Souvenirs of A-Ma @ Franco Maputo – João Donato’s “kind of homage to Macao”

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Souvenirs of A-Ma @ Franco Maputo – João Donato’s “kind of homage to Macao”

6:21 CAT | 01 Aug 2016

An exhibition called “Souvenirs of A-Ma” by the artist João Donato opens at the Franco-Mozambican Cultural Centre on Tuesday 2 August at 6:30 p.m.

The exhibition, which will run for one week, is described by the artist as “a page from my field notebook. These are the notes of my trip to Macau, where I attended the annual Lusophone week arts and crafts fair. In an old bookstore flanked by souvenirs shops in the Castle of São Paulo tourist area, I found a reference to an 18th century scholarly Chinese text describing the Westerners who came to China at the time.

“‘Their letters are 23, and join each other to complete. The sounds of the words from different languages, as well as those of the wind and the rain and the birds and the animals, can be reproduced through these letters.'”

“And I marvelled!”

“Out of clay and my hands then emerged objects as useless as those offered to tourists in the shops of the Macanese alleys! I grouped them into 23 sets – tea services – as the 23 letters referred to by Cheong-U-Lam and Ian-Kuong in Beijing in 1751. The temple of A-Ma, located on one of the tip of one of Macao’s many peninsulas, probably already existed when the Portuguese arrived there, although the current structure may be from the 16th century. It was here where fishermen came to restock and pray for good weather.”

“A-Ma, also known as Tin Hau, is the goddess of the sea, from which derived the name of Macao. It is believed that when the Portuguese asked the locals the name of the place, the answer was ‘A-Ma Gau’ (Bay of A-Ma). This exhibition is thus a kind of homage to Macao.”

Born in Maputo in 1953, Donato learned ceramics in 2002 in Brasilia with the master ceramicist Cecy Sato. In 2005, he went to London where he studied under Daphne Carnegy at City & Islington College, and worked in London as a ceramics technician until 2011. He currently lives in Maputo. Donato has exhibited in Mozambique, the United Kingdom, Portugal, Sweden and Brazil.

Source: Centro Cultural Franco Moçambicano