How does Berlin compare visually to New York, the epitome of the modern metropolis? German photographer Gerrit Engel has lined the walls of Munich's International Design Museum with nearly 70 images of both, but it's not just a contrast in skylines.
Berline - which next month marks the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall - can't match Manhattan's array of skyscrapers, but in Engel's survey, its buildings have character to spare.
Engel, 44, is an Essen native who trained in architecture and photography in Munich and New York. His acclainmed 1997 debut as a photographer involved images of grain elevators, a theme that had previously drawn Walter Gropius and Le Corbusier.
In the current exhibition, continuing through Novermber 1, Engel examines his subject buildings like a scientist studying exotic beings.
His "portraits" of houses present individual faces that become a panorama of the city.
Photos from both cities are gathered in groups according to similar characteristics and history. There are massive enlargements of some images mounted in the middle of the gallery, among them such familiar edifices as the Trump Tower, Sony Plaza and Rockefeller Centre.
Anything but postcards, the pictures carry all the realism of broad daylight - no pretty red glow or even a blue aky. The soft, milky grey and white shades of the sky allow the details and nuances of colour to stand out in even greater clarity.
The show is a breath of fresh air, a chance to see these cities as never before. New York is renowned for its magnificent skyline, but it's remarkable to see the components singled out, such as the aptly named Majestic Apartments, built in 1931.
There are many such surprises, such as the fact - little known to outsiders - that Manhattan has white wooden houses. Engel's shots of the Morris-Jumel Mansion and the romantic Engine Company No 31, resembling a little castle, give New York a homier perspective than is usually depicted in the news media.
The exhibition is rather small but lots of fun ride. You can visit two great cities in the space of an hour and see both in a whole new light.
Find out more at www.Die-Neue-Sammlung.de.
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
BURMESE MONKS FACE PERSECUTION, SAYS RIGHTS GROUP
Burmese monks continue to face intimidation, repression and severe jail sentences two years after the junta's crackdown on anti-government protests, a rights group said yesterday.
Airport from Human Rights Watch (HRW) said some 240 monks were serving tough jail terms, while thousands have been disrobed or live under "constant surveillance" following their role in the 2007 demonstrations.
The protests began as small rallies against the rising cost of living but escalated into huge demonstrations led by monks, posing the biggest challenge to junta rule in nearly two decades.
The new report said the potential for a repeat of the protests is "very real" if the international community does not put pressure on the regime to enact credible political reform ahead of elections planned for 2010. It details the arrest, beating and detention of individual monks after the 2007 uprising, in which at least 31 people were killed as security forces cracked down on protesters in the country.
The junta has since closed down health and social-service programmes run by monastic groups nation wide and intensified surveillance of monasteries, according to the report.
It said many monks - who also face repression for their important social service role after the devastation of Cyclone Nargis in 2008 - have left heir monasteries and returned to their villages or sought refuge abroad.
The cyclone killed 138,000 people and prompted international criticism of the government's slow response.
"The stories told by monks are sad and disturbing, but they exemplify the behaviour of Burma's military government as it clings to power through violence, fear and repression," said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch.
"The monks retain a great deal of moral authority, making principled stands by monks very dangerous for a government that doesn't."
Meanwhile the rights group accused the junta of using Buddhism as a tool to gain political legitimacy - for example by lavishing gifts on selected senior monks and monasteries.
"It would not be surprising to see monks on the streets again if social grievances are not addressed," Adams added.
On Friday, Burmese authorities freed two journalists who helped victims of last year's cyclone and released several opposition activists as part of an amnesty for more than 7,000 prisoners, according to witnesses.
Their release followed another HRW report on Wednesday that said the number of political prisoners in Burman had doubled to more than 2,200 in the past two years.
Airport from Human Rights Watch (HRW) said some 240 monks were serving tough jail terms, while thousands have been disrobed or live under "constant surveillance" following their role in the 2007 demonstrations.
The protests began as small rallies against the rising cost of living but escalated into huge demonstrations led by monks, posing the biggest challenge to junta rule in nearly two decades.
The new report said the potential for a repeat of the protests is "very real" if the international community does not put pressure on the regime to enact credible political reform ahead of elections planned for 2010. It details the arrest, beating and detention of individual monks after the 2007 uprising, in which at least 31 people were killed as security forces cracked down on protesters in the country.
The junta has since closed down health and social-service programmes run by monastic groups nation wide and intensified surveillance of monasteries, according to the report.
It said many monks - who also face repression for their important social service role after the devastation of Cyclone Nargis in 2008 - have left heir monasteries and returned to their villages or sought refuge abroad.
The cyclone killed 138,000 people and prompted international criticism of the government's slow response.
"The stories told by monks are sad and disturbing, but they exemplify the behaviour of Burma's military government as it clings to power through violence, fear and repression," said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch.
"The monks retain a great deal of moral authority, making principled stands by monks very dangerous for a government that doesn't."
Meanwhile the rights group accused the junta of using Buddhism as a tool to gain political legitimacy - for example by lavishing gifts on selected senior monks and monasteries.
"It would not be surprising to see monks on the streets again if social grievances are not addressed," Adams added.
On Friday, Burmese authorities freed two journalists who helped victims of last year's cyclone and released several opposition activists as part of an amnesty for more than 7,000 prisoners, according to witnesses.
Their release followed another HRW report on Wednesday that said the number of political prisoners in Burman had doubled to more than 2,200 in the past two years.
Eid gatherings fuel fears of flu contagion
Muslims across the world celebrated Eid al-Fitr yesterday to mark the end of Ramadan, but authorities urged caution as large social gatherings and returning Mecca pilgrims fuelled fears of swine flu spreading.
In Cairo, where two people have died from the H1N1 flu virus and nearly 900 cases have been reported, preachers suggested that worshippers perform the traditional dawn prayer at home rather than at crowded mosques.
"We ought to cancel Eid prayers ...there should be a national campaign to keep crowded places clean and ensure they are safe for people," Suad Saleh, head of Islamic Jurisprudence at Al-Azhar University told the Englishlanguage Egyptian Gazette .Cairo airport authorities have reinforced swine flu testing measures as the end of Ramadan means the return of thousands of pilgrims from Saudi Arabia.
Fear of the virus spreading in the crowded conditions during the pilgrimage is shared by many other countries who are considering cancelling the annual Hajj pilgrimage this year.
Jordanians have been urged to refrain from kissing each other in a bid to combat the contagious disease.
"People should not kiss at social events and gatherings. Instead, they should just shake hands," the government's fatwa department said in a statement ahead of the Eid holiday.
In Jakarta, thousands of people queued for hours outside the presidential palace to pay their respects to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.
Indonesian officials fearful of the spread of swine flu set up thermal scanners at the open house event, which is part of a tradition whereby people throughout the country ask forgiveness from others for slights and offences.
In the world's largest Muslimmajority country, nearly 30 million people were estimated to have emptied out of cities and towns in a yearly exodus to celebrate the holiday.
The Transport Ministry said 184 people have died in the traffic chaos already.
The start of Eid is traditionally determined by the sighting of the new moon, often dividing rival Islamic countries and sects over the exact date.
In Iraq, Shi'ites loyal to the Grand Ayatollah Ali Husseini al-Sistani, the nation's top Shi'ite cleric, continued fasting yesterday, observing nationally televised and locally delivered messages that the new moon had not yet risen.
However those who follow the Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr ended the holy month of Ramadan early yesterday.
Iraq's minority Sunnis ended Ramadan on Saturday.
In neighbouring Iran, politics overshadowed prayer, with supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei taking aim at Israel, Western powers and the foreign media. In his sermon, Mr Khamenei said a "Zionist cancer" was gnawing into the lives of Islamic nations.
In Afghanistan, President Hamid Karzai extended an olive branch to Taliban militants trying to overthrow his Western-backed government.
"On this auspicious day once again I ask all those Afghan brothers who are unhappy or are in others' hands to stop fighting, destroying their own land and killing their own people," he said at the presidential palace in Kabul."They must come to their houses and live in peace in their own country."
Pakistani families uprooted by conflict with the Taliban face a miserable Eid, with no cash to splash on celebrations and desirous of returning to homes they fear no longer exist.
The UN said about two million Pakistanis were displaced as a result of fighting between the army and Taliban militants.
Meanwhile, residents of restive Indian Kashmir jammed markets in defiance of a rise in militant violence to stock up for Eid.
The festival to celebrate the close of the holy month will be held Monday or Tuesday, depending when the new crescent moon is sighted in the restive Himalayan region where Islamic militants have been fighting against New Delhi's rule for 20 years.
Shopkeepers set up extra kiosks to cater to the mad shopping rush.
Muslim separatists who are leading the movement to break away from India and join Pakistan, or declare an independent state, called on followers to show austerity.
In Cairo, where two people have died from the H1N1 flu virus and nearly 900 cases have been reported, preachers suggested that worshippers perform the traditional dawn prayer at home rather than at crowded mosques.
"We ought to cancel Eid prayers ...there should be a national campaign to keep crowded places clean and ensure they are safe for people," Suad Saleh, head of Islamic Jurisprudence at Al-Azhar University told the Englishlanguage Egyptian Gazette .Cairo airport authorities have reinforced swine flu testing measures as the end of Ramadan means the return of thousands of pilgrims from Saudi Arabia.
Fear of the virus spreading in the crowded conditions during the pilgrimage is shared by many other countries who are considering cancelling the annual Hajj pilgrimage this year.
Jordanians have been urged to refrain from kissing each other in a bid to combat the contagious disease.
"People should not kiss at social events and gatherings. Instead, they should just shake hands," the government's fatwa department said in a statement ahead of the Eid holiday.
In Jakarta, thousands of people queued for hours outside the presidential palace to pay their respects to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.
Indonesian officials fearful of the spread of swine flu set up thermal scanners at the open house event, which is part of a tradition whereby people throughout the country ask forgiveness from others for slights and offences.
In the world's largest Muslimmajority country, nearly 30 million people were estimated to have emptied out of cities and towns in a yearly exodus to celebrate the holiday.
The Transport Ministry said 184 people have died in the traffic chaos already.
The start of Eid is traditionally determined by the sighting of the new moon, often dividing rival Islamic countries and sects over the exact date.
In Iraq, Shi'ites loyal to the Grand Ayatollah Ali Husseini al-Sistani, the nation's top Shi'ite cleric, continued fasting yesterday, observing nationally televised and locally delivered messages that the new moon had not yet risen.
However those who follow the Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr ended the holy month of Ramadan early yesterday.
Iraq's minority Sunnis ended Ramadan on Saturday.
In neighbouring Iran, politics overshadowed prayer, with supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei taking aim at Israel, Western powers and the foreign media. In his sermon, Mr Khamenei said a "Zionist cancer" was gnawing into the lives of Islamic nations.
In Afghanistan, President Hamid Karzai extended an olive branch to Taliban militants trying to overthrow his Western-backed government.
"On this auspicious day once again I ask all those Afghan brothers who are unhappy or are in others' hands to stop fighting, destroying their own land and killing their own people," he said at the presidential palace in Kabul."They must come to their houses and live in peace in their own country."
Pakistani families uprooted by conflict with the Taliban face a miserable Eid, with no cash to splash on celebrations and desirous of returning to homes they fear no longer exist.
The UN said about two million Pakistanis were displaced as a result of fighting between the army and Taliban militants.
Meanwhile, residents of restive Indian Kashmir jammed markets in defiance of a rise in militant violence to stock up for Eid.
The festival to celebrate the close of the holy month will be held Monday or Tuesday, depending when the new crescent moon is sighted in the restive Himalayan region where Islamic militants have been fighting against New Delhi's rule for 20 years.
Shopkeepers set up extra kiosks to cater to the mad shopping rush.
Muslim separatists who are leading the movement to break away from India and join Pakistan, or declare an independent state, called on followers to show austerity.
Monday, September 21, 2009
TRYING TO PRESERVE A CULTURAL INHERITANCE
Can the kingdom reconcile the need for housing withits Bronze Age past By Michael Slackman
There is a great clash of values taking place in Bahrain, as it has throughout a region where fabulous oil wealth and the intoxicating influence of globalisation have often overwhelmed heritage and tradition.
The question confronting this small archipelago kingdom in the Persian Gulf is this:Can Bahrain protect the heaviest concentration of graves dating from the Bronze Age found anywhere in the world and still meet the contemporary needs of its people? Can it preserve its past while accommodating its present?
"People are demanding housing, they want development," said Al-Sayed Abdullah Ala'ali,a member of Parliament."They want everything relevant to their lives today."
In only a few decades, petrodollars and modernity have seen Arab states in the Persian Gulf experience increasing living standards while eroding practices that have defined identity for generations. Fishing and pearl diving have been replaced by petrochemicals and financial services. English has challenged Arabic as the language of business. Traditional crafts have become novelties. What little architecture of the past existed has often been bulldozed to make way for the glass and steel skylines of the present."It is a struggle between old and new, between cultural identity and recent developments that confront it, between authenticity and modernity," said Ahmad Deyain, a writer and publisher from a regional neighbour, Kuwait.
Bahrain is a collection of 36 islands in the Persian Gulf, though most of its 730,000 residents live clustered around the capital,Manama. Half a century ago, there were tens of thousands of burial mounds that linked Bahrain's citizens to the islands' ancient past.The graves rolled out under a baking hot sun, most about the height of a car, covered in small jagged slate-grey stones. Bahrainis commonly say there were as many as 300,000.Karim Hendili, a Unesco adviser to the culture minister, said the number was closer to 85,000.
He said that at most there were about 6,000 left in 35 burial fields. That is a figure everyone seems to agree on. And those remaining sites, he said,"are under severe,severe threat".
Built from about 2,500BC to 500AD, they offer a window into what Mr Hendili called "a lost civilisation of the Bronze Age". Bahrain is believed to have been the capital of Dilmun,which lay along a trade route linking the Indus Valley and Mesopotamia. Most of the graves contain a death chamber shaped like a boot on its side. The body was placed in the foetal position while personal items, ceramic pots, personal seals and knives were stored in the toe. The value of the graves is not,necessarily, in what they contain but in what they tell about the lives, values and funerary practices of an ancient civilisation.
"There is a saying here:'You cannot give priority to the dead. You must give housing to the living,"' said Mr Hendili, who calls the graves "burial ensembles of Dilmun and Tylos".
The minister of culture and information,Mai Bint Mohammed al-Khalifa, has been the driving force behind trying to preserve and promote Bahrain's past. She was instrumental in the first World Heritage designation in Bahrain and is working with Mr Hendili to try to have 11 of the 35 remaining burial fields listed as a World Heritage site, too.
But with graves, she confronts not only the existential push and pull of building versus preservation, but also the challenge of vested interests. In essence, it boils down to this:Bahrain's most disenfranchised have been asked to bear most of the burden of preservation, local officials said, because the rich and connected have often been allowed to build on their lands.
Even those who support preservation acknowledge that it has made it hard to convince lower-income communities of the value of such graves when they see, right next door,the houses of the rich and connected rise where graves once stood.
"The problem is, it's a game of interest,"said Yousif al-Bouri, president of the Northern Municipal Council, a body that represents more than 30 villages."There are all these signs that say 'You cannot do this, you cannot do that', and all of a sudden the signs are taken down and the mounds are taken out.These were government lands given to connected people who sold them."
Mr Bouri represents the village of Bouri,about 16km from the capital. Directly across a modern highway is another village, A'ali,population about 9,000. Both are majority Shiite villages and both are bordered by large fields of graves that remain untouched.
There are much larger grave sites in A'ali,too, called Royal Tombs, mountains of sand and rock often taller than the two- and threestorey breeze-block homes people live in. It appears that all of the Royal Tombs have been looted, turned to rubbish heaps years ago. The village has grown up around them.
"The village of A'ali is a unique place in the world where you have the interaction of contemporary life and funerary elements from the Bronze Age," Mr Hendili said. But, he added:"Their protection now is not guaranteed."
