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| The exhibition 'Skola Gambar Enrique de Malacca' by artist Ahmad Fuad Osman. Photo: Ilham Gallery. |
News piece on the Skola Gambar Enrique de Malacca exhibition in KL, from the Star.
Five hundred years ago, Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan embarked on a historic journey to circumnavigate the globe.
Five ships with 270 crew members set sail on this perilous three-year expedition from Spain, among them an enslaved Malay sailor and interpreter named Enrique de Malacca, whom Magellan had acquired during the Portuguese conquest of Malacca in 1511.
In the Skola Gambar Enrique de Malacca exhibition at Ilham Gallery in Kuala Lumpur, Ahmad Fuad Osman revisits this historical event through the perspective of a person from the Malay Archipelago, by creating a fictional memorial based on historical evidence, scholarly interviews and oral religious records.
This staging of the Enrique de Malacca Memorial Project, curated by Simon Soon in conversation with historian Felice Noelle Rodriguez, is the project’s fourth iteration.
Previous versions were shown Ahmad Fuad’s mid-career solo exhibition at the National Art Gallery (2019-2020), the Sharjah Biennale (2019) and the Singapore Biennale (2016).
(C) 2022, by Enrique's Voyage
Enrique of Malacca's origin is a subject of debate. Three places are considered possible: Malacca, then a major trade hub on the Malay Peninsula; Sumatra, the large island adjacent to Malacca (modern-day Indonesia); and the Visayan Islands in the (modern-day) Philippines. The following article examines the three possibilities and the evidence available. Read more.