Marco Carvalho
How much effort did it represent to put together such an exhibition? We are talking about an event that brings together Macau’s six most relevant religions. It is true that in Macau there is not the kind of religious clashes that we see in other parts of the world, but, nevertheless, this is probably the biggest inter-religious event ever organized here in Macau…
Benedict Keith Ip: That’s right. This event is probably the largest event across six religions in Macau after the handover, after Macau returned to China. For what it’s worth, I am the curator of this exhibition and my role was also to coordinate the efforts altogether. For example, the venue was organized by the Taoist Association. That was the dealing we made with the Cultural Bureau, to make use of the Old Court Building, so to speak. And the Baha’i faith, they managed the printing needs and put the publications together. We did the catalogue together, of course, but in the end, they were the ones who printed the book with their publisher. They were also responsible for taking care of funding affairs between the Cultural Bureau and the different religions. Each part took on some roles. Islam, although they didn’t contribute much financially for the budget, they made a substantial effort to help put together the exhibition. They helped to organize the security. This was the best that they could offer. The Anglican Church, they helped to promote the exhibition. They have a lot of good contacts in the media, so they tried to find space in the newspapers for advertisements. We, the Catholic Church, were responsible for handling the sacred objects. They entrusted me with this important job, of handling their sacred heritage. This is a very special and important mission, probably the most important that I have ever been entrusted. Personally, it is a brand new mission: not only to handle the sacred objects, the sacred items in the Church, but also the sacred objects of Buddhism and all the other religions. It was an experience that allowed me, not only to open my mind, but also to open my eyes to the appreciation of all the effort that was put together by these six religions. Having the trust of all the other religions being deposited in me and my team was such a huge honour and responsibility. My team was not only composed by faithful from the Catholic Church, but also from all the other religions. We grouped together and formed a team of curators. A very significant moment happened here in Macau: we are living and working together in a community. We all came together and, having them deposit this trust in me, is a privilege. I feel honoured for doing this.
How long did it take to assemble this exhibition, to bring all these items together? And how hard was it? It is not the kind of event that one organizes overnight…
Benedict Keith Ip: Correct, correct. This is a year long project, in fact. But we spent most of the time, about eight to nine months, to confirm all the details and to decide on whether we should do the exhibition or not. In terms of decision making, actually, it took us quite a long time. In terms of operations, in fact, it took us only four months to assemble all things together. It was quite tight and quite challenging. The most important aspect was to have the exhibition centred on religion. This aspect in itself is a very difficult task to accomplish. It was very difficult to keep religion as the focus of the exhibition. It was quite a difficult task. Usually, these sort of exhibitions would be focused on arts, we would be able to appreciate items representative of different centuries. It is quite easy to organize an exhibition by chronological order or by different religions, but that was never our purpose. The purpose of this joint event, is to show that we are in collaboration, that we joined together to put forward the development of our society. This is the main effort. We used these four months to try to convene the main ideas, the core values and, then, to select the items, to select the objects and to try to organize the space and so on. It was a very tedious and long journey. During the last four months, we worked on this event practically everyday.
What sort of artefacts, what sort of items can be seen in this exhibition? How did you and the representatives of the other religions manage to find a balance between the chosen items and the need to express the core values of each of these six religions?
Benedict Keith Ip: I had the privilege to be granted access to all the channels of the six religious parties, the six different religious communities. The first thing I did was to interview the different religious leaders. I interviewed the Buddhist leader in Macau and the leaders of all the other religious parties, to get their fundamental ideas first. My aim was to understand how they perceive their religions: how they preach and what values are always in their minds. I have captured the foundations of the different religions and then, when my team proposed different religious items and religious objects to me, the first thing I tried to accomplish was to see whether these items, these objects could fit into their religions’ values first. I mean, among themselves. And then, among ourselves. The second challenge was to piece everything together among ourselves, to try to work on a common ground. One month was needed for this common ground to emerge. It took us one month to conclude all these intellectual works. It was a long journey, but we did it. I am glad that all religious parties accepted all these values that are represented in their objects, in their sacred items. This is very important, because all religions profess different characteristics, in terms of religious arts. Some religions, they are very focused on literature. They are focused on oral communication, on dialogue. Some religions, they like to express their values through things such as gestures and sculptures, sometimes in a hidden, symbolic way. They have different presentations and different representations, but we have to respect them. We have to find the median line, so that balance can be accomplished and they can present their own characteristics.
It is all a question of balance, in a certain sense. Apart from the exhibition, there will be also a series of workshops during the time in which the exhibition is being held. What sort of workshops are these? And what is the importance of these parallel events?
Benedict Keith Ip: This exhibition is focused on the religious and cultural heritage of the six religions portrayed. In terms of religious heritage, we are talking about the 109 sacred items that we brought together for this exhibition. In terms of religious culture, we hope to provide the community and the local society with a sort of face-to-face dialogue. In this sense, we established more than 30 workshops, aiming to promote this sort of communication. These workshops will span a huge variety of topics, from music and liturgy to prayers and catechism. We will talk about doctrine, but also the way religion impacts our daily life. There are workshops about arts and a whole different range of categories. Our aim is to show that religion is living among ourselves and its presence is a way of living. In this case, we hope to deliver an efficient face-to-face dialogue, so that the audience may have the chance to receive the true idea behind religious beliefs. Religions is not about mystery or superstition; it is not about something that is untouchable or imaginary. We hope to deliver some positive perspectives about the six religions, so that people can understand religions in a better way – in a true, positive way.
As I mentioned before, in Macau we don’t have the sort of clashes that we see in others places of the world between different religions. There’s a peaceful coexistence. In the past, the Catholic Diocese of Macau, together with the other five religions, promoted an inter-religious concert. Now, we have this exhibition. Is this a trend that the Diocese of Macau is willing to keep fostering? Is it something that we will see more often in the future?
Benedict Keith Ip: The inter-religious dialogue among religions has been carried on for a very long time already. Maybe in the past, we didn’t get such an opportunity to work together across a large period of time, but we are trying to get the younger generations to do more in terms of inter-religious dialogue. We have a lot of discussions, we planned a lot of activities to work together. In the past, we haven’t seen these big exhibitions, but we did have other initiatives: we pray together, for instance. Every January, we have an inter-religious dialogue with the Protestant Church. On different occasions, we also participated in different religious activities. After the handover, we have accumulated a fair share of experiences that led us to think that we should join together to promote these sort of cultural activities. Two years ago, we had a concert. And now we have a religious culture and heritage exhibition. I foresee that we will see more of these acts of cooperation in the future and I am confident that they will give a more positive contribution to the society. Although we profess different religions, in terms of cultural values, there’s room for us to work together, so that we can contribute to the society as a whole.
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