The issue of the graves adds to the perception among Shiites that they are secondclass citizens, discriminated against by the ruling Sunni elite."They say it's historic,and that we can't remove them. But in other places, where there are people with power,they can remove them," said Abbas Hamid Ali, 32, who lives next to one of the Royal Tombs."If we remove them, we can make space for cars," said his neighbour, Ali Hassan,30.
Mr Hendili and the culture minister, Mr Khalifa, have some support in the villages.But it may just be that the confluence of interests - the rich who want to sell their land, and the poor who need to build on their land - may be the force that prevails,some experts said. Those in favour of preservation say the government's strategy appears to be to do nothing, and hope that the problem will just go away."The government has turned a blind eye to this because of personal interests," said Mr Ala'ali, the member of Parliament. But that, he said, misses the much larger point, that the conflict should never have been defined as either-or. Preservation and advancement are, in fact, dependent on each other, he said.
"Anyone who has no past," he said,"has no future."
There is a great clash of values taking place in Bahrain, as it has throughout a region where fabulous oil wealth and the intoxicating influence of globalisation have often overwhelmed heritage and tradition.
The question confronting this small archipelago kingdom in the Persian Gulf is this:Can Bahrain protect the heaviest concentration of graves dating from the Bronze Age found anywhere in the world and still meet the contemporary needs of its people? Can it preserve its past while accommodating its present?
"People are demanding housing, they want development," said Al-Sayed Abdullah Ala'ali,a member of Parliament."They want everything relevant to their lives today."
In only a few decades, petrodollars and modernity have seen Arab states in the Persian Gulf experience increasing living standards while eroding practices that have defined identity for generations. Fishing and pearl diving have been replaced by petrochemicals and financial services. English has challenged Arabic as the language of business. Traditional crafts have become novelties. What little architecture of the past existed has often been bulldozed to make way for the glass and steel skylines of the present."It is a struggle between old and new, between cultural identity and recent developments that confront it, between authenticity and modernity," said Ahmad Deyain, a writer and publisher from a regional neighbour, Kuwait.
Bahrain is a collection of 36 islands in the Persian Gulf, though most of its 730,000 residents live clustered around the capital,Manama. Half a century ago, there were tens of thousands of burial mounds that linked Bahrain's citizens to the islands' ancient past.The graves rolled out under a baking hot sun, most about the height of a car, covered in small jagged slate-grey stones. Bahrainis commonly say there were as many as 300,000.Karim Hendili, a Unesco adviser to the culture minister, said the number was closer to 85,000.
He said that at most there were about 6,000 left in 35 burial fields. That is a figure everyone seems to agree on. And those remaining sites, he said,"are under severe,severe threat".
Built from about 2,500BC to 500AD, they offer a window into what Mr Hendili called "a lost civilisation of the Bronze Age". Bahrain is believed to have been the capital of Dilmun,which lay along a trade route linking the Indus Valley and Mesopotamia. Most of the graves contain a death chamber shaped like a boot on its side. The body was placed in the foetal position while personal items, ceramic pots, personal seals and knives were stored in the toe. The value of the graves is not,necessarily, in what they contain but in what they tell about the lives, values and funerary practices of an ancient civilisation.
"There is a saying here:'You cannot give priority to the dead. You must give housing to the living,"' said Mr Hendili, who calls the graves "burial ensembles of Dilmun and Tylos".
The minister of culture and information,Mai Bint Mohammed al-Khalifa, has been the driving force behind trying to preserve and promote Bahrain's past. She was instrumental in the first World Heritage designation in Bahrain and is working with Mr Hendili to try to have 11 of the 35 remaining burial fields listed as a World Heritage site, too.
But with graves, she confronts not only the existential push and pull of building versus preservation, but also the challenge of vested interests. In essence, it boils down to this:Bahrain's most disenfranchised have been asked to bear most of the burden of preservation, local officials said, because the rich and connected have often been allowed to build on their lands.
Even those who support preservation acknowledge that it has made it hard to convince lower-income communities of the value of such graves when they see, right next door,the houses of the rich and connected rise where graves once stood.
"The problem is, it's a game of interest,"said Yousif al-Bouri, president of the Northern Municipal Council, a body that represents more than 30 villages."There are all these signs that say 'You cannot do this, you cannot do that', and all of a sudden the signs are taken down and the mounds are taken out.These were government lands given to connected people who sold them."
Mr Bouri represents the village of Bouri,about 16km from the capital. Directly across a modern highway is another village, A'ali,population about 9,000. Both are majority Shiite villages and both are bordered by large fields of graves that remain untouched.
There are much larger grave sites in A'ali,too, called Royal Tombs, mountains of sand and rock often taller than the two- and threestorey breeze-block homes people live in. It appears that all of the Royal Tombs have been looted, turned to rubbish heaps years ago. The village has grown up around them.
"The village of A'ali is a unique place in the world where you have the interaction of contemporary life and funerary elements from the Bronze Age," Mr Hendili said. But, he added:"Their protection now is not guaranteed."
The issue of the graves adds to the perception among Shiites that they are secondclass citizens, discriminated against by the ruling Sunni elite."They say it's historic,and that we can't remove them. But in other places, where there are people with power,they can remove them," said Abbas Hamid Ali, 32, who lives next to one of the Royal Tombs."If we remove them, we can make space for cars," said his neighbour, Ali Hassan,30.
Mr Hendili and the culture minister, Mr Khalifa, have some support in the villages.But it may just be that the confluence of interests - the rich who want to sell their land, and the poor who need to build on their land - may be the force that prevails,some experts said. Those in favour of preservation say the government's strategy appears to be to do nothing, and hope that the problem will just go away."The government has turned a blind eye to this because of personal interests," said Mr Ala'ali, the member of Parliament. But that, he said, misses the much larger point, that the conflict should never have been defined as either-or. Preservation and advancement are, in fact, dependent on each other, he said.
"Anyone who has no past," he said,"has no future."
A matter of taste
Perhaps no one in Thailand knows more about kitsch than the folks at Reflections.
Veteran designers Anusorn Ngernyuang opened the boutique hotel Reflection Rooms in Bangkok, letting artists give each room its own character.
The 29-room hotel on Pradipat Road in Samsen Nai even has a restaurant called Kitsch. How kitsch is Reflections? Have a look at www.Reflections-Thai.com.
Veteran designers Anusorn Ngernyuang opened the boutique hotel Reflection Rooms in Bangkok, letting artists give each room its own character.
The 29-room hotel on Pradipat Road in Samsen Nai even has a restaurant called Kitsch. How kitsch is Reflections? Have a look at www.Reflections-Thai.com.
IN SNGAPORE, STREET PERFORMANCES BLUR THE LINE BETWEEN THEATRE AND REALITY
Arts festivals offer more than ticketed performandces and free street shows these days-they give us new experiences in innovaive theatre. These take lace outside the arts centres and playhouses, in places we regularly frequent, like cafes, and sometimes it's the viewers who become the actors.
I experienkced three such performances at the recent Singapore Arts Festival.
British experimental group Rotozaza presented "Etiquette", which it categorised as an "autoteatro", indicating that the audience would be putting on the show.
Cafe guests seated at tables for twoeach received a headset linkked to a CD player. On the tables were small blackboadrds and chalk, sheets of paper and tubes of ink.
Everyone remained seated while playing a role, first in Henrik Ibsen's "A Doll's House" and then in Jean Luc Godard's "My Life to Live", using their props and sying lines
In this case, though, it was a while before I could adjust my ears to unkderstand the British director and differentiate between his derection and the suggested dialogue. I also wished the script had been adjusted to the setting-a cafe in Singapore rather than in the UK-so tha I could relate what I was seeing to what I was hearing.
Across the table, a playwright from Shanghai seemed to be having similar trounle, and we traded apologies for our limited command of English, which caused both of us to miss cues while we cncentrated more on the director's instructions than our interaction.
This wasn't entirely what "Etiquette" creator Silvla Mercuriali expected.
"There's somethjing very rare and special when two people find a bubble in a public space," she said in a 2007 interview with the New HYork Times. "It's like when two people hav a genuine exchange of ideas or when they're falling in love. It's that sense of event and of moment that we're trying to recreate."
On another visit to the island-state I attended a walking audio performance called "Dream-Work"by Bodies in Flight, another British troupe. Headphones were again required, but this time no acting skills.
About 12 of us gathered around a british man who carried portable audio equipment that fed us the prologue wirelessly.
A woman appeared, seemingly on her way to work. Listening to her recorded inner monoloure as well as live dialogue through our head-phones,we followed her, watching her react to an MRT map and a postbox and buying a cup of coffee.
She then stopped at a Chinese temple, where the performance eneded with our "sound engineer" joining her in a song.
That evening I was at another MRT station for "Dream-Home" bu th eSingaporean troupe Spell 7.
This time we followed a Malayman carying a bouquet of flowers, and then briefly met the same British woman. An Indian woman Ied us back, and the performance ended at a residential high-rise where we bid gopdbye to a Chinese man who called the place home.
Interestingly,and intentionally or not,the four thespians represented the four major populations of Singapore-Chinese,Malay,Indian, and Caucasian.
Deftly crearted,both "Dreams" reconffirm how life and theatre are interrelated,perhaps in the similar way as our personal and public selves.
Since the sidewalk was the stage, we could see [assers-by react to our floating theatre,adding a further layer to the performance.
The heat and humidit were annoying drawbacks,since we walked quite a distance, and this may be why we see fewer walking performances in this corner of the world.
Still, with such keen atention given t every audience member's personal experience,it's a form of theatre that Thai playwrights ought to investigate.
The writfer thanks the National Arts Council's corporate communi cations team for its assistance.
IKEAS IN FLIGHT
Check out these websites for more innovtion: www.Rotozaza.co.uk,www.BodiesInFlight.co.uk and www.Spell7.net.
"Dream-Work" by the British troupe Bodies in Flight, brings improvisational theatre to the streets of Singapore.
I experienkced three such performances at the recent Singapore Arts Festival.
British experimental group Rotozaza presented "Etiquette", which it categorised as an "autoteatro", indicating that the audience would be putting on the show.
Cafe guests seated at tables for twoeach received a headset linkked to a CD player. On the tables were small blackboadrds and chalk, sheets of paper and tubes of ink.
Everyone remained seated while playing a role, first in Henrik Ibsen's "A Doll's House" and then in Jean Luc Godard's "My Life to Live", using their props and sying lines
In this case, though, it was a while before I could adjust my ears to unkderstand the British director and differentiate between his derection and the suggested dialogue. I also wished the script had been adjusted to the setting-a cafe in Singapore rather than in the UK-so tha I could relate what I was seeing to what I was hearing.
Across the table, a playwright from Shanghai seemed to be having similar trounle, and we traded apologies for our limited command of English, which caused both of us to miss cues while we cncentrated more on the director's instructions than our interaction.
This wasn't entirely what "Etiquette" creator Silvla Mercuriali expected.
"There's somethjing very rare and special when two people find a bubble in a public space," she said in a 2007 interview with the New HYork Times. "It's like when two people hav a genuine exchange of ideas or when they're falling in love. It's that sense of event and of moment that we're trying to recreate."
On another visit to the island-state I attended a walking audio performance called "Dream-Work"by Bodies in Flight, another British troupe. Headphones were again required, but this time no acting skills.
About 12 of us gathered around a british man who carried portable audio equipment that fed us the prologue wirelessly.
A woman appeared, seemingly on her way to work. Listening to her recorded inner monoloure as well as live dialogue through our head-phones,we followed her, watching her react to an MRT map and a postbox and buying a cup of coffee.
She then stopped at a Chinese temple, where the performance eneded with our "sound engineer" joining her in a song.
That evening I was at another MRT station for "Dream-Home" bu th eSingaporean troupe Spell 7.
This time we followed a Malayman carying a bouquet of flowers, and then briefly met the same British woman. An Indian woman Ied us back, and the performance ended at a residential high-rise where we bid gopdbye to a Chinese man who called the place home.
Interestingly,and intentionally or not,the four thespians represented the four major populations of Singapore-Chinese,Malay,Indian, and Caucasian.
Deftly crearted,both "Dreams" reconffirm how life and theatre are interrelated,perhaps in the similar way as our personal and public selves.
Since the sidewalk was the stage, we could see [assers-by react to our floating theatre,adding a further layer to the performance.
The heat and humidit were annoying drawbacks,since we walked quite a distance, and this may be why we see fewer walking performances in this corner of the world.
Still, with such keen atention given t every audience member's personal experience,it's a form of theatre that Thai playwrights ought to investigate.
The writfer thanks the National Arts Council's corporate communi cations team for its assistance.
IKEAS IN FLIGHT
Check out these websites for more innovtion: www.Rotozaza.co.uk,www.BodiesInFlight.co.uk and www.Spell7.net.
"Dream-Work" by the British troupe Bodies in Flight, brings improvisational theatre to the streets of Singapore.
A Rembrandt, hidden for 40 years, could fetch $41m
Christie's will offer for sale what it calls a Rembrandt "masterpiece"in December, and expects to fetch up to ฃ25 million ($41 million) in what would be an auction record for the artist.
The painting, titled "Portrait of a man,half-length, with his arms akimbo", was painted in 1658 and has been unseen in public for nearly 40 years.
The last time it was sold at auction was in 1930 when it fetched ฃ18,500 pounds, or today's equivalent of nearly ฃ6 million.
"We look forward to welcoming international collectors and institutions from around the world to what will be a landmark auction in the history of the European art market on Dec 8 at Christie's in London," said Richard Knight, co-head of old masters and 19th century art.
With a pre-sale estimate of ฃ18-25 million, one of the most valuable paintings to come to auction for some time will be seen as a key barometer of the strength of the art market, which has contracted sharply during the financial crisis.
The work will go on public display from Dec 4-8.
Soon after the painting was sold at auction in 1930, it was acquired privately by George Huntington Hartford II, an art collector and heir to a large fortune.
Hartford donated the work to Columbia University in 1958, and when students occupied the president's office in 1968 during a demonstration, it was removed and put into storage.
It was sold again privately in 1974 and has been in the same collection since. It was last seen in public in 1970 at the "Rembrandt After 300 Years" exhibition in Detroit.
In 1658, when the work was painted,Dutch master Rembrandt was forced to sell his house in Amsterdam and move to a smaller studio, having been declared bankrupt two years earlier.
Only one other painting by the artist dated from 1658 is known to exist:"Selfportrait" in the Frick Museum in New York.
According to Christie's, the auction record for a Rembrandt is ฃ19.8 million (then $29 million) set at Christie's in London in 2000. The top price at auction for an old master picture was ฃ49.5 million ($77 million) for "The Massacre of the Innocents" by Peter Paul Rubens set at Sotheby's in London in 2002.
Also on offer at the Christie's December sale will be "Saint John the Evangelist"by Italian artist Domenico Zampieri, also known as Il Domenichino.
The Baroque work has been valued at ฃ7-10 million.
The painting, titled "Portrait of a man,half-length, with his arms akimbo", was painted in 1658 and has been unseen in public for nearly 40 years.
The last time it was sold at auction was in 1930 when it fetched ฃ18,500 pounds, or today's equivalent of nearly ฃ6 million.
"We look forward to welcoming international collectors and institutions from around the world to what will be a landmark auction in the history of the European art market on Dec 8 at Christie's in London," said Richard Knight, co-head of old masters and 19th century art.
With a pre-sale estimate of ฃ18-25 million, one of the most valuable paintings to come to auction for some time will be seen as a key barometer of the strength of the art market, which has contracted sharply during the financial crisis.
The work will go on public display from Dec 4-8.
Soon after the painting was sold at auction in 1930, it was acquired privately by George Huntington Hartford II, an art collector and heir to a large fortune.
Hartford donated the work to Columbia University in 1958, and when students occupied the president's office in 1968 during a demonstration, it was removed and put into storage.
