Female artists deliver global wake-up call

The original thinking about the event in 2018 (which took place at the Macao Museum of Art) and this year was that the biennial should extend to other cities in the Greater Bay Area. "But that's impossible for the moment," says Marreiros. "We must foster ground, regionally and in the world, gain experience, and then open the event to the Greater Bay, of course. But the pandemic hasn't allowed for any of these intentions to manifest."

What has manifested across the four sites in Macao in the meantime is an aesthetic feast for the senses – and a topical one at that. "The first edition of the biennial in 2018 had no aggregating theme," explains Marreiros. "So this time we were very brave in the second edition of the biennial to start with a theme: Natura." The idea arose at a time when environmental issues were at the centre of the debate. "When we discussed the organisation of this biennial in 2019, it made perfect sense, especially due to issues including the Amazon fires, global warming and other concerns worldwide," he says.