For nearly four decades, the Orient Foundation (Fundação Oriente in Portuguese) has served as a social cornerstone in Macao, nurturing ties between Portugal and China. Its headquarters are fittingly located just a short walk from Luís de Camões Garden, where the great Portuguese poet is said to have written Os Lusíadas – his celebrated epic poem from the late 16th century.
Adjacent to the public park is Casa Garden. Built in 1770, the striking white mansion with pink accents and green shuttered windows started out as the residence of Manuel Pereira, an affluent Portuguese merchant. It later served as offices for the British East India Company before being converted into the Luís de Camões Museum. That now-defunct institution displayed Chinese and Portuguese artwork belonging to renowned local collectors – foreshadowing Casa Garden’s current role as a vibrant cross-cultural hub for the city.
Under the Orient Foundation’s stewardship, many lively exhibitions, lectures, workshops, concerts and film screenings have taken place within the heritage-listed building. For most of 2025, however, Casa Garden was closed to the public for essential renovations.
President of the Orient Foundation Catarina Cottinelli describes the repairs as a “major priority” given the structure’s age and ongoing significance to the local community. Brown watermarks staining its white interior were an obvious call to action, she shares with Macao magazine. A trained architect from Portugal, Cottinelli is keenly interested in preserving the property for future generations.
For Cottinelli, overseeing Casa Garden’s restoration ranks among her proudest achievements since taking the Orient Foundation’s helm in 2023. The five-month overhaul, which began late last year, went beyond sealing the roof and reinforcing the plumbing. It was a major feat of rehabilitation requiring patience, precision and highly sensitive craftsmanship.
“Restoring a building like Casa Garden is akin to performing micro-surgery,” Cottinelli explains. “Constructing something from scratch is probably more straightforward.” While worn-out bolts were replaced and walls received fresh coats of paint, the rehabilitation used only original wood and glass materials in order to maintain Casa Garden’s architectural character. “Thicker contemporary windows are commonly used [when renovating old buildings] to block out external noise, but we wanted visitors to be able to hear the sounds from the garden – just like the people who once lived and worked inside this building did,” she says.
The refurbishment finished on schedule, allowing the Orient Foundation to welcome back visitors in early June. That timing was significant on two levels. Firstly, Casa Garden is one of 22 buildings within Macao’s UNESCO-listed Historic Centre, which marked the 20th anniversary of its World Heritage inscription in July. In addition, Portugal’s national day is celebrated on 10 June – the anniversary of Camões’ death. To mark these occasions and celebrate Casa Garden’s refreshed space, Cottinelli organised a pair of thoughtfully curated exhibitions.
Puppetry: a shared heritage
One of them, “Objects with Soul” (‘Objetos com Alma’ in Portuguese), took the form of a puppet gallery displaying more than 50 pieces from the private collection of Portugal-born, Macao-based educator Elisa Vilaça. Vilaça’s larger collection includes more than 1,000 puppets from around the world.
The exhibition showcased a number of traditional robertos – glove puppets used in Teatro Dom Roberto, a historic form of Portuguese street theatre performed by travelling puppeteers. These short, energetic skits combine slapstick humour with the antics of their iconic protagonist, Dom Roberto, recognisable by his red-painted face and squeaky voice.
String puppets representing traditions from across Europe and Asia were also on display, illustrating the art form’s widespread intercultural roots. Notably, Portuguese travellers have been captivated by Asian puppetry arts since the 16th century – a fascination well documented in their letters, diaries and books. The Dominican friar Gaspar da Cruz, for example, recorded his observations of puppet shows on the streets of China, while the apothecary and diplomat Tomé Pires described shadow puppet performances in Indonesia that reminded him of home.
The Orient Foundation sponsored puppet-making workshops as part of “Objects with Soul” in a successful effort to engage younger viewers. Sustainability took centre stage in one of these sessions as participants crafted marionettes using recycled materials.
The photographs of Frank Lei
The second exhibition, “When the Island Casts Its Shadows,” was a retrospective of acclaimed late photographer Frank Lei – whose portfolio captured the essence of Macao’s urban development. Born in Beijing in 1962, Lei moved to Macao at age 10. His first job was in journalism, but a passion for cinema led him to France, where he studied at Sorbonne Nouvelle University and École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs (ENSAD).
Lei emerged from Paris as a photographer in the early 1990s, and earned recognition for work produced during a 1992 visit to Cuba. He went on to exhibit internationally and locally. Back home in Macao, Lei taught at the Macao Polytechnic Institute and was the founder of a local art group. Lei died in 2022.
“When the Island Casts Its Shadows” paid tribute to an earlier exhibition Lei once held in the very same rooms at Casa Garden back in 2000. Of the 60 photographs on display in June, several were drawn from that earlier show. Some attendees at the latest exhibition’s opening ceremony were able to take home 25-year-old pamphlets from the original event, which had been serendipitously uncovered in Casa Garden’s basement by Orient Foundation staff.
The exhibition also displayed the kinds of cameras Lei favoured, along with examples of his drawings and writing.
Community at the core
With Casa Garden now fully restored, Cottinelli hopes to leverage the unique venue to engage a broader international audience – reaching beyond Macao’s Lusophone and Chinese communities. One long-term vision is to create a permanent space dedicated to the history of Casa Garden: the building itself and the many fascinating individuals who have passed through its doors over the past 255 years.
“I believe that this fact-finding and research endeavour could even become a big, beautiful book for guests,” Cottinelli says, adding that literary collaborations with other institutions are also on the foundation’s agenda. Valuable artistic exchanges between Macao, the Chinese mainland and Portugal will continue as well, she notes.
Above all, Cottinelli stresses, Casa Garden belongs to the community and the Orient Foundation’s purpose is to connect people. “My hope is that more people will visit the premises and attend the workshops, lectures and interactive events that Fundação Oriente hosts to enrich the cultural exchange among the Portuguese, Chinese and rest of the world,” she says.