It was sold again privately in 1974 and has been in the same collection since. It was last seen in public in 1970 at the "Rembrandt After 300 Years" exhibition in Detroit.
In 1658, when the work was painted,Dutch master Rembrandt was forced to sell his house in Amsterdam and move to a smaller studio, having been declared bankrupt two years earlier.
Only one other painting by the artist dated from 1658 is known to exist:"Selfportrait" in the Frick Museum in New York.
According to Christie's, the auction record for a Rembrandt is ฃ19.8 million (then $29 million) set at Christie's in London in 2000. The top price at auction for an old master picture was ฃ49.5 million ($77 million) for "The Massacre of the Innocents" by Peter Paul Rubens set at Sotheby's in London in 2002.
Also on offer at the Christie's December sale will be "Saint John the Evangelist"by Italian artist Domenico Zampieri, also known as Il Domenichino.
The Baroque work has been valued at ฃ7-10 million.
IN LI, THE ELEPHANT RESTED
The story goes that, in 12th century, Princess Chamari (not to be confused with Chamathewee) fled south from Luang Prabang in Laos as it was being conquered, and when her elephant reached a spot between Chiang Mai and Lamphun,it went berserk and bolted, crossing rivers and valleys.
A settlement was established where the beast finally came to rest,and Chamari called it "Li".
Though today Lamphun's largest district, Li is still little more than empty land.Visitors are few.
"The word means'a hidden place in the woods," our guide Prisana Yoochana explains as we arrive in the small town of Li itself.
"In the old days,people came to Li by chance-they didn't mean to come here."
Perhaps it was the wish,or the curse,of the princess on the run,aiming to keep outsiders well away.
Li of the 21st century in nevertheless easy and comfortable place to visit.
Tucked away in the south of Lamphun province, Li is on wellpaved Route 106 as it descends into the remoteness,rolling grassland on either side.Here and there are small hamlets and bamboo shacks,and once in while a bell-shaped pagoda with a shining spire.
"Li is wee known as 'the Land of Dharma' because a number of great monks came from here," says the guide.
Khruba Sriwichai,the revered priest who made Doi Suthep in neighbouring Chiand Mai such a popular pilgrims' destination,was a Li native,as was Khruba Chaiwongsa, who integrated the faith of Karen people into a small "Buddhist empire" centred on Wat Phrabart Huai Tom.
The modern version of that temple's huge golden pagoda comes into view 10 kilometres from downtown Li.Built in 1995, the gilded structure fashioned after Rangoon's famed Shwedagon rises 65 metres to dominate the horizon.
There are four entrances to the pagoda around the base.A leisurely stroll is called for so that you can fully take in the murals.
The pagoda has 48 small stupas around its base,and at the very tip an umbrella as crown,which the local karen tell us is made of real gold.
"Making a pilgrimage to the Shwedagon Temple is an important way for the Karen to affirm their fait,but few make it to Rangoon," one of them explains as she hands visitors free flowers and incense with which to pay their respects.
We follow the "virtuous path" to the original Wat Phra Thad Ha Duang-the temple of the five pagodas.It sits atop the site of the original settlement of Li.
The elephant with wanderlust notwithstanding,Princess Chamari evidently established the temple after seeing five mysterious fireballs float above the locale in the night.
A sizeable chapel hall,with five gilded pagodas,stands on a knoll.The stupas themselves don't look as though they were built in the 12th century,but then they've been gold plated since.There is little to see of the old settlement apart from scattered molehills marking the ruins of city walls.
It goes without saying that Li remains blissfully undisturbed by commercialism and tourism.It's almost all rural,with rolling hills,forest and small rivers-the best of the beautiful north,in the opinion of many.
Ther are the temples and stupas to see,and then you can really embrace nature's beauty at Mae Ping National Park,which stretches over 1,000 square kilometres, extending into Doi Tao and Sam Ngao districts.
A highlight of a visit to Li is a boat ride through the park on the Ping River.The best part is a 140km segment between forested banks and chalk cliffs.
"If you prefer to get fully engaged with the water instead of just flirting with it,there are exceptional water-falls and series of cascades," says the park chief.
"You can also have fun hiking across the fields of Thung Kik,which are full of wildflowers."
And the park has seemingly endless tracks in and out of the woods,an unbeatable lure for serious mountain bikers.
After a full day's excursion,we return to "urban" Li.Princess Chamari's little town has no posh restaurants,just a noodle shack that keeps customers waiting for their food for half an hour.
If Chamari wanted Li to be a hideout, a hidden place in the woods,her wish has come true amid the vast empty space,with the citizens absolved of labour and responsibility.
In Li,things move slowly,often actually standing still.What relaxation,and what a great place to escape to!
A settlement was established where the beast finally came to rest,and Chamari called it "Li".
Though today Lamphun's largest district, Li is still little more than empty land.Visitors are few.
"The word means'a hidden place in the woods," our guide Prisana Yoochana explains as we arrive in the small town of Li itself.
"In the old days,people came to Li by chance-they didn't mean to come here."
Perhaps it was the wish,or the curse,of the princess on the run,aiming to keep outsiders well away.
Li of the 21st century in nevertheless easy and comfortable place to visit.
Tucked away in the south of Lamphun province, Li is on wellpaved Route 106 as it descends into the remoteness,rolling grassland on either side.Here and there are small hamlets and bamboo shacks,and once in while a bell-shaped pagoda with a shining spire.
"Li is wee known as 'the Land of Dharma' because a number of great monks came from here," says the guide.
Khruba Sriwichai,the revered priest who made Doi Suthep in neighbouring Chiand Mai such a popular pilgrims' destination,was a Li native,as was Khruba Chaiwongsa, who integrated the faith of Karen people into a small "Buddhist empire" centred on Wat Phrabart Huai Tom.
The modern version of that temple's huge golden pagoda comes into view 10 kilometres from downtown Li.Built in 1995, the gilded structure fashioned after Rangoon's famed Shwedagon rises 65 metres to dominate the horizon.
There are four entrances to the pagoda around the base.A leisurely stroll is called for so that you can fully take in the murals.
The pagoda has 48 small stupas around its base,and at the very tip an umbrella as crown,which the local karen tell us is made of real gold.
"Making a pilgrimage to the Shwedagon Temple is an important way for the Karen to affirm their fait,but few make it to Rangoon," one of them explains as she hands visitors free flowers and incense with which to pay their respects.
We follow the "virtuous path" to the original Wat Phra Thad Ha Duang-the temple of the five pagodas.It sits atop the site of the original settlement of Li.
The elephant with wanderlust notwithstanding,Princess Chamari evidently established the temple after seeing five mysterious fireballs float above the locale in the night.
A sizeable chapel hall,with five gilded pagodas,stands on a knoll.The stupas themselves don't look as though they were built in the 12th century,but then they've been gold plated since.There is little to see of the old settlement apart from scattered molehills marking the ruins of city walls.
It goes without saying that Li remains blissfully undisturbed by commercialism and tourism.It's almost all rural,with rolling hills,forest and small rivers-the best of the beautiful north,in the opinion of many.
Ther are the temples and stupas to see,and then you can really embrace nature's beauty at Mae Ping National Park,which stretches over 1,000 square kilometres, extending into Doi Tao and Sam Ngao districts.
A highlight of a visit to Li is a boat ride through the park on the Ping River.The best part is a 140km segment between forested banks and chalk cliffs.
"If you prefer to get fully engaged with the water instead of just flirting with it,there are exceptional water-falls and series of cascades," says the park chief.
"You can also have fun hiking across the fields of Thung Kik,which are full of wildflowers."
And the park has seemingly endless tracks in and out of the woods,an unbeatable lure for serious mountain bikers.
After a full day's excursion,we return to "urban" Li.Princess Chamari's little town has no posh restaurants,just a noodle shack that keeps customers waiting for their food for half an hour.
If Chamari wanted Li to be a hideout, a hidden place in the woods,her wish has come true amid the vast empty space,with the citizens absolved of labour and responsibility.
In Li,things move slowly,often actually standing still.What relaxation,and what a great place to escape to!
Celebrating the sunshine
It's amazing how time flies. As you wake up to Bangkok's rain-soaked daylight, there comes the time of the year again: the time that allows all your senses to celebrate an artful and opulent life under the sun.
Held at the state-of-the-art Esplanade Concert Hall, gala concerts are always the most popular happenings at the Singapore Sun Festival.
Originating seven years ago in Tuscany, Italy, before branching out to California's Napa Valley and Singapore, the annually held Sun Festival is recognised worldwide for its rich presentation of arts and lifestyle activities. The festival's universal concept, "The Art of Living Well", is glorified through music, visual arts, film, literature, wine, cuisine and wellness.
To be held for the third time from October 3-12, the Singapore Sun Festival - the only festival of its kind in Asia - has proved to be quite a success, with 30,000 festival goers in 2007 and over 35,000 visitors over its 2008 event. Now aiming to draw in 40,000 audiences from all over Southeast Asia, this year it will present more than a hundred free and ticketed activities with an inspiring line-up of world-famous artists, celebrities and chefs over its 10-day period.
"Although Singapore is a small country in geographical size, it's also a country with a vibrant and deeply rich cultural heritage of its own, which has made it an international mecca for great art in all of its manifestations. And with nearly 200 artists to participate in this year's event, Singapore is poised to host a truly international festival in a unique and compelling way," said Charles Hamlen, chairman of IMG Artists, the event organiser.
Wellness classes conducted by world class gurus are among the festival’s key activities.
The festival is set to kick off on Saturday, October 3,with a gala opening ballet performance by members of Bolshoi and Mariinsky theatres. Your sense of hearing will continue to be indulged over the following nights with concerts from Elvis Costello, Al Jarreau, Afro Cuban All Stars and The Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra featuring Jaap van Zweden, Sir James Galway, Conrad Tao, Nina Kotova, Angela Gheorghiu and Marius Manea.
For film and literature fans, there will be a number of movies screened, with a talk with Asian superstars such as Joan Chen. And also forums on writing for screen and stage by Nobel Prize-winning playwright, poet, novelist and critic Wole Soyinka will be held.
The issue of well living cannot be complete without honouring the art of eating. So the topic of wine and cuisine is always a very strong part of the event. Last year saw world famous chefs Charlie Trotter, Luke Mangan and Riccardo Genovesi. And joining the event this year will be Thierry Marx, France's hottest avant-garde, two-Michelin-starred chef; Floyd Cardoz, groundbreaking Indian chef from New York; and Art Smith, America's most famous homestyle chef.
Getting a table at restaurants of these superstar chefs can take months, never mind that you would have to save for the overseas plane ticket, so this is a great opportunity to let your palate be tantalised by their world cherished cuisine right here in Asia.
One of 2009’s highlights, Chef Thierry Marx.
Other than signature dinners, the event also offers a number of cooking classes and wine conducted by these famous chefs. And the Singapore Wine Auction and Gala dinner that benefits the Viva Foundation for Children with Cancer will nicely wrap up the 10-day fest.
To cater to the health-conscious, there are a wide range of health and wellness activities including yoga, Taiji, spa and seminars. This year's highlight hosts include Deepak Chopra, one of the world's greatest leaders in mind body medicine, and Saumik Bera, one of the best yoga teachers in Asia.
With museums and art galleries as its venues, the festival also features a number of art exhibitions including painting workshops, photo contest and the first-ever Paranakans and their jewellery fashion show.
"Even though the concept of this event is all-embracing and quite sweeping in its scope, the fact that there are so many events and world-acclaimed artists available to people of such wide cultural backgrounds and interests makes it particularly appealing to many visitors.
The strength of the festival lies not only in the concept of bringing people together from a wide variety of cultural backgrounds but in the extraordinary quality of the participating artists, coupled with the cooperation and collaboration within the local host community," the organiser, Charles Hamlen, said.
For more information or to book tickets, visit http://www.singaporesunfestival.com or http://www.sistic.com.sg
Held at the state-of-the-art Esplanade Concert Hall, gala concerts are always the most popular happenings at the Singapore Sun Festival.
Originating seven years ago in Tuscany, Italy, before branching out to California's Napa Valley and Singapore, the annually held Sun Festival is recognised worldwide for its rich presentation of arts and lifestyle activities. The festival's universal concept, "The Art of Living Well", is glorified through music, visual arts, film, literature, wine, cuisine and wellness.
To be held for the third time from October 3-12, the Singapore Sun Festival - the only festival of its kind in Asia - has proved to be quite a success, with 30,000 festival goers in 2007 and over 35,000 visitors over its 2008 event. Now aiming to draw in 40,000 audiences from all over Southeast Asia, this year it will present more than a hundred free and ticketed activities with an inspiring line-up of world-famous artists, celebrities and chefs over its 10-day period.
"Although Singapore is a small country in geographical size, it's also a country with a vibrant and deeply rich cultural heritage of its own, which has made it an international mecca for great art in all of its manifestations. And with nearly 200 artists to participate in this year's event, Singapore is poised to host a truly international festival in a unique and compelling way," said Charles Hamlen, chairman of IMG Artists, the event organiser.
Wellness classes conducted by world class gurus are among the festival’s key activities.
The festival is set to kick off on Saturday, October 3,with a gala opening ballet performance by members of Bolshoi and Mariinsky theatres. Your sense of hearing will continue to be indulged over the following nights with concerts from Elvis Costello, Al Jarreau, Afro Cuban All Stars and The Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra featuring Jaap van Zweden, Sir James Galway, Conrad Tao, Nina Kotova, Angela Gheorghiu and Marius Manea.
For film and literature fans, there will be a number of movies screened, with a talk with Asian superstars such as Joan Chen. And also forums on writing for screen and stage by Nobel Prize-winning playwright, poet, novelist and critic Wole Soyinka will be held.
The issue of well living cannot be complete without honouring the art of eating. So the topic of wine and cuisine is always a very strong part of the event. Last year saw world famous chefs Charlie Trotter, Luke Mangan and Riccardo Genovesi. And joining the event this year will be Thierry Marx, France's hottest avant-garde, two-Michelin-starred chef; Floyd Cardoz, groundbreaking Indian chef from New York; and Art Smith, America's most famous homestyle chef.
Getting a table at restaurants of these superstar chefs can take months, never mind that you would have to save for the overseas plane ticket, so this is a great opportunity to let your palate be tantalised by their world cherished cuisine right here in Asia.
One of 2009’s highlights, Chef Thierry Marx.
Other than signature dinners, the event also offers a number of cooking classes and wine conducted by these famous chefs. And the Singapore Wine Auction and Gala dinner that benefits the Viva Foundation for Children with Cancer will nicely wrap up the 10-day fest.
To cater to the health-conscious, there are a wide range of health and wellness activities including yoga, Taiji, spa and seminars. This year's highlight hosts include Deepak Chopra, one of the world's greatest leaders in mind body medicine, and Saumik Bera, one of the best yoga teachers in Asia.
With museums and art galleries as its venues, the festival also features a number of art exhibitions including painting workshops, photo contest and the first-ever Paranakans and their jewellery fashion show.
"Even though the concept of this event is all-embracing and quite sweeping in its scope, the fact that there are so many events and world-acclaimed artists available to people of such wide cultural backgrounds and interests makes it particularly appealing to many visitors.
The strength of the festival lies not only in the concept of bringing people together from a wide variety of cultural backgrounds but in the extraordinary quality of the participating artists, coupled with the cooperation and collaboration within the local host community," the organiser, Charles Hamlen, said.
For more information or to book tickets, visit http://www.singaporesunfestival.com or http://www.sistic.com.sg
Friday, September 18, 2009
COSMONAUT, PURPLE HORSES STORM VERSAILLES
Futuristic purple horses and a colossal Yury Gagarin go on show in Versailles, as the royal palace shrugs off controversy and confirms its place as a major new exhibition space for contemporary art.
The strikingly modernist works by French artist Xavier Veilhan will be on show in the chateau's cobbled courtyards and its lavish gardens, and inside the palace itself, until midDecember.
"It is a joy to be able to bring one of France's great contemporary artists to one of the world's greatest sites," said Versailles museum director Jean-Jacques Aillagon.
He began Versailles' role as a major modern art space in 2008 with a show by US pop artist Jeff Koons that divided opinion and provoked a lawsuit by a Louis XIV heir who felt it dishon-oured his family's illustrious past.
But the show - that ruffled the stately pomp of the royal court with a giant inflatable lobster and a figurine of Michael Jackson and his pet chimp Bubbles - was hugely popular with the public, drawing in a million visitors.
Aillagon now wants to alternate a foreign and a French artist at the annual shows, with Japan's Takashi Murakami, best known for work inspired by sexually explicit cartoons, billed for next year at the chateau near Paris.
The hundreds of thousands of visitors arriving at Versailles in the coming months will be met in the first courtyard by Veilhan's galloping purple metal horses dragging behind them an equally purple carriage.
"It's a nod to the departure of the royal family on October 6,1789, when the Paris mob brought the king and the queen and their children to Paris," said Aillagon.
Next they will behold a 4-metre sculpture of the Soviet hero Yury Gagarin, the first man in space. His recumbent body, made from cast aluminium and resin, is riddled with moonlike craters.
"He's a cosmonaut who was in the avantgarde of humanity, the first to have that view of the earth as an object," Veilhan told AFP.
"There's a parallel with what was done when Louis XIV had this palace designed in the 17th century," when it was seen as the most splendid palace in Europe, said the 46-year-old from the central city of Lyon.
Inside the palace itself are the Mobile, a shower of blue spheres suspended overhead,and the Light Machine, a thousand light bulbs making up a wall of transient images showing the artist diving into a lake in the chateau gardens.
In the grounds sculptures of contemporary architects sit atop pedestals and look out at the gardens and lakes, in one of which Veilhan has installed a 100m high fountain.
"The choice of architects was a logical one because for me Versailles is an architectural statement," Veilhan said as he stood beneath one of the sculptures, dressed in jeans and a blue tuxedo jacket.
He created most of the works specially for the exhibition. They cost 1.6 million (80 million baht) to produce and a further 600,000(30 million baht) to install, with most of the money coming from private sponsors.
Veilhan is seen as a major figure of the French art scene, but is little known abroad.
Versailles director Aillagon said one aim of staging such shows is to promote living French artists."The poor recognition of French artists on the international scene is a real problem,"he noted.
The throngs of tourists who braved lengthy queues to get into the chateau and its gardens were paying little attention to Veilhan's works.
The purple horses were popular with children who mounted the 15m-long sculpture to have their photos taken. But mostly people streamed past the works with little more than a glance.
"I hadn't really noticed them," said Catherine Gilmore, a 55-year-old primary school deputy principal from Adelaide in Australia, when asked for her verdict.
"They look out of place - a bit too modern,"she added.
The strikingly modernist works by French artist Xavier Veilhan will be on show in the chateau's cobbled courtyards and its lavish gardens, and inside the palace itself, until midDecember.
"It is a joy to be able to bring one of France's great contemporary artists to one of the world's greatest sites," said Versailles museum director Jean-Jacques Aillagon.
He began Versailles' role as a major modern art space in 2008 with a show by US pop artist Jeff Koons that divided opinion and provoked a lawsuit by a Louis XIV heir who felt it dishon-oured his family's illustrious past.
But the show - that ruffled the stately pomp of the royal court with a giant inflatable lobster and a figurine of Michael Jackson and his pet chimp Bubbles - was hugely popular with the public, drawing in a million visitors.
Aillagon now wants to alternate a foreign and a French artist at the annual shows, with Japan's Takashi Murakami, best known for work inspired by sexually explicit cartoons, billed for next year at the chateau near Paris.
The hundreds of thousands of visitors arriving at Versailles in the coming months will be met in the first courtyard by Veilhan's galloping purple metal horses dragging behind them an equally purple carriage.
"It's a nod to the departure of the royal family on October 6,1789, when the Paris mob brought the king and the queen and their children to Paris," said Aillagon.
Next they will behold a 4-metre sculpture of the Soviet hero Yury Gagarin, the first man in space. His recumbent body, made from cast aluminium and resin, is riddled with moonlike craters.
"He's a cosmonaut who was in the avantgarde of humanity, the first to have that view of the earth as an object," Veilhan told AFP.
"There's a parallel with what was done when Louis XIV had this palace designed in the 17th century," when it was seen as the most splendid palace in Europe, said the 46-year-old from the central city of Lyon.
Inside the palace itself are the Mobile, a shower of blue spheres suspended overhead,and the Light Machine, a thousand light bulbs making up a wall of transient images showing the artist diving into a lake in the chateau gardens.
In the grounds sculptures of contemporary architects sit atop pedestals and look out at the gardens and lakes, in one of which Veilhan has installed a 100m high fountain.
"The choice of architects was a logical one because for me Versailles is an architectural statement," Veilhan said as he stood beneath one of the sculptures, dressed in jeans and a blue tuxedo jacket.
He created most of the works specially for the exhibition. They cost 1.6 million (80 million baht) to produce and a further 600,000(30 million baht) to install, with most of the money coming from private sponsors.
Veilhan is seen as a major figure of the French art scene, but is little known abroad.
Versailles director Aillagon said one aim of staging such shows is to promote living French artists."The poor recognition of French artists on the international scene is a real problem,"he noted.
The throngs of tourists who braved lengthy queues to get into the chateau and its gardens were paying little attention to Veilhan's works.
The purple horses were popular with children who mounted the 15m-long sculpture to have their photos taken. But mostly people streamed past the works with little more than a glance.
"I hadn't really noticed them," said Catherine Gilmore, a 55-year-old primary school deputy principal from Adelaide in Australia, when asked for her verdict.
"They look out of place - a bit too modern,"she added.
Body parts, the new design stars
Squeeze lemons on a pair of breasts or chuck the trash into a lifelike life-sized posterior.After contemporary artists such as Damien Hirst, whose recreated skulls fetch record prices on the art market, designers increasingly are basing objects for everyday life on all sorts of body parts.
"The human body has become a source of inspiration," said trendspotter Francois Bernard at the Maison and Objet trade fair, one of the world's top home shows that took place in Paris last week.
There were blonde and brunette chairs covered in hair from Austria, fleshy-looking internal organs doubling up as water-bottles from Denmark,and porcelain fingers and hands beckoning to be used as coat- or hat-hooks.
A real-size Dutch garbage bin titled Fill Bill came in the shape of a man bent over double at the waist, his open posterior ready for the trash.
"The body has been very much in focus in Western society, in plastic surgery and the obsession with exercise, but only recently has featured strongly in art," added Bernard.
"The body, nature, life forms, are a primary influence," he added.
And alongside a stool pretending to be a brain and a chair a skull - iconic pieces from Ukraineborn designer Vladi Rapaport based in the Netherlands - came pieces closer to Mother Nature than to her earthlings.
Designer darling Philippe Starck's latest creations are tall womb-like seats topped by hanging gardens, while tiny nomadic apartment gardens that can hang upside down or be moved around were on show by France's GreenWorks.
"After the economic crisis, people want to be protected and enveloped. Designers are inspired by the softness of nature," said trend-watcher Vincent Gregoire.
Exploring the possibilities of low energy lighting as the world prepares to do away with incandescent lighting, a young Dutch duo connected actual dandelions to an electronic LED (light emitting diode) circuit to produce rivers of soft natural light.
"The little luminous sculpture reconciles nature and technology," said Drift Design.
Another technological lighting effort titled Fiat Lux , or the biblical Let there be light , was a lamp whose sphere-shaped switch levitates in the air when the light is on and attaches to the lampshade magnetically when the light is switched off.
"The user becomes a magician," said designer Constance Guisset.
Other innovations on show at the fair included a see-through toaster enabling users to watch the bread toast, a new 3-D fabric for outdoor furniture that lets the rain through and dries in minutes, and a concrete wall that doubles as a sound system.
"People want to stay close to mother nature,to authenticity, to the past," said award-winning architect Vincent Van Duysen."They are attracted by purity."
"The human body has become a source of inspiration," said trendspotter Francois Bernard at the Maison and Objet trade fair, one of the world's top home shows that took place in Paris last week.
There were blonde and brunette chairs covered in hair from Austria, fleshy-looking internal organs doubling up as water-bottles from Denmark,and porcelain fingers and hands beckoning to be used as coat- or hat-hooks.
A real-size Dutch garbage bin titled Fill Bill came in the shape of a man bent over double at the waist, his open posterior ready for the trash.
"The body has been very much in focus in Western society, in plastic surgery and the obsession with exercise, but only recently has featured strongly in art," added Bernard.
"The body, nature, life forms, are a primary influence," he added.
And alongside a stool pretending to be a brain and a chair a skull - iconic pieces from Ukraineborn designer Vladi Rapaport based in the Netherlands - came pieces closer to Mother Nature than to her earthlings.
Designer darling Philippe Starck's latest creations are tall womb-like seats topped by hanging gardens, while tiny nomadic apartment gardens that can hang upside down or be moved around were on show by France's GreenWorks.
"After the economic crisis, people want to be protected and enveloped. Designers are inspired by the softness of nature," said trend-watcher Vincent Gregoire.
Exploring the possibilities of low energy lighting as the world prepares to do away with incandescent lighting, a young Dutch duo connected actual dandelions to an electronic LED (light emitting diode) circuit to produce rivers of soft natural light.
"The little luminous sculpture reconciles nature and technology," said Drift Design.
Another technological lighting effort titled Fiat Lux , or the biblical Let there be light , was a lamp whose sphere-shaped switch levitates in the air when the light is on and attaches to the lampshade magnetically when the light is switched off.
"The user becomes a magician," said designer Constance Guisset.
Other innovations on show at the fair included a see-through toaster enabling users to watch the bread toast, a new 3-D fabric for outdoor furniture that lets the rain through and dries in minutes, and a concrete wall that doubles as a sound system.
"People want to stay close to mother nature,to authenticity, to the past," said award-winning architect Vincent Van Duysen."They are attracted by purity."
Dylan works to go on show
He writes, he sings,he sometimes exchanges blows in the boxing ring. But Bob Dylan is also familiar with another type of canvas as a quietly prolific painter.
Nearly 100 artworks from the iconic musician will be exhibited at the National Gallery of Denmark next year, the museum has announced.
The show, set to open late next year in Copenhagen, will include the world premiere of 30 large-format acrylic paintings as well as works previously displayed in European venues.
Several of Dylan's images reveal an affinity for some of the modernist masters, such as French artist Henri Matisse's works from the 1920s, said the gallery's chief curator, Kasper Monrad, who is organising the exhibition.
"Bob Dylan's visual artistic practice has only been discussed by art historians to a limited extent so critical examination and interpretation are called for," Mr Monrad said. Dylan first put his paintings on display in 2007 at the Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz museum in the small German city of Chemnitz.
Last year, a London gallery hosted an exhibition of his works.
Dylan recently told British music magazine Mojo that he has always drawn and painted "but up until recently,nobody's taken an interest. There's never been any support for it. Now I'm scrambling to keep up with demand".
Nearly 100 artworks from the iconic musician will be exhibited at the National Gallery of Denmark next year, the museum has announced.
The show, set to open late next year in Copenhagen, will include the world premiere of 30 large-format acrylic paintings as well as works previously displayed in European venues.
Several of Dylan's images reveal an affinity for some of the modernist masters, such as French artist Henri Matisse's works from the 1920s, said the gallery's chief curator, Kasper Monrad, who is organising the exhibition.
"Bob Dylan's visual artistic practice has only been discussed by art historians to a limited extent so critical examination and interpretation are called for," Mr Monrad said. Dylan first put his paintings on display in 2007 at the Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz museum in the small German city of Chemnitz.
Last year, a London gallery hosted an exhibition of his works.
Dylan recently told British music magazine Mojo that he has always drawn and painted "but up until recently,nobody's taken an interest. There's never been any support for it. Now I'm scrambling to keep up with demand".
BEADS OF LASTING HERITAGE AND PRIDE
The sky was still dark when Captain Boonyarit Chaisuwan, an archaeologist of the Phuketbased 15th Fine Arts Office, readied himself for another mission. His destination: Ban Dan School, in Kapoe district, Ranong province.The archaeologist was to meet with a group of 40 students and teachers from the school who took part in a heritage conservation project in which participants attended archaeological workshops, as well as an excavation process.
The project is the brainchild of Capt Boonyarit in a bid to promote conservation awareness in communities close to key archeological sites on the Andaman coast of southern Thailand. Ban Dan School and Wat Pathum Tararam were chosen because of their rice heritage, he said.
The archaeologist said the project, which ended earlier this month, was to serve as a model for conservation awareness campaigns.
"Bead hunting has become rampant in the area and we need to do something about it," he said, adding that his project was only an initial, but crucial, step to protect the local heritage since crackdown alone was not enough.
The archaeologist noted that the bead hunters turned to Kapoe and other archeological areas, including Phu Khao Thong village in Ranong's Suk Samran district,because they had already exhausted most of the resources at Kuan Lukpad in Krabi's Khlong Thom district.
Kuan Lukpad, which literally means "Hill of Beads",was well-known for its various types of beads, in particular,the face bead or the so-called "Suriya Dev" and Roman carnelian intaglio, featuring Peseus holding the head of Medusa. The craze for beads led to widespread illegal bead hunting over the past 30 years. Since every square metre had been scoured by local villagers who made a fortune selling beads to collectors, it is believed that there were no ancient beads left in the area and the "Hill of Beads" is just one on the list.
"The Kuan Lukpad phenomenon is a precious lesson for every community with archaic artefacts," said Capt Boonyarit, stressing that he didn't want other areas to ever repeat the same mistake.
That prompted him to launch the first project at Phu Khao Thong village in 2006, which raised awareness among the local people and encouraged them to better safeguard their heritage.
In his article,Archaeology along the Andaman Coast ,which was recently presented at an international seminar on Thai-Malaysian Archaeology Joint Project, Capt Boonyarit pointed out that Phu Khao Thong is still largely unknown to scholars but is no less important to Kuan Lukpad.
Some 2,000 years ago, Kuan Lukpad and Phu Khao Thong were both once prosperous port cities and trading stations where people exchanged goods with foreigners from Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Europe along the so-called "Southern Silk Route".
More importantly, he noted that archaeological evidences, in particular, clumps of glass and stone, as well as unfinished beads that were found in drove, indicated that both cities were not just bead trading stations as previously believed by many Western scholars, but major bead-making sites of the region. Other exquisite findings at Phu Khao Thong archaeological sites included gold ornaments - also in large amounts - from the Middle East; carnelian triratana beads, a symbol of Buddhism;and some Rouletted ware, a kind of pottery with a smooth surface. It was the first time that Rouletted ware (c.2nd century BC to 1st century AD) was discovered on Thailand's Andaman coast as this type of artefact was mostly found in Arikamedu, an archaeological site in India. It was also found in Java, Vietnam and Sri Lanka.
Capt Boonyarit said he believed that Phu Khao Thong beads were much sought-after items that were sent to other parts of the Malay peninsula and Southeast Asia,and said that more research is needed for this archaeological site. Phu Khao Thong and Kuan Lukpad eventually lost their importance as seaports between the 8th and 11th centuries AD.
"Excavation work has covered about 40 percent of the Phu Khao Thong area," he said. Yet he expressed great concern over the spawning bead hunting by local villagers - an illegal activity that caused extensive damage to the archaeological sites.
Capt Boonyarit conceded that even though the law stipulates that all unearthed antique items belong to the state and those who come across such items are required to give them up to the state, there exists many loopholes that make it very difficult for law enforcement authorities to deal properly with illegal treasure hunters.
"That is partially because beads are scattered in privatelyowned lands and the police are reluctant to take action since they recognise the private land ownership. This explains why illegal bead trading still continues today and we need cooperation from every party concerned to curb the illegal hunting."
But local villagers need to realise that bead trading is not a short-lived business, he said.
"They can probably pick 20 to 30,000 baht from selling beads. However, I have told them [the locals] that once the beads are all gone, there will be nothing left in the community. On the contrary, if they manage to keep the beads and other artefacts within their community, we can then develop it into a more sustainable way," he said.
To have that happen, the local community must take pride in their heritage and have the urge to safeguard it,insisted Capt Boonyarit, who recognises the potential of young students in promoting conservation awareness in their respective communities.
The heritage conservation project began with locating archeological study sites, he said.
"Focus is on the areas with traces of ancient human settlement. In the case of Kapoe, they are scattered around the school and the temple," he said, adding that it's important the designated areas remain "clean", which means areas that have never been searched by hunters in the past.
Students not only learn about conservation and the archeologist's work process as they help him excavate the archaeological pits, they also learn to treasure and value the artefacts they unearth.
Capt Boonyarit said he encourages the students to attach importance to all types of artefacts that are found during an excavation, while most hunters only go after beads."We are different as we keep and study all the artefacts that we come across in order to learn more about ancient human settlement," he said.
And the excavation at Ban Dan produced huge finds - gold beads, remnants of tripod pottery, the first time ever that such ancient items have been found, dated about two to 3,000 years, were found in the lowland southern region.
"The pottery, normally found in caves, helps us determine the time when the ancient people settled in the area," he said.
Capt Boonyarit expressed confidence that both Phu Khao Thong and Ban Dan, with exquisite heritage, have the potential to be developed as a learning centre and a tourist attraction in the long run.
He said if the local community is ready, then it could eventually have its own folk museum to showcase its heritage with pride.
"In fact, things go well at Phu Khao Thong village as people take part in bead-making workshops and Phu Khao Thong beads have become well-known in the market since people enjoy the extra income," he said.
It is his hope that Phu Khao Thong will eventually restore traditional heating methods in bead-making, using old-style kiln, as to add uniqueness to their final products.
When asked about his next project site, Capt Boonyarit said he may probably go back to Kapoe district.
"There is a whole lot more to search in that area," he said.
The project is the brainchild of Capt Boonyarit in a bid to promote conservation awareness in communities close to key archeological sites on the Andaman coast of southern Thailand. Ban Dan School and Wat Pathum Tararam were chosen because of their rice heritage, he said.
The archaeologist said the project, which ended earlier this month, was to serve as a model for conservation awareness campaigns.
"Bead hunting has become rampant in the area and we need to do something about it," he said, adding that his project was only an initial, but crucial, step to protect the local heritage since crackdown alone was not enough.
The archaeologist noted that the bead hunters turned to Kapoe and other archeological areas, including Phu Khao Thong village in Ranong's Suk Samran district,because they had already exhausted most of the resources at Kuan Lukpad in Krabi's Khlong Thom district.
Kuan Lukpad, which literally means "Hill of Beads",was well-known for its various types of beads, in particular,the face bead or the so-called "Suriya Dev" and Roman carnelian intaglio, featuring Peseus holding the head of Medusa. The craze for beads led to widespread illegal bead hunting over the past 30 years. Since every square metre had been scoured by local villagers who made a fortune selling beads to collectors, it is believed that there were no ancient beads left in the area and the "Hill of Beads" is just one on the list.
"The Kuan Lukpad phenomenon is a precious lesson for every community with archaic artefacts," said Capt Boonyarit, stressing that he didn't want other areas to ever repeat the same mistake.
That prompted him to launch the first project at Phu Khao Thong village in 2006, which raised awareness among the local people and encouraged them to better safeguard their heritage.
In his article,Archaeology along the Andaman Coast ,which was recently presented at an international seminar on Thai-Malaysian Archaeology Joint Project, Capt Boonyarit pointed out that Phu Khao Thong is still largely unknown to scholars but is no less important to Kuan Lukpad.
Some 2,000 years ago, Kuan Lukpad and Phu Khao Thong were both once prosperous port cities and trading stations where people exchanged goods with foreigners from Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Europe along the so-called "Southern Silk Route".
More importantly, he noted that archaeological evidences, in particular, clumps of glass and stone, as well as unfinished beads that were found in drove, indicated that both cities were not just bead trading stations as previously believed by many Western scholars, but major bead-making sites of the region. Other exquisite findings at Phu Khao Thong archaeological sites included gold ornaments - also in large amounts - from the Middle East; carnelian triratana beads, a symbol of Buddhism;and some Rouletted ware, a kind of pottery with a smooth surface. It was the first time that Rouletted ware (c.2nd century BC to 1st century AD) was discovered on Thailand's Andaman coast as this type of artefact was mostly found in Arikamedu, an archaeological site in India. It was also found in Java, Vietnam and Sri Lanka.
Capt Boonyarit said he believed that Phu Khao Thong beads were much sought-after items that were sent to other parts of the Malay peninsula and Southeast Asia,and said that more research is needed for this archaeological site. Phu Khao Thong and Kuan Lukpad eventually lost their importance as seaports between the 8th and 11th centuries AD.
"Excavation work has covered about 40 percent of the Phu Khao Thong area," he said. Yet he expressed great concern over the spawning bead hunting by local villagers - an illegal activity that caused extensive damage to the archaeological sites.
Capt Boonyarit conceded that even though the law stipulates that all unearthed antique items belong to the state and those who come across such items are required to give them up to the state, there exists many loopholes that make it very difficult for law enforcement authorities to deal properly with illegal treasure hunters.
"That is partially because beads are scattered in privatelyowned lands and the police are reluctant to take action since they recognise the private land ownership. This explains why illegal bead trading still continues today and we need cooperation from every party concerned to curb the illegal hunting."
But local villagers need to realise that bead trading is not a short-lived business, he said.
"They can probably pick 20 to 30,000 baht from selling beads. However, I have told them [the locals] that once the beads are all gone, there will be nothing left in the community. On the contrary, if they manage to keep the beads and other artefacts within their community, we can then develop it into a more sustainable way," he said.
To have that happen, the local community must take pride in their heritage and have the urge to safeguard it,insisted Capt Boonyarit, who recognises the potential of young students in promoting conservation awareness in their respective communities.
The heritage conservation project began with locating archeological study sites, he said.
"Focus is on the areas with traces of ancient human settlement. In the case of Kapoe, they are scattered around the school and the temple," he said, adding that it's important the designated areas remain "clean", which means areas that have never been searched by hunters in the past.
Students not only learn about conservation and the archeologist's work process as they help him excavate the archaeological pits, they also learn to treasure and value the artefacts they unearth.
Capt Boonyarit said he encourages the students to attach importance to all types of artefacts that are found during an excavation, while most hunters only go after beads."We are different as we keep and study all the artefacts that we come across in order to learn more about ancient human settlement," he said.
And the excavation at Ban Dan produced huge finds - gold beads, remnants of tripod pottery, the first time ever that such ancient items have been found, dated about two to 3,000 years, were found in the lowland southern region.
"The pottery, normally found in caves, helps us determine the time when the ancient people settled in the area," he said.
Capt Boonyarit expressed confidence that both Phu Khao Thong and Ban Dan, with exquisite heritage, have the potential to be developed as a learning centre and a tourist attraction in the long run.
He said if the local community is ready, then it could eventually have its own folk museum to showcase its heritage with pride.
"In fact, things go well at Phu Khao Thong village as people take part in bead-making workshops and Phu Khao Thong beads have become well-known in the market since people enjoy the extra income," he said.
It is his hope that Phu Khao Thong will eventually restore traditional heating methods in bead-making, using old-style kiln, as to add uniqueness to their final products.
When asked about his next project site, Capt Boonyarit said he may probably go back to Kapoe district.
"There is a whole lot more to search in that area," he said.
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Key Islamic leader urges forgiveness
A key Islamic leader is urging angry Muslims to forgive students who published images of the Prophet Mohammed in a sexual situation.
Leaders of 22 southern Islamic organisations had accepted a public apology from the college students when they were found to be "unaware of the sensitivity around the issue and had no ill intention behind their action", said Imron Maluleem, vice chairman of the Central Islamic Committee of Thailand.
The computer-manipulated image of fake LEGO toy packaging shown in a magazine produced by a group of Kasetsart University students has been circulated over the internet since 2006.
Danish toymaker LEGO said it had no involvement in the image.
The image depicts the Prophet Mohammed in a sexual situation and features English text.
The Sex No Go magazine - 1,500 copies of which were printed with financial help from the Thai Health Promotion Foundation - is intended to create sexual awareness among youths.
"There shouldn't be a further row about the issue because we have sought an explanation from the publishers,"Mr Imron said.
The Foreign Ministry had expressed concerns the matter might be inflamed overseas, he said.
"I urge all discontented Muslims to forgive them [the students] because they have already apologised in accordance with the right principles," he said."We shouldn't use our emotion to further justify our actions."
The students published the image because they were not aware of the sensitivities of Islam, especially about the Prophet Mohammed, he said.
The situation also reflects a lack of public understanding about Islam and Muslims, which is part of the cause of the violence in the South, he said.
Islamic organisations became aware of the publication last week through a copy obtained in Yala, even though the magazine had been available since January. They went to meet the foundation's officers in Bangkok and demanded an investigation and corrective measures.
They said they feared the publication could stir chaos, similar to 2006 when there were worldwide protests against a Danish newspaper which printed cartoons satirising the Prophet Mohammed.
The concern prompted the foundation to put a five-day public apology advertisement in seven Thai-language dailies.
It will also publish 50,000 copies of a book about the Prophet Mohammed to educate the public.
Last Friday, the foundation burnt 400 recalled copies of the magazine and an original CD.
It also decided to end project funding for the students as punishment for their failure to follow editorial procedures.
Leaders of 22 southern Islamic organisations had accepted a public apology from the college students when they were found to be "unaware of the sensitivity around the issue and had no ill intention behind their action", said Imron Maluleem, vice chairman of the Central Islamic Committee of Thailand.
The computer-manipulated image of fake LEGO toy packaging shown in a magazine produced by a group of Kasetsart University students has been circulated over the internet since 2006.
Danish toymaker LEGO said it had no involvement in the image.
The image depicts the Prophet Mohammed in a sexual situation and features English text.
The Sex No Go magazine - 1,500 copies of which were printed with financial help from the Thai Health Promotion Foundation - is intended to create sexual awareness among youths.
"There shouldn't be a further row about the issue because we have sought an explanation from the publishers,"Mr Imron said.
The Foreign Ministry had expressed concerns the matter might be inflamed overseas, he said.
"I urge all discontented Muslims to forgive them [the students] because they have already apologised in accordance with the right principles," he said."We shouldn't use our emotion to further justify our actions."
The students published the image because they were not aware of the sensitivities of Islam, especially about the Prophet Mohammed, he said.
The situation also reflects a lack of public understanding about Islam and Muslims, which is part of the cause of the violence in the South, he said.
Islamic organisations became aware of the publication last week through a copy obtained in Yala, even though the magazine had been available since January. They went to meet the foundation's officers in Bangkok and demanded an investigation and corrective measures.
They said they feared the publication could stir chaos, similar to 2006 when there were worldwide protests against a Danish newspaper which printed cartoons satirising the Prophet Mohammed.
The concern prompted the foundation to put a five-day public apology advertisement in seven Thai-language dailies.
It will also publish 50,000 copies of a book about the Prophet Mohammed to educate the public.
Last Friday, the foundation burnt 400 recalled copies of the magazine and an original CD.
It also decided to end project funding for the students as punishment for their failure to follow editorial procedures.
Monday, September 14, 2009
THE TORSO BECOMES A TRASHCAN IN THE WORLD'S TOP HOUSEWARES SHOW
Squeeze lemons on a pair of breasts or chuck the trash into a lifelike life-sized posterior.
After contemporary artists such as Damien Hirst, whose recreated skulls fetch record prices on the art maket, designers increasingly are basing objects for everyday life on all sorts of body parts.
"The human body has become a source of inspiration," said trendspotter Francois Bernard at the Maison and Objet trade fair, one of the world's top home shows taking place in Paris this week.
There were chairs covered in hair from Austria, internal organs doubling up a swater-bottles from Denmark, and porcelain fingers and hands beckoning to be used as coat hooks.
A Dutch garbage bin titled "Fill Bill" came in the shape of a man bent over double a the waist, his open posterior ready for the trash.
"The body has been very much in focus in Western society, in plastic surgery and the obsession with exercies, but only recently has featured strongly in art," added Bernard. "The body, natre, life forms, are a primary influence."
Alongside a stool pretending to be a brain and a chair a skull - iconic pieces from Ukraineborn designer vladi Repaport-came pieces closer to Mother Nature than to her earthlings.
Desinger darling Philippe Starck's latest creations are tall womb-like seats topped by hanging gardens, while tiny nomadic apartment gardens that can hang upside down or be moved around were on show by France's Green works.
"After the economic crisis, people want to be protected and enveloped. Designers are inspired by the softness of nature," said trend-watcher Vincent Gregoire.
Exploring the possibilities of low energy lighting as the world prepares to do away with incandescent lighting, a young Dutch duo connected actual dandelions to a light-emitting diode circuit to produce rivers of soft natural light.
"The little luminous sculpture reconciles nature and technology," said Drift Design.
Another technologicall lighting effor ttitled Fiat Lux was a lamp whose sphere-shaped switch levitates int he air when the light is on and attaches to the lampshade magnetically when the light is switched off. "the user becomes a magician," said designer Constance Guisset.
Another innovation is a concrete wall that doubles as a sound system.
"People want to stay close to mother nature, to authnticity, to the past," said award-winning architect Vincent Van Dysen. "They are attracted by purity."
After contemporary artists such as Damien Hirst, whose recreated skulls fetch record prices on the art maket, designers increasingly are basing objects for everyday life on all sorts of body parts.
"The human body has become a source of inspiration," said trendspotter Francois Bernard at the Maison and Objet trade fair, one of the world's top home shows taking place in Paris this week.
There were chairs covered in hair from Austria, internal organs doubling up a swater-bottles from Denmark, and porcelain fingers and hands beckoning to be used as coat hooks.
A Dutch garbage bin titled "Fill Bill" came in the shape of a man bent over double a the waist, his open posterior ready for the trash.
"The body has been very much in focus in Western society, in plastic surgery and the obsession with exercies, but only recently has featured strongly in art," added Bernard. "The body, natre, life forms, are a primary influence."
Alongside a stool pretending to be a brain and a chair a skull - iconic pieces from Ukraineborn designer vladi Repaport-came pieces closer to Mother Nature than to her earthlings.
Desinger darling Philippe Starck's latest creations are tall womb-like seats topped by hanging gardens, while tiny nomadic apartment gardens that can hang upside down or be moved around were on show by France's Green works.
"After the economic crisis, people want to be protected and enveloped. Designers are inspired by the softness of nature," said trend-watcher Vincent Gregoire.
Exploring the possibilities of low energy lighting as the world prepares to do away with incandescent lighting, a young Dutch duo connected actual dandelions to a light-emitting diode circuit to produce rivers of soft natural light.
"The little luminous sculpture reconciles nature and technology," said Drift Design.
Another technologicall lighting effor ttitled Fiat Lux was a lamp whose sphere-shaped switch levitates int he air when the light is on and attaches to the lampshade magnetically when the light is switched off. "the user becomes a magician," said designer Constance Guisset.
Another innovation is a concrete wall that doubles as a sound system.
"People want to stay close to mother nature, to authnticity, to the past," said award-winning architect Vincent Van Dysen. "They are attracted by purity."
Sunday, September 13, 2009
REFLECTIONS OF DIFFERENT CULTURES
When it comes to murals, many people tend to almost immediately think of traditional and religious images. In fact, Thai murals also reflect cultures and local life. Best fitting this description are murals from the reign of King Chulalongkorn - Rama V - when artists' imagery began to reflect Western culture and their own cultures in pursuit of a Thai identity.
STANDING TALL: One of the murals at Wat Chonthara Singhe, Narathiwat, portrays the Buddha preaching to Thais as well as reflects local-life activities. At the height of imperialism, the murals here were used to confirm to Britain that this area belonged to Siam.
"Thai murals document Thai culture, national identity, minority cultures to define Thai culture, Thai culture in opposition to Western culture, and the reproduction and glorification of Western culture," said Gerhard Jaiser, the author of the book Thai Mural Painting Volume 1: Iconography, Analysis & Guide.
He said the Fourth Reign (1851-1868) saw a sudden and major change in the style of murals. King Mongkut - Rama IV - was interested in the new Western-influenced style of painting. The leading artist of this new style was Khrua In Khong. His works led to the introduction of a central perspective in Thai murals. At first glance, these murals could be mistaken for representations of a European style. But small details, such as a hidden chedi, served to identify the country of origin.
Also in the Fourth Reign, many new subjects were introduced to murals. For example, the folk tale of Sri Thanonchai was told through murals at Wat Pathum Wanaram in Bangkok. The story of Inao was shown on the murals at Wat Somanat in Bangkok.
"After the Fourth Reign, there was no break or line [between murals].
"Khrua In Khong from the Fourth Reign introduced Western-style painting," said Jaiser, who teaches the German language and German literature at Universitas Indonesia and has a keen interest in Thai murals.
KEEPING COMPANY : One of the murals at Wat Nong Yang Sung, Saraburi, portrays foreigners of various nationalities living in the same house.
Nevertheless, the biggest change during the fourth and fifth reigns was probably a tendency towards narrating history, customs and ceremonies of life. The stories were taken from history or current affairs instead of Buddhist legends. Good examples are the murals at Wat Ratchapradit, where King Rama IV's remains were once stored. One panel shows the king observing the solar eclipse of 1868 in the South, where he contracted malaria and subsequently succumbed to it.
Commissioned and supervised by King Rama V, the murals at Phra Thinang Songphanuat, created for the king himself at the palace and later moved to the Marble Temple, tell the story of the Fifth Reign. The story starts from the king's monkhood, moves on to the funeral of his father, progresses to his new temples, shows the visits of foreign dignitaries, and includes his overseas and domestic trips, to his reform works.
Outside Bangkok and Thon Buri, the number of murals during the Fifth Reign (1868-1910) increased significantly. They exhibited a tendency towards documenting local culture.
For example, the murals at Wat Senasanaram, Ayutthaya, are a record of the painters' impressions of ceremonies, Thai daily life, and foreign influence. They portray local culture, Buddhist ceremonies, such as the Loy Krathong festival, and activities at the Giant Swing.
STEPPING UP: The story of Jujaka, a part of the Vessantara Jataka, is shown in a satirical and funny way on a mural at Wat Nong Yang Sung, Saraburi.
"Here, there is a mural of the Giant Swing and people on it. Some observers couldn't stand the sight, and are pictured throwing up! There are also murals showing children playing traditional games," Jaiser said.
At Wat Samupradittharam, Saraburi, the murals present the Thai Yuan culture of northern Thailand in unique detail, as well as daily work and local festivals. They also narrate the life and culture of local Chinese settlers while telling some religious stories. An interesting painting shows a warship of the Thai Army carrying the red Elephant Flag.
Meanwhile, the murals at Wat Thammikaram, Lop Buri, depict Chinese culture. "They portray the life of the Buddha, but the scenes show Thai and Chinese people living together. They depict both good and bad behaviour and also show the superiority of Thai society," Jaiser said.
However, the Thai murals on the Chinese are not political. "They just wanted to show that 'this is a very great culture of ours'. It's not really hatred or aggression. Many Thai murals show identity, like those of Isan and Lanna," Jaiser said.
He said the murals at Wat Phumin, Nan, are among the country's most interesting evidence of the classical documentation of the Lanna culture and a negative depiction of Westerners (the French, specifically) and their political exertion of influence.
CULTURAL TIES: A mural at Wat Thammikaram, Lop Buri, depicts Thai and Chinese people living in the same society.
They interpret the Jataka (tales of the Buddha's past lives) and reflect the juxtaposition of Western and Lanna cultures. Those on the north wall depict the Khatthana Kumara Jataka, whose main theme is orphanhood. Foreigners are shown as those who cause orphanhood. Those on the west wall feature the Nemi Jataka, depicting the people of Nan going to heaven and the aggressors apparently going to hell.
"Or the murals deliberately focus on the main aggressor - and this was, of course, the French - which is extensively depicted on the north wall. A direct hint of France is the flag, which is clearly the French tricolour. Foreigners are also shown in the harbour scene in the lower part of the wall," reads the book.
In Narathiwat, the murals at Wat Chonthara Singhe were created for one special purpose - trying to preserve Thai sovereignty - at the height of colonisation. "They are a documentation of Thai and local cultures to prove to the British Empire that the area should belong to Thailand," Jaiser said.
WISHING WELL: A mural at Wat Mahathat, Phetchaburi, shows a Westerner greeting two Thais.
One of the murals shows the Lord Buddha visiting Thais. Another one depicts British warships threatening Thais. Several other paintings portray the daily life of Thais and the Chinese in Thai villages as well as certain erotic scenes.
What is special about the murals at Wat Chonthara Singhe is their cartoon-like characteristic. Similar to them are the murals at Wat Tha Sung, Uthai Thani. Painted in 1928, they are highly original Western-style caricatures. They depict the life of the Lord Buddha by mixing modern lifestyles.
"The set is the city of Varanasi, but a modern car, Thai opium pipes, cigarettes and more are portrayed as in modern magazines. The artist named Phra In also included his own portrait and his signature.
"It's charming and funny," Jaiser added.
Also featuring the signatures and self-portraits of the artists are some of the murals at Wat Mahathat, Phetchaburi. Traditionally portraying the Vessantara Jataka, they are outstanding for their daring use of perspective painting styles and their sympathetic and admiring depictions of Westerners. They provide details of Western apparel and lifestyles and local life.
DISCLOSING INFORMATION: Some murals at Wat Tha Sung, Uthai Thani, and Wat Mahathat, Phetchaburi, include the artists’ self-portraits and signatures.
"From these mural paintings, we can see men taking marijuana and a Westerner greeting Thais," Jaiser noted.
He said many murals from the fifth to the seventh reign reflect a tendency of developing local styles, such as those at Wat Ban Yang, Wat Nong Yang Sung and Wat Nong No Nuea in Saraburi, and Wat Pichaipuranaram in Uthai Thani.
After the Fifth Reign, the tradition of murals in Bangkok came to an abrupt end. A few murals were created during the Sixth Reign (1910-1925) by Thai and foreign artists in a neoclassical style, such as the fresco murals at Wat Rachathiwat, Bangkok.
However, murals survived longer outside Bangkok and Thon Buri. During the fifth and sixth reigns, more artists from the central region dared to go their own ways. In the northeast and the south, muralists originally followed the central region's styles but later developed their own. They were more independent in their choice of topics.
"Many murals from the Fifth Reign reflect and discuss Western culture. Many others like Isan and Lanna ones show [local] identity," Jaiser said.
ENJOYING LIFE: A mural at Wat Tha Sung, Uthai Thani, shows Western-style caricatures depicting the life of the Lord Buddha by mixing modern lifestyles like a modern car and cigarettes.
PULLING STRINGS: Some of the murals at Wat Phumin, Nan, negatively depict Westerners and their political use of influence.
STANDING TALL: One of the murals at Wat Chonthara Singhe, Narathiwat, portrays the Buddha preaching to Thais as well as reflects local-life activities. At the height of imperialism, the murals here were used to confirm to Britain that this area belonged to Siam.
"Thai murals document Thai culture, national identity, minority cultures to define Thai culture, Thai culture in opposition to Western culture, and the reproduction and glorification of Western culture," said Gerhard Jaiser, the author of the book Thai Mural Painting Volume 1: Iconography, Analysis & Guide.
He said the Fourth Reign (1851-1868) saw a sudden and major change in the style of murals. King Mongkut - Rama IV - was interested in the new Western-influenced style of painting. The leading artist of this new style was Khrua In Khong. His works led to the introduction of a central perspective in Thai murals. At first glance, these murals could be mistaken for representations of a European style. But small details, such as a hidden chedi, served to identify the country of origin.
Also in the Fourth Reign, many new subjects were introduced to murals. For example, the folk tale of Sri Thanonchai was told through murals at Wat Pathum Wanaram in Bangkok. The story of Inao was shown on the murals at Wat Somanat in Bangkok.
"After the Fourth Reign, there was no break or line [between murals].
"Khrua In Khong from the Fourth Reign introduced Western-style painting," said Jaiser, who teaches the German language and German literature at Universitas Indonesia and has a keen interest in Thai murals.
KEEPING COMPANY : One of the murals at Wat Nong Yang Sung, Saraburi, portrays foreigners of various nationalities living in the same house.
Nevertheless, the biggest change during the fourth and fifth reigns was probably a tendency towards narrating history, customs and ceremonies of life. The stories were taken from history or current affairs instead of Buddhist legends. Good examples are the murals at Wat Ratchapradit, where King Rama IV's remains were once stored. One panel shows the king observing the solar eclipse of 1868 in the South, where he contracted malaria and subsequently succumbed to it.
Commissioned and supervised by King Rama V, the murals at Phra Thinang Songphanuat, created for the king himself at the palace and later moved to the Marble Temple, tell the story of the Fifth Reign. The story starts from the king's monkhood, moves on to the funeral of his father, progresses to his new temples, shows the visits of foreign dignitaries, and includes his overseas and domestic trips, to his reform works.
Outside Bangkok and Thon Buri, the number of murals during the Fifth Reign (1868-1910) increased significantly. They exhibited a tendency towards documenting local culture.
For example, the murals at Wat Senasanaram, Ayutthaya, are a record of the painters' impressions of ceremonies, Thai daily life, and foreign influence. They portray local culture, Buddhist ceremonies, such as the Loy Krathong festival, and activities at the Giant Swing.
STEPPING UP: The story of Jujaka, a part of the Vessantara Jataka, is shown in a satirical and funny way on a mural at Wat Nong Yang Sung, Saraburi.
"Here, there is a mural of the Giant Swing and people on it. Some observers couldn't stand the sight, and are pictured throwing up! There are also murals showing children playing traditional games," Jaiser said.
At Wat Samupradittharam, Saraburi, the murals present the Thai Yuan culture of northern Thailand in unique detail, as well as daily work and local festivals. They also narrate the life and culture of local Chinese settlers while telling some religious stories. An interesting painting shows a warship of the Thai Army carrying the red Elephant Flag.
Meanwhile, the murals at Wat Thammikaram, Lop Buri, depict Chinese culture. "They portray the life of the Buddha, but the scenes show Thai and Chinese people living together. They depict both good and bad behaviour and also show the superiority of Thai society," Jaiser said.
However, the Thai murals on the Chinese are not political. "They just wanted to show that 'this is a very great culture of ours'. It's not really hatred or aggression. Many Thai murals show identity, like those of Isan and Lanna," Jaiser said.
He said the murals at Wat Phumin, Nan, are among the country's most interesting evidence of the classical documentation of the Lanna culture and a negative depiction of Westerners (the French, specifically) and their political exertion of influence.
CULTURAL TIES: A mural at Wat Thammikaram, Lop Buri, depicts Thai and Chinese people living in the same society.
They interpret the Jataka (tales of the Buddha's past lives) and reflect the juxtaposition of Western and Lanna cultures. Those on the north wall depict the Khatthana Kumara Jataka, whose main theme is orphanhood. Foreigners are shown as those who cause orphanhood. Those on the west wall feature the Nemi Jataka, depicting the people of Nan going to heaven and the aggressors apparently going to hell.
"Or the murals deliberately focus on the main aggressor - and this was, of course, the French - which is extensively depicted on the north wall. A direct hint of France is the flag, which is clearly the French tricolour. Foreigners are also shown in the harbour scene in the lower part of the wall," reads the book.
In Narathiwat, the murals at Wat Chonthara Singhe were created for one special purpose - trying to preserve Thai sovereignty - at the height of colonisation. "They are a documentation of Thai and local cultures to prove to the British Empire that the area should belong to Thailand," Jaiser said.
WISHING WELL: A mural at Wat Mahathat, Phetchaburi, shows a Westerner greeting two Thais.
One of the murals shows the Lord Buddha visiting Thais. Another one depicts British warships threatening Thais. Several other paintings portray the daily life of Thais and the Chinese in Thai villages as well as certain erotic scenes.
What is special about the murals at Wat Chonthara Singhe is their cartoon-like characteristic. Similar to them are the murals at Wat Tha Sung, Uthai Thani. Painted in 1928, they are highly original Western-style caricatures. They depict the life of the Lord Buddha by mixing modern lifestyles.
"The set is the city of Varanasi, but a modern car, Thai opium pipes, cigarettes and more are portrayed as in modern magazines. The artist named Phra In also included his own portrait and his signature.
"It's charming and funny," Jaiser added.
Also featuring the signatures and self-portraits of the artists are some of the murals at Wat Mahathat, Phetchaburi. Traditionally portraying the Vessantara Jataka, they are outstanding for their daring use of perspective painting styles and their sympathetic and admiring depictions of Westerners. They provide details of Western apparel and lifestyles and local life.
DISCLOSING INFORMATION: Some murals at Wat Tha Sung, Uthai Thani, and Wat Mahathat, Phetchaburi, include the artists’ self-portraits and signatures.
"From these mural paintings, we can see men taking marijuana and a Westerner greeting Thais," Jaiser noted.
He said many murals from the fifth to the seventh reign reflect a tendency of developing local styles, such as those at Wat Ban Yang, Wat Nong Yang Sung and Wat Nong No Nuea in Saraburi, and Wat Pichaipuranaram in Uthai Thani.
After the Fifth Reign, the tradition of murals in Bangkok came to an abrupt end. A few murals were created during the Sixth Reign (1910-1925) by Thai and foreign artists in a neoclassical style, such as the fresco murals at Wat Rachathiwat, Bangkok.
However, murals survived longer outside Bangkok and Thon Buri. During the fifth and sixth reigns, more artists from the central region dared to go their own ways. In the northeast and the south, muralists originally followed the central region's styles but later developed their own. They were more independent in their choice of topics.
"Many murals from the Fifth Reign reflect and discuss Western culture. Many others like Isan and Lanna ones show [local] identity," Jaiser said.
ENJOYING LIFE: A mural at Wat Tha Sung, Uthai Thani, shows Western-style caricatures depicting the life of the Lord Buddha by mixing modern lifestyles like a modern car and cigarettes.
PULLING STRINGS: Some of the murals at Wat Phumin, Nan, negatively depict Westerners and their political use of influence.
Friday, September 11, 2009
Dalai Lama's next trip "will anger China"
The Dalai Lama plans to visit a northeast Indian state that China claims as its territory in November, a trip that could again rile Beijing following its denunciations of his visit to Taiwan this month.
"He plans to be in Arunachal Pradesh in the second week of November,"Chhime Chhoekyapa, the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader's aide, said.
"He is going there for teaching. This has nothing to do with politics, there is nothing political about it."
The visit is almost certain to draw protests from China, which claims Arunachal Pradesh as part of its territory,and could become yet another irritant in Beijing-New Delhi relations, dogged by a border dispute.
The travel plan was announced a week after the completion of his visit to Taiwan,a self-ruled island claimed by Beijing,which denounced the trip.
A visit to Arunachal Pradesh could now draw further attention to China's treatment of Tibetan activists and the Dalai Lama's calls for cultural and religious freedoms and autonomy.
"The timing of his trip [to Arunachal Pradesh] is significant. It comes while the debate over his visit to Taiwan is still hot," said Bhaskar Roy, a New Delhibased China expert.
"Tibetans are as good at playing these games as the Chinese. They know such a visit will keep up the pressure on China."
