Art as a Means, Connection as the Goal — The Proximity of Community Art (I)

Before the term "community art" emerged, locals didn't have a clear concept of culture, entertainment, or performance. Traditional opera in temporary theaters, street performances in cinemas, on streets, or in plazas, graffiti on surrounding streets, and handwritten calligraphic shop signs were all cultural activities in which community residents could collectively participate. During festivals, there were stalls selling goods everywhere and bustling crowds enjoying the festivities, allowing all social strata to naturally integrate with life within the space, shaping the streets and communalizing the materials of life. In the past decade, Macau's economy has developed rapidly, people have naturally become wealthier, and concepts like consumption, entertainment, and leisure industries have changed us. People no longer stroll through neighborhoods to seek inspiration for life, and communicating with others has become meaningless. Citizens' activities have become concentrated in enclosed spaces, and we all spend our leisure time pursuing comfortable experiences. The community in our lives has become a burden, no longer enjoyed.

The traditional opera stage can be seen as the prototype of community art, with Cantonese opera stages visible in almost every district of old Macau.

Community art is about re-injecting the flowing waters of aesthetics into the spaces of residents' activities. The so-called aesthetic sense has its "universal necessity," meaning that the conditions for aesthetic appreciation are very personal and have objective conditions. Everyone's judgment of appreciation is different, but the ultimate goal is to evoke a pleasant response. William Morris, a British designer active in the late 19th century, once called for the sublimation of monotonous labor into artistic action through creativity. Ryo Yamazaki, in his book "The Community Planner," cites Morris's view and applies it to his community art office. In his past community design projects, he has always been able to evoke people's resonance with life through aesthetics. He organizes workshops, guides residents to design flyers themselves, takes photos to document life, etc., bringing people together after tea and dinner, subtly integrating aesthetics into citizens' daily activities and enriching their sense of belonging to their place of residence.

Ryo Yamazaki is a renowned community builder in Japan.

After the liberalization of gambling rights in Macau, the social landscape gradually experienced negative impacts, facing the problem of spiritual hollowing out over the past decade. From 2013 to 2019, the Cultural Affairs Bureau carried out related community art funding projects. Under this name, various cultural groups were supported to enter communities, attempting to re-integrate rigid cultural concepts, which were originally only found in artistic venues, with the general public. People who are generally busy with life often misunderstand that art is only for a certain class; the saying "everyone is an artist" is not just a slogan.

Macau rarely sees commercial enterprises funding community projects. In 2019, a real estate company funded a Zine group from Hong Kong to hold activities in the old city, which is how I learned about it through my participation.

In these years, there have indeed been quite a few practical cases, but there is doubt as to whether creations that meet funding requirements can truly reconnect people with each other and with places. Just as good community design is not built from the top down, to achieve the vision, ideas must be sustainable, allowing neighbors to personally inherit or happily participate. Annual plans often fail to sustain themselves locally or have participation thresholds, making it difficult for citizens to easily participate. Art still remains merely a tool to solve immediate problems, mostly used to achieve certain performance indicators. The common project forms launched in Macau are mainly twofold: one uses art to heal minds and explore social issues such as moral values; the other is historical exploration and guided tours. To achieve community identity and shared participation in life, there is still a long way to go.

Still from "The Laborers" by Stone Theatre.

The picture book "The Playful Ring of Time" explores the lives of seniors after retirement through拼凑組合 (piecing together and combining).

This community art project was abolished after 2020 and replaced by the "Cross-Year Funding Program," which has a maximum duration of two years and must compete with performing arts projects from different fields. This, of course, makes it difficult to see the mature development of art communities. For now, it still places more emphasis on single humanistic care issues, but whether specific communities are ready for the sudden arrival of community art, apart from most temporary, fixed-location art events in public spaces for performances or guided tours, a thorough understanding of local life still requires time to settle and embrace a culture of shared living. With the increase in community art cases, indeed many art groups are attempting to engage in deep cultivation over multiple years.

"Stone Theatre" has recently focused on caring for disadvantaged and marginalized groups. Its "Songs of Migrants" script collection leads readers to glimpse the plight of laborers in Macau, including two plays on this theme. Additionally, for several years, it has continuously organized the "Todos Fest! Inclusive Arts Festival," crossing boundaries with performances, screenings, workshops, and markets to care for and explore the development of disadvantaged groups in Macau, attempting to break down cold prejudices and use art to promote inclusion among various communities. "Sodaburg" 's "This Is the Best Age" project also uses different artistic fields for humanistic care, more precisely targeting the physical and mental health of seniors, with artists intervening and guiding seniors to lead richer lives, while also trying to open up intergenerational communication, with co-aging and co-betterment as the mission to promote social happiness. The latter also published the picture book "The Playful Ring of Time" in 2024 for this project, as an extended record of the activities. "Before I Was Born, Her Story and Her Sewing Machine" is more inclined towards a literary record. The Windmill Arts Group uses oral accounts to write about the experiences of female garment workers in Macau at that time, with poets, artists, and other third-person perspectives observing. Beyond book publication, it uses forms such as documentary theater and workshops. As time progresses, the garment industry has long exited Macau, and female garment workers may no longer worry about their livelihoods. Beyond nostalgia, it guides people to rediscover and look around at the fragments of the city.

"Before I Was Born, Her Story and Her Sewing Machine" allows us to understand the rise and fall of Macau's garment industry in the 1980s and 1990s through six interviewees.

Rua de Hac Sa Wan, rich in local life, is a frequent location for many community projects.

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