MESSAGE

This exhibition may seem unusual or out of place to the unaware visitor. However, for the reasons I shall list below, it isn't.

Historically Macau was, in a remote past, the bridge between the offer of Chinese silk bought in Canton, and the Japanese demand for that product. The exhibition - specifically conceived for this Gallery - finds a justification in this historical background. But there are further reasons behind this exhibition, such as the importance of diversifying, of showing.

Taking into account the decisive influence of Chinese culture over all the other neighbouring cultures, the eight kimonos, and the rest of the objects in exhibit, are shown as pieces with an intrinsic value rather than necessarily surrounded by technical explanations. They are deliberately shown in an invitation to the open fruition of the pieces in themselves.

This is also the manner in which the short story specially written by António Conceição Júnior integrates the catalogue. It is not a guide, it does not contain explanations for the exhibition. Instead, it establishes what Eight Kimono and a story is in its essence as an exhibition: a presentation seen purely from the artistic point of view, a call for the visitor to travel among the pieces.

At a time when all our previous exhibitions are already available electronically I would like to acknowledge, in the name of the Foundation for Co-operation and Development of Macau, the invaluable support granted to this exhibition by the Japanese Consulate-General in Hong Kong.

If those who visit this exhibition come to enjoy the beauty of the pieces, and understand the importance of past cultural exchanges that are incessantly renewed, then this exhibition will have fulfilled one of the main purposes of the mission that is inalienably connected to the cultural actions the Foundation for Co-operation and Development of Macau has been developing.

Gabriela César
President of the Foundation for Cooperation and Development of Macau