The trip has ramifications for IndiaChina relations as well.
India and China fought a short war in 1962 and, despite burgeoning trade in recent years, mistrust remains. Both sides jostle for resources and influence as they seek a global role.
"From India's point of view the Dalai Lama's visit will restate Arunachal Pradesh as Indian territory," said Mr Roy."For that reason, we can expect statements against the visit from the Chinese."
The Dalai Lama fled Tibet through Arunachal Pradesh.
"He plans to be in Arunachal Pradesh in the second week of November,"Chhime Chhoekyapa, the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader's aide, said.
"He is going there for teaching. This has nothing to do with politics, there is nothing political about it."
The visit is almost certain to draw protests from China, which claims Arunachal Pradesh as part of its territory,and could become yet another irritant in Beijing-New Delhi relations, dogged by a border dispute.
The travel plan was announced a week after the completion of his visit to Taiwan,a self-ruled island claimed by Beijing,which denounced the trip.
A visit to Arunachal Pradesh could now draw further attention to China's treatment of Tibetan activists and the Dalai Lama's calls for cultural and religious freedoms and autonomy.
"The timing of his trip [to Arunachal Pradesh] is significant. It comes while the debate over his visit to Taiwan is still hot," said Bhaskar Roy, a New Delhibased China expert.
"Tibetans are as good at playing these games as the Chinese. They know such a visit will keep up the pressure on China."
The trip has ramifications for IndiaChina relations as well.
India and China fought a short war in 1962 and, despite burgeoning trade in recent years, mistrust remains. Both sides jostle for resources and influence as they seek a global role.
"From India's point of view the Dalai Lama's visit will restate Arunachal Pradesh as Indian territory," said Mr Roy."For that reason, we can expect statements against the visit from the Chinese."
The Dalai Lama fled Tibet through Arunachal Pradesh.
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
NO LENIENCY FOR TEMPLE
A monastery located within a Mukdahan national park is facing eviction - despite a recent ministerial leniency policy - following some elaborate construction and extended encroachment.
The Phu Mai Hao monastery has been given an eviction notice by the Phu Pha Yon national park managment because it does not qualify for leniency, park director Yongyuth Chamnarnrob said.
Yongyuth said the Phu Mai Hao monastery had violated forestry laws on several counts - including three cases of unauthorised logging in 2004 and 2007, and an unauthorised explosion in a cave earlier this year. Before another unauthorised logging operation was detected, many installations had been constructed, including waterworks and power-generating systems, as well as a 700-metre stairway.
He said the park had received calls from villagers who vowed to campaign against the eviction.
Kasemsant Jinnawaso, director-general of the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation, said the eviction could be delayed. "Due to a new ministerial policy that permits monasteries to stay on in forest reserves, a further wait in the process for a way out is needed," he added.
There are now 5,529 monasteries built on forest reserves nationwide, including 66 set to face eviction before the Natural Resources and Environment Ministry announced a leniency policy last month.
The ministry yesterday appointed two members to serve on a national panel, comprising ministry officials and monastic and lay members of the Sangha Supreme Council, tasked with solving the problem. The two new members are Kasemsant and Chalermphorn Phirunsarn, secretary-general of the Agricultural Land Reform Office.
In yesterday's Cabinet meeting, deputy government spokesman Phumin Leetheeraprasert said the prime minister wanted media publicity for the issue so that Buddhists and monks understood the government's policy to peacefully solve the problem regarding monasteries in forest reserves in a lenient way.
The Phu Mai Hao monastery has been given an eviction notice by the Phu Pha Yon national park managment because it does not qualify for leniency, park director Yongyuth Chamnarnrob said.
Yongyuth said the Phu Mai Hao monastery had violated forestry laws on several counts - including three cases of unauthorised logging in 2004 and 2007, and an unauthorised explosion in a cave earlier this year. Before another unauthorised logging operation was detected, many installations had been constructed, including waterworks and power-generating systems, as well as a 700-metre stairway.
He said the park had received calls from villagers who vowed to campaign against the eviction.
Kasemsant Jinnawaso, director-general of the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation, said the eviction could be delayed. "Due to a new ministerial policy that permits monasteries to stay on in forest reserves, a further wait in the process for a way out is needed," he added.
There are now 5,529 monasteries built on forest reserves nationwide, including 66 set to face eviction before the Natural Resources and Environment Ministry announced a leniency policy last month.
The ministry yesterday appointed two members to serve on a national panel, comprising ministry officials and monastic and lay members of the Sangha Supreme Council, tasked with solving the problem. The two new members are Kasemsant and Chalermphorn Phirunsarn, secretary-general of the Agricultural Land Reform Office.
In yesterday's Cabinet meeting, deputy government spokesman Phumin Leetheeraprasert said the prime minister wanted media publicity for the issue so that Buddhists and monks understood the government's policy to peacefully solve the problem regarding monasteries in forest reserves in a lenient way.
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
FRESH VISIONS FROM THE DESIGNER OF THE NATION AND ROBOT BUILDINGS
World-renowned architect, artist and writer Sumet Jumsai is presenting 18 of his new paintings in the exhibition "25 Rue de Lille" at H Gallary. The exhibition opens today and continues through October 3.
Dotting Bangkok's skyline, National Artist Sumet's colourful modern architectural landmarks include the playful Robot building (Bank of Asia) and our own, Cubist-inspried, Nation building.
Schooled in Paris and England, he has exhibited his ambitious building designs all over the world. In 1986 he was included in the "Fifty Leading Architects of the World" show in Vienna; 10 years later his work was at the Venice Biennale.
Meanwhile, between featuring in various group art exhibitions in Thailand, Sumet's paintings have shown abroad - in a solo show at Paris's Galerie Atelier Visconti in 1999 and in a group show at Toit de la Grande Arche (also in Paris) in 2002.
Named after Sumet's studio address in Paris - 25 Rue de Lille - the exhibition's 18 vibrant and expressive oil and pastel compositions reflect the artist's fascination with everyday life as well as Parisian architecture, the Thai seaside and masterpieces of western art.
"All these paintings are recent works painted just over a year ago. Even though there are images of tanks, my paintings are not political in any way. There are also self-portraits in this collection," says Sumet.
H Gallery is open daily except Tuesdays, 10am and 6pm.
The gallery is located at 201 Sathorn Soi 12, next to the Bangkok Bible College and Seminary and within walking distance of the Surasak Skytrain Station.
For more details, call (081) 310 4428.
Visit HGallerybkk.com.
Dotting Bangkok's skyline, National Artist Sumet's colourful modern architectural landmarks include the playful Robot building (Bank of Asia) and our own, Cubist-inspried, Nation building.
Schooled in Paris and England, he has exhibited his ambitious building designs all over the world. In 1986 he was included in the "Fifty Leading Architects of the World" show in Vienna; 10 years later his work was at the Venice Biennale.
Meanwhile, between featuring in various group art exhibitions in Thailand, Sumet's paintings have shown abroad - in a solo show at Paris's Galerie Atelier Visconti in 1999 and in a group show at Toit de la Grande Arche (also in Paris) in 2002.
Named after Sumet's studio address in Paris - 25 Rue de Lille - the exhibition's 18 vibrant and expressive oil and pastel compositions reflect the artist's fascination with everyday life as well as Parisian architecture, the Thai seaside and masterpieces of western art.
"All these paintings are recent works painted just over a year ago. Even though there are images of tanks, my paintings are not political in any way. There are also self-portraits in this collection," says Sumet.
H Gallery is open daily except Tuesdays, 10am and 6pm.
The gallery is located at 201 Sathorn Soi 12, next to the Bangkok Bible College and Seminary and within walking distance of the Surasak Skytrain Station.
For more details, call (081) 310 4428.
Visit HGallerybkk.com.
Monday, September 7, 2009
VIETNAMESE TALE OF TANGLED LOVE GETS A VENICE SCREENING
A Vietnamese story of tangled love that explores changing social values in the traditional communist nation, has been screened at the Venice Film Festival in a rare mark of recognition for the country's film industry.
"Choi Vio" ("Adrift")sketches a modern Vietnam where ancestral Confucian values, centred around the family, are increasingly replaced by individualism.
The film shows people caught up in complex games of seduction and knocks down traditional moral markers of the society. Scriptwriter Phan Dang Ki says it blurs the boundaries between good and bad while also touching on homosexuality, a subject still largely taboo in Vietnam.
Di has tackled controversial subjects before.
His short film "Khi toi 20" ("When I am 20") was shown in Venice last year but the Vietnamese censor judged it too "crude" and prevented him from attending.
It told the story of a young prostitute who uses her earnings to support her grandmother.
"Choi Voi" was not censored-even though it contains themes that could aggravate the authorities-but four years were needed to convince them to partially finance the production,says Di.
He and the director of "Choi Voi", Bui Thac Chuyen, are among the very few members of Vietnam's film industry to receie international recognition.
In 2006, Chuyen presented a feature film, "Living in Fear", at the Shanghai International Film Festival.
But Vietnamese cinema is still most widely known through its overseas-based directors including Tran Anh Hung, who live in Frandsce. He won the Golden Camera at Cannes in 1993 for "The Scent of Green Papaya", and then received a Golden Lion at Venice two years later with "Cyclo".
The country's cinema was for a long time at the nearly exclusive service of the regime's propagandists and films were made, chuyen says,"without regard for the interests of audiences".
Things began to change several years ago with the arrival of private-secto rfunding.
Vietnamese audiences,especially int he big cities,have started to return and cinema has begun to be profitable,says Chuyen.
The industry remains in need of financing but Chuyen says he hasn't ost hope of seeing his country's cinema follow the model of South Korea, whose films are recognised around the world.
"Twenty years ago, South Korean cinema resembled Vietnam's today," he says.
At the 66th Venice festival, which opened Wednesday, "Choi Voi" will be screened in a category featuring new trends in world cinema.
The film's first festival screening was yesterday, but Chuyen says later commercial release at home will be a challenge because of the tastes of Vietnamese audiences.
Chuyen and Di both recognise that although audiences are back, they do not necessarily want to watch a film like "Choi Voi".
"People prefer american and South Korean films or commercial films" in general. Di says
undeterred, he carries on.
Like last year, Di was unable to attend the Venice screening. But this time it's because he is preparing to make a new film.
"Choi Vio" ("Adrift")sketches a modern Vietnam where ancestral Confucian values, centred around the family, are increasingly replaced by individualism.
The film shows people caught up in complex games of seduction and knocks down traditional moral markers of the society. Scriptwriter Phan Dang Ki says it blurs the boundaries between good and bad while also touching on homosexuality, a subject still largely taboo in Vietnam.
Di has tackled controversial subjects before.
His short film "Khi toi 20" ("When I am 20") was shown in Venice last year but the Vietnamese censor judged it too "crude" and prevented him from attending.
It told the story of a young prostitute who uses her earnings to support her grandmother.
"Choi Voi" was not censored-even though it contains themes that could aggravate the authorities-but four years were needed to convince them to partially finance the production,says Di.
He and the director of "Choi Voi", Bui Thac Chuyen, are among the very few members of Vietnam's film industry to receie international recognition.
In 2006, Chuyen presented a feature film, "Living in Fear", at the Shanghai International Film Festival.
But Vietnamese cinema is still most widely known through its overseas-based directors including Tran Anh Hung, who live in Frandsce. He won the Golden Camera at Cannes in 1993 for "The Scent of Green Papaya", and then received a Golden Lion at Venice two years later with "Cyclo".
The country's cinema was for a long time at the nearly exclusive service of the regime's propagandists and films were made, chuyen says,"without regard for the interests of audiences".
Things began to change several years ago with the arrival of private-secto rfunding.
Vietnamese audiences,especially int he big cities,have started to return and cinema has begun to be profitable,says Chuyen.
The industry remains in need of financing but Chuyen says he hasn't ost hope of seeing his country's cinema follow the model of South Korea, whose films are recognised around the world.
"Twenty years ago, South Korean cinema resembled Vietnam's today," he says.
At the 66th Venice festival, which opened Wednesday, "Choi Voi" will be screened in a category featuring new trends in world cinema.
The film's first festival screening was yesterday, but Chuyen says later commercial release at home will be a challenge because of the tastes of Vietnamese audiences.
Chuyen and Di both recognise that although audiences are back, they do not necessarily want to watch a film like "Choi Voi".
"People prefer american and South Korean films or commercial films" in general. Di says
undeterred, he carries on.
Like last year, Di was unable to attend the Venice screening. But this time it's because he is preparing to make a new film.
Sunday, September 6, 2009
ISLAND IN THE SUN
The sun has just set over the Port of Colombo and now lights from the ships docked in the harbour shimmer in the dusk, giving the sea an almost surreal look from my window on the 16th floor of the Hilton Hotel.
We jetted in from Jakarta, via Singapore, earlier this evening, guests of Sri Lanka Airlines and Jetwing Tours, eager to explore this vibrant 2,000 year-old city of 700,000 souls located on Sri Lanka's west coast. Besides the beatuiful port, which is surrounded by the Fort District, the city offr modern skyscrapers, colonial buildings and ancient runis, plus plenty of shopping opportunities at it traditional markets.
From our vantage point just outside that port, we can see Colombo's most recognisable landmark, the the two World Trade Centre towers, rising majestically above the beautifully designed Bank of Ceylon tower,the Old Parliament Building and the Old Colombo Lighthouse.
The white Jami Ul-Alfar Mosque serves as a landmark for the many sailors that approach the port evry day and is also a popular tourist attraction.
but beautiful and buildings and city tours are only part of what Sri Lanka has to offer.
Always friendly, the Sri Lankan people look noticebly more relaxed this warm July evening, happy to answer our questions and even inviting us to spend some time with them.
Military posts and checkpoints scattered across the country are the only reminder of a conflict that ended just two months ago, following the army's defeat of the Tamil Tigers after a civil war that army's defeat of the Tamil Tigers after a civel war that ravaged the island for more than 20 years.
"The people of Sir Lanka hav won the war. There is nothing to worry about anymore as there will be no more attacks. Peace now prevails and it's time for us to go on lwith or lives," says Mohan, a shop owner in th ecapital.
Sri Lanka's mountains and beaches form a beautiful backdrop to its millennia-old culture, the remnants of which can be seen everywhere. The huge Buddhist statues serve as reminders of past powerful kingdoms and the magnificent legends that shaped them.
Our next port of call is Polanaruwa, 216km northast of Colombo and declared capital of sir Lanka's second most ancient kingdom of the same name by King Vijayabahu I, who defeated the Chola ruling dynasty in 1070 CE to reunite the island under a local leader.
The ancient remains of the kingdom, which were given Unesco world heritage status in 1982, include a well-preserved city of ancient dagobas (stupas), moonstones, lush parks and stunningly beautiful statues.
The majestip King's Council Chamber, the Lotus Bath, the Lanka Thilaka Viharaya, the Gal Viharaya (Buddha's rock statues) and the statue of one of Polonnaruwa's great kings, Parakramabahu, are just a few of this ancient capital's memorable sights.
But it is the Sea of parakrama, a vast manmade reservoir dating back to the 12th century that dominates the city. It still works, watering hectares of paddy fields in the area.
Our next destination is the royal city of Sigiriya. Dating back to the fifth century and also known as the Lion Rock, Sigiriya is considered Asia's best prserved ancient city. Perched atop a giant rock, it can only be reached by climbing several flights of steep iron stairs.
The palace, which stands at the centre of the royal city, just out 200 metrs above the lush green jungle.
Some 180km south of Colombo, Sigiriya is close to many other historical sites and ecotourist destinations, among them the Temple of the Sacred Tooth and the Paradeniya Botanical Garden in Kandy, as well as the Golden Temple and its five r9ock temples in Dambulla and a national park in M inneriya.
One of Buddhism's most sacred temples, the Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic, or the Sri Dalada Maligawa, draws Buddhists from all over the world. The tooth itself is locked up in aseries of closely guarded caskets and is never seen.
