/event. For phone registration and enquiries, please contact IC through tel. no. 8399 6872 during office hours.
IC will strictly follow the relevant guidelines of the Health Bureau and implement appropriate measures for cultural activities. All participants must wear face masks, undergo temperature checks, present a valid “Macao Health Code” of the day, maintain social distancing and co-operate with the relevant anti-epidemic and crowd control measures.
For more information about the programme, please visit the Fringe Festival website at www.macaucityfringe.gov.mo or the “Macao City Fringe Festival” page on Facebook.
