Creativity on Sale!
Local organisation Pin-to Books and Music presents Macau’s creative products at China’s creative market in Shenzhen
Months after the government mentioned an initiative to “further develop” a local “creative industry,” citizens are still waiting to see what kind of concrete policy will be put forward. But active members of local creative circles understand that waiting is just not a solution. First steps must be made, providing tangible examples using Macau’s existing creative assets. On the 12th and the 13th of July a group of Macau’s local creators successfully presented their products in “the biggest market in the world” – China.
Initiated and organised by Guangzhou’s City Pictorial magazine, the iMART Creative Market project has been on the scene since 2006 in population centres across China including Beijing, Guangzhou and Shanghai. This year, in Shenzhen, more than 60 organisations participated, and hundreds of unique creative products were presented on the plaza of Shenzhen’s huge MIXC shopping mall.
As the iMART collaborator from Macau, Pin-to Books and Music invited six other local associations to join them in participating, namely the fashion boutique Lines Lab, the artistic associations Meow Space and Poor Space, the youth magazine New Generation and the independent brands Single Child and Lamb+Duck. In addition to creative products, local electronic musicians Patrick Chan and the group Evade were also invited to perform at the two-day market-platform. Macau’s first-ever participation in the iMART national event proved an excellent occasion not only for Mainland consumers to gain awareness of Macau’s creative brands, but also for us local citizens to know better just what it is we have.
Situated on Senado Square just above the Starbucks coffee shop, Pin-to Books opened in 2003 and has since become an important cultural spot for local consumers. Famous for its cosy ambience – with sofa, coffee, cats and a carefully selected offering of books on art and literature – Pin-to Books was the first of its kind in Macau. One of the bookstore’s owners, Zi-Ing, explained that Pin-to Books was created to meet local art lovers’ increasing demand for cultural products. In 2007 the success of Pin-to Books encouraged him to go farther, and an extension called Pin-to Music was opened. Having worked in a music distribution company in Taiwan, Zi-Ing has a large network of contacts in both Taiwan and the Mainland. Each week he travels around collecting interesting new products to present in Macau. “Through books and music, we would like to create a platform of exchange for local artists and designers, providing them access to foreign cultural products as well as local ones. Products are important, but we also need a place to sell them.”
Indeed, apart from selling foreign products Pin-to Books and
Music assumes the role of distributor for local creativity. Mini-concerts and book launchings are organised in the space in order to introduce local creators.
Young musician Patrick Chan, for example, was introduced this time via the iMART platform in Shenzhen, and his first soundtrack music album is now available in Macau at Pin-to Music. “Young talents like Patrick need a distributing organisation like us. We don’t have a lot of money for promotion, but we do it anyway. We keep inviting interested people to come and share. During the exchange, we can influence young talents through discussions and encourage them to go further in their creation.” Zi-Ing concluded, “We do not sell things carelessly; we care for the quality of our products.”
text and photos by Alice Kok
for more information, please see: http://blog.yam.com/pintolivros
or
http://blog.roodo.com/pintomusica