Th annual Esala Parahera festival, in which a replica of the tooth is paraded through the streets of Kandy, is a very colourful celebration and the town becomes so crwoded that visitors hav to stay in the surrounding towns.
Our only regret is that we have no time to visit the country's southern beaches, which many say are as beautiful as those in the Maldives and Bali.
As I board the plane, I mutter "ayubown" (may you have a peaceful life full of love), hoping that one day soon, I will have the chance to return to this island in the sun.
We jetted in from Jakarta, via Singapore, earlier this evening, guests of Sri Lanka Airlines and Jetwing Tours, eager to explore this vibrant 2,000 year-old city of 700,000 souls located on Sri Lanka's west coast. Besides the beatuiful port, which is surrounded by the Fort District, the city offr modern skyscrapers, colonial buildings and ancient runis, plus plenty of shopping opportunities at it traditional markets.
From our vantage point just outside that port, we can see Colombo's most recognisable landmark, the the two World Trade Centre towers, rising majestically above the beautifully designed Bank of Ceylon tower,the Old Parliament Building and the Old Colombo Lighthouse.
The white Jami Ul-Alfar Mosque serves as a landmark for the many sailors that approach the port evry day and is also a popular tourist attraction.
but beautiful and buildings and city tours are only part of what Sri Lanka has to offer.
Always friendly, the Sri Lankan people look noticebly more relaxed this warm July evening, happy to answer our questions and even inviting us to spend some time with them.
Military posts and checkpoints scattered across the country are the only reminder of a conflict that ended just two months ago, following the army's defeat of the Tamil Tigers after a civil war that army's defeat of the Tamil Tigers after a civel war that ravaged the island for more than 20 years.
"The people of Sir Lanka hav won the war. There is nothing to worry about anymore as there will be no more attacks. Peace now prevails and it's time for us to go on lwith or lives," says Mohan, a shop owner in th ecapital.
Sri Lanka's mountains and beaches form a beautiful backdrop to its millennia-old culture, the remnants of which can be seen everywhere. The huge Buddhist statues serve as reminders of past powerful kingdoms and the magnificent legends that shaped them.
Our next port of call is Polanaruwa, 216km northast of Colombo and declared capital of sir Lanka's second most ancient kingdom of the same name by King Vijayabahu I, who defeated the Chola ruling dynasty in 1070 CE to reunite the island under a local leader.
The ancient remains of the kingdom, which were given Unesco world heritage status in 1982, include a well-preserved city of ancient dagobas (stupas), moonstones, lush parks and stunningly beautiful statues.
The majestip King's Council Chamber, the Lotus Bath, the Lanka Thilaka Viharaya, the Gal Viharaya (Buddha's rock statues) and the statue of one of Polonnaruwa's great kings, Parakramabahu, are just a few of this ancient capital's memorable sights.
But it is the Sea of parakrama, a vast manmade reservoir dating back to the 12th century that dominates the city. It still works, watering hectares of paddy fields in the area.
Our next destination is the royal city of Sigiriya. Dating back to the fifth century and also known as the Lion Rock, Sigiriya is considered Asia's best prserved ancient city. Perched atop a giant rock, it can only be reached by climbing several flights of steep iron stairs.
The palace, which stands at the centre of the royal city, just out 200 metrs above the lush green jungle.
Some 180km south of Colombo, Sigiriya is close to many other historical sites and ecotourist destinations, among them the Temple of the Sacred Tooth and the Paradeniya Botanical Garden in Kandy, as well as the Golden Temple and its five r9ock temples in Dambulla and a national park in M inneriya.
One of Buddhism's most sacred temples, the Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic, or the Sri Dalada Maligawa, draws Buddhists from all over the world. The tooth itself is locked up in aseries of closely guarded caskets and is never seen.
Th annual Esala Parahera festival, in which a replica of the tooth is paraded through the streets of Kandy, is a very colourful celebration and the town becomes so crwoded that visitors hav to stay in the surrounding towns.
Our only regret is that we have no time to visit the country's southern beaches, which many say are as beautiful as those in the Maldives and Bali.
As I board the plane, I mutter "ayubown" (may you have a peaceful life full of love), hoping that one day soon, I will have the chance to return to this island in the sun.
Friday, September 4, 2009
MUNICH'S CROWN JEWELS
Ten years ago, the city was promised a collection of 700 gems of 20th-century art - but only after it had built a box beautiful enough to house them
Since May this year Munich residents have been flocking to welcome Museum Brandhorst, a new arrival in the art district of Kunstareal and one that has lifted the city's cultural significance to another level.
The Brandhorst Collection was named after Udo and Anette Brandhorst who began acquiring works by the 20th century's foremost artists in the 1970s. Udo who sits on the board of the Zurich-based Agrippina Insurance Group - and Anette - an heriess to the Henkel consumer-products fortune - hunted down paintings and sculptures, but also literature. When Anette died in 1999, Udo decided to donate their entire collection of more than 700 works to the state, providing that a suitable home be built for it.
Ten years later and 48 million euro (Bt2.34 billion) well spent, the state-of-the-art Museum Brandhorst has risen. Designed by Berlin architects Sauerbruch Hutton, the building is clad with 36,000 metre-long ceramic rods in 23 different colours, arranged vertically over a sheet-metal skin.
From afar, the rods coalesce to form a neutral colour whose tone and brightness seems to whose tone and brightness seems to waver. As the visitor gets closer, each rod resolves into its individual colour.
The result is an artwork in itself, an abstract painting of shimering colours hung against the dull greys that dominate this district.
What the Brandhorst offers inside its walls is even more dazzling. Dominating the second of the building's two storeys is the heart of the Brandhorst Collection - some 60 paintings, drawings and sculptures by Cy Twombly. The American is considered the most important representative of a generation of artists who distanced themselves from abstract expressionism. The Brandhorst's collection of his work is the largest in Europe and considered the most important overview of the artist's creative development outside the United States, matched only by the Cy Twombly Gallery in Houston, Texas.
Emphasising how important Twombly is to the Brandhorst is the octagonal room above the foyer that was designed especially to house his masterpiece. The "Lepanto Cycle" comprises 12 large-format canvases inspired by the Battle of Lepanto in 1571, which ended the Ottoman Empire's influence in the Europe. Turquoise, yellow and red paint has been splotched, scratched and left to drip down the canvases to evoke a five-hour naval battle that left more than 53,000 dead. In these airy surrounds, the vast work mesmerises visitors.
Twombly first exhibited the monumental series at the 49th Venice Biennale in 2001, where he received a lifetime achievement award.
His most recent work is "Untitled (Roses)", a series of six large, vibrantly coloured paintings of roses created with the museum in mind.
The other focal point of the collection is Andy Warhol. Visitors are greeted at the exhibition's entrance by his "Hammer and Sickle" - the emblem both of socialism and the counter-culture during the '60s and '70s. More than 100 of his works - self-portraits, the Last Supper series and the Camouflage series - dot the ground floor and basement.
But Twombly and Warhol aren't the only stars here. A walk through the 3,200 square metres of galleries reveals works by Picasso, Juan Miro, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Damien Hirst, Mike Kelley, Gerhard Richter and Joseph Beuys.
White walls and ash parquet floors make for a perfect state, while a clever system of reflectors funnels in daylight and slims the museum's carbon footprint. The heating and cooling system were also designed for maximum environmental friendliness.
Together with its neighbour, the Pinakothek der Moderne museum, the Brandhorst has launched Munich into the forefront of cities devoted to the art of the 20th and 21st centuries.
Unsurprisingly, it's now one of the most talked-about destinations among contemporary art lovers.
AT A GLANCE
Museum Brandhorst is open daily except Monday from 10am-6pm (8pm on Thursday). Admission is 7 Euro (Bt340) including audio guide. Tickets on Sunday are 1 Euro. For more, pay a visit to www.Museum-Brandhorst.de.
Since May this year Munich residents have been flocking to welcome Museum Brandhorst, a new arrival in the art district of Kunstareal and one that has lifted the city's cultural significance to another level.
The Brandhorst Collection was named after Udo and Anette Brandhorst who began acquiring works by the 20th century's foremost artists in the 1970s. Udo who sits on the board of the Zurich-based Agrippina Insurance Group - and Anette - an heriess to the Henkel consumer-products fortune - hunted down paintings and sculptures, but also literature. When Anette died in 1999, Udo decided to donate their entire collection of more than 700 works to the state, providing that a suitable home be built for it.
Ten years later and 48 million euro (Bt2.34 billion) well spent, the state-of-the-art Museum Brandhorst has risen. Designed by Berlin architects Sauerbruch Hutton, the building is clad with 36,000 metre-long ceramic rods in 23 different colours, arranged vertically over a sheet-metal skin.
From afar, the rods coalesce to form a neutral colour whose tone and brightness seems to whose tone and brightness seems to waver. As the visitor gets closer, each rod resolves into its individual colour.
The result is an artwork in itself, an abstract painting of shimering colours hung against the dull greys that dominate this district.
What the Brandhorst offers inside its walls is even more dazzling. Dominating the second of the building's two storeys is the heart of the Brandhorst Collection - some 60 paintings, drawings and sculptures by Cy Twombly. The American is considered the most important representative of a generation of artists who distanced themselves from abstract expressionism. The Brandhorst's collection of his work is the largest in Europe and considered the most important overview of the artist's creative development outside the United States, matched only by the Cy Twombly Gallery in Houston, Texas.
Emphasising how important Twombly is to the Brandhorst is the octagonal room above the foyer that was designed especially to house his masterpiece. The "Lepanto Cycle" comprises 12 large-format canvases inspired by the Battle of Lepanto in 1571, which ended the Ottoman Empire's influence in the Europe. Turquoise, yellow and red paint has been splotched, scratched and left to drip down the canvases to evoke a five-hour naval battle that left more than 53,000 dead. In these airy surrounds, the vast work mesmerises visitors.
Twombly first exhibited the monumental series at the 49th Venice Biennale in 2001, where he received a lifetime achievement award.
His most recent work is "Untitled (Roses)", a series of six large, vibrantly coloured paintings of roses created with the museum in mind.
The other focal point of the collection is Andy Warhol. Visitors are greeted at the exhibition's entrance by his "Hammer and Sickle" - the emblem both of socialism and the counter-culture during the '60s and '70s. More than 100 of his works - self-portraits, the Last Supper series and the Camouflage series - dot the ground floor and basement.
But Twombly and Warhol aren't the only stars here. A walk through the 3,200 square metres of galleries reveals works by Picasso, Juan Miro, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Damien Hirst, Mike Kelley, Gerhard Richter and Joseph Beuys.
White walls and ash parquet floors make for a perfect state, while a clever system of reflectors funnels in daylight and slims the museum's carbon footprint. The heating and cooling system were also designed for maximum environmental friendliness.
Together with its neighbour, the Pinakothek der Moderne museum, the Brandhorst has launched Munich into the forefront of cities devoted to the art of the 20th and 21st centuries.
Unsurprisingly, it's now one of the most talked-about destinations among contemporary art lovers.
AT A GLANCE
Museum Brandhorst is open daily except Monday from 10am-6pm (8pm on Thursday). Admission is 7 Euro (Bt340) including audio guide. Tickets on Sunday are 1 Euro. For more, pay a visit to www.Museum-Brandhorst.de.
"Cultural piracy" strains Jakarta-KL relations
Indonesia's often prickly relations with neighbouring Malaysia are being tested by a fresh dispute over traditional cultural heritage.
A Malaysian tourism commercial aired on Discovery Channel has sparked an uproar in Indonesia because it featured a traditional Balinese dance called Pendet.
Indonesians vented their anger over the perceived cultural piracy on internet forums and social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook, many calling Malaysia a "nation of thieves".
A firebrand legislator urged the government to declare war on the neighbouring country.
Despite sharing ethnic, cultural and religious identities, Indonesia and Malaysia both predominantly Muslim - have been embroiled in occasional disputes over matters such the treatment of migrant workers, territorial disputes and, more recently, cultural icons.
About 2 million Indonesians work in Malaysia, mainly as plantation labourers and domestic maids, and anger has been on the rise over reports of abuse of migrants by their Malaysian employers.
In June, Jakarta stopped sending maids to Malaysia temporarily until the two countries agreed on new measures to provide better protection to the workers.
The latest controversy is not the first time that Indonesians have been up in arms over the perceived theft of their cultural icons. A similar spat erupted two years ago over the use of the Indonesian folk song Rasa Sayang in another Malaysian tourism advertisement.
Malaysia has apologised for the use of the Balinese Pendet dance, claiming that the mistake was made by a production house paid by Malaysia's Tourism Ministry to produce the commercial, which has since been withdrawn.
But the apology and explanation failed to mollify Indonesians. Local media reported that Indonesian hackers defaced several Malaysian websites on Monday in a coordinated attack timed to coincide with Malaysia's Independence Day celebrations on Aug 31. Dozens of students picketed the Malaysian embassy in Jakarta on Tuesday,pelting it with rotten eggs.
Ong Hock Chuan, a Jakarta-based Malaysian public relations consultant, said there was more to the dispute than the issue of cultural heritage.
"Indonesians are frustrated with their government for doing so little to capitalise on their culture, which is varied and rich beyond description, and hence letting great opportunities slip away from their hands,"Mr Chuan wrote in his blog.
"What is needed here is for Indonesians and Malaysians to get together to have a reasonable conversation about what can be done about the Malaysian tendency to use what they feel is theirs by right of ancestry,against the Indonesian tendency to carp about their neighbour stealing what they think is theirs," he said.
Indonesia, despite being the world's largest archipelago nation with stunning beaches,volcanoes and coral reefs, has been struggling to capitalise on its enormous tourism potential. In 2008, Indonesia attracted 6 million foreign tourists, while Malaysia drew 22 million visitors.
The Indonesian government said protests and verbal attacks on Malaysia had become irritants, but insisted relations between the two countries remained strong.
"We are neighbours and problems are to be expected from time to time. We hope this is just a temporary outburst and will not escalate further," Foreign Ministry spokesman Faizasyah said."We understand Malaysia is uncomfortable with the disproportionate expressions of anger so there's a need to manage the situation well."
Wimar Witoelar, a television talk show host and political commentator, said the uproar against Malaysia exposed the feeling of inferiority among Indonesians.
"There is no need to belabour the current issues of cultural piracy because culture by definition must be accessible and imitation is often the best compliment," Mr Witoelar wrote in Tuesday's edition of The Jakarta Post ."People enjoy an enthralling production of the ballet Giselle or the Ramayana dance without disturbance from French or Indian nationalists who claim cultural piracy.
"In Indonesia, the experience of our national history is different. Traumatised by different occupying powers and abused by our own leaders, we have yet to regain our confidence as a people," he stated.
A Malaysian tourism commercial aired on Discovery Channel has sparked an uproar in Indonesia because it featured a traditional Balinese dance called Pendet.
Indonesians vented their anger over the perceived cultural piracy on internet forums and social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook, many calling Malaysia a "nation of thieves".
A firebrand legislator urged the government to declare war on the neighbouring country.
Despite sharing ethnic, cultural and religious identities, Indonesia and Malaysia both predominantly Muslim - have been embroiled in occasional disputes over matters such the treatment of migrant workers, territorial disputes and, more recently, cultural icons.
About 2 million Indonesians work in Malaysia, mainly as plantation labourers and domestic maids, and anger has been on the rise over reports of abuse of migrants by their Malaysian employers.
In June, Jakarta stopped sending maids to Malaysia temporarily until the two countries agreed on new measures to provide better protection to the workers.
The latest controversy is not the first time that Indonesians have been up in arms over the perceived theft of their cultural icons. A similar spat erupted two years ago over the use of the Indonesian folk song Rasa Sayang in another Malaysian tourism advertisement.
Malaysia has apologised for the use of the Balinese Pendet dance, claiming that the mistake was made by a production house paid by Malaysia's