GuWei Museum by Sapientia Foundation.
“GuWei” combines the Italian founder’s acquired Chinese surname with his Chinese wife and co-founder’s surname. It is a combination that, in a certain way, mirrors the East-meets-West concept, which is the base of the Museum vision.
GuWei Museum intends to promote the knowledge of Chinese and foreign cultures through its collections.
The GuWei Museum is committed to passing on Chinese and foreign traditional culture to the next generation by organising exhibitions and cultural and educational activities. Through these activities, the founders aim to contribute to developing Hong Kong’s culture and art. As the first private Museum in the Southern District, the founders also intend to cooperate with artists. Therefore, artists are sincerely invited to exhibit in the Museum to allow the visitors to appreciate the interplay of ancient and modern Chinese and foreign culture and art.
The logo of the GuWei Museum and the Sapientia Foundation is the image of an owl. The owl has a long history as a special symbol in many ancient civilisations. In particular, Greek and Roman mythology symbolises wisdom: its bright and sharp sight can penetrate the darkness of ignorance and bring up the light of knowledge.
Those are goals shared and pursued by the Sapientia Foundation.
The owl has rich meanings in both Eastern and Western traditional cultures: in ancient Greek and Roman mythology, the owl is a symbol of wisdom. In Japanese folk culture, the “owl” is regarded as an auspicious bird, because the pronunciation of “owl” (in Japanese, 福來朗hukurou) is similar to “not working hard” (不苦勞 fukurou), so people believe that the owl will bring people a stable life. In Indian culture, the owl is the mount of the goddess of wealth, the goddess of auspiciousness, so the owl is regarded as a messenger of prosperity, and together with its owner, it leads the world. Bringing wealth and harvest; the owl is considered the “child-delivering bird” among Taiwan’s aboriginal Bunun people and serves as the guardian angel of babies.
Owls were highly respected in China’s Shang Dynasty. This was not only determined by the moral values and aesthetics of advocating bravery under the specific historical conditions of ancient society, but also because the rulers consciously used this to strengthen the rule of theocracy and fantasized about using it to achieve their goals.
The GuWei Museum passes on Chinese and Western culture and history to the next generation through exhibitions and educational activities, making the cultural value to spread continuously. The image of the owl is deeply rooted in the people’s imagination, and many modern folk works make use of it. For example, in “Harry Potter”, the owl becomes a messenger between two worlds, showing an image of wisdom. The 1998 Winter Olympics also used the owl as the mascot of the games.
The Museum concept integrates exhibitions, education, cultural exchanges and leisure life. The history and culture of different regions are narrated through exhibitions and precious antiquities from countries in the East and the West, such as ceramics, silverware, paintings, textiles, jewels, etc.
Cultural relics in different places not only carry local cultural characteristics, but also integrate various factors such as local craftsmanship and history. Therefore, even minor jewellery has major significance.
While appreciating the unique craftsmanship of the collection, visitors can also learn about the local cultural heritage. Entertaining and learning is the GuWei Museum’s approach.
Cultural relics and artefacts in different places are the creation of craftmanship linked to the people’s peculiar civilisation. Therefore, even minor pieces of jewellery have major significance.
