Swords should be celebrated not only as weapons, but as works of art, according to Antonio Conceicao, artistic consultant to the Macau Museum of Art. 'Swords were highly functional in the past,' he says. 'Kings and leaders bore elaborately decorated swords to manifest their political and manly power, whereas common soldiers used plain swords in battles. Since then, swords have been perceived as tools for killing and people's prejudice against them passes on through education. They found it just too intimidating to place swords in art museums.' To overturn such views, Conceicao, 54, a sword collector and amateur sword designer, is putting on the world's first contemporary sword exhibition, Masters of Fire - International Exhibition of Contemporary Blade Smiths, at the museum. The exhibition features 18 handcrafted swords produced by contemporary bladesmiths from nine countries, including China, Japan, the US and New Zealand. Accessories made of steel, such as watches, jewellery and knives, will also be on display. Conceicao says the exhibition is a good place for people to find out how steel (which dates from about 250 BC) prevailed through the course of human's civilisation. 'In the ancient past, bladesmiths were the sacred ones because they dared to upset the balance of Mother Nature and extract iron ore from it, which is later made into steel,' he says. 'Although machine guns have replaced swords in modern warfare, the influence of steel is still present in our society, particularly in architecture, although it's deviated from how ancient mankind chose to use it.' Despite its limited scale, the exhibition seeks to address broader and controversial social issues such as globalisation through art. By admiring how culturally specific each sword is, visitors are reminded of their heritage and cultural roots, Conceicao says. 'Our world has been so heavily penetrated by the force of globalisation - from which we learn, for instance, to dress in the same style of clothes no matter whether you're Chinese, Indian or American,' he says. 'We forget that we're from different cultures. But from how these blades are decorated and shaped, when a Swedish sword can look very different from a Chinese one, we're reminded of the roots of our cultural heritage and how it has changed.' Above all, he wants to broaden the boundaries of what can be considered art. 'Our exhibition has a pioneering vision to challenge the traditional concept of what art is,' he says. 'People used to think art could only be something irrelevant to practical usage. But why was it so? Right now there's a movement of renewal among museums. Even New York's Guggenheim Museum housed an exhibition in 1998 that proclaimed a motorcycle as art. Anything that involves design can be art. It's time for us to widen people's horizons.' Meticulous designs underline most of the swords on show. The contribution from Zhou Zhengwu, from Zhejiang province, is a Chinese-style sword with a long blade made from iron and steel with an appearance that harks to the weapons used during the Han dynasty (206BC-AD220). Zhou is among the few who defied the convenience brought about by the industrial age. The 37-year-old is one of the few bladesmiths left on the mainland who still perfects his work by hand, whereas most others file and polish steel with machines. 'Although I can design and make both Chinese and Japanese swords, I chose to bring one of my favourite Chinese ones because it's important to let people know the essence of Chinese traditional art,' says Zhou. Zhou was apprenticed to his sword-making father when he was 16, and says the status of the bladesmith has improved in recent decades because of a revival of interest in swords. 'When I was young, people didn't look up to bladesmiths because it was considered an unrefined profession,' he says. 'But now, more and more people regard swords as an embodiment of traditional art and skilled crafts and the position of bladesmith has risen.' Masters of Fire - International Exhibition of Contemporary Blade Smiths, Macau Museum of Art, Ave Xian Xing Hai, Tue-Sun, 10am-7pm. Inquiries: (853) 791 9814 or 791 9800. Ends Jan 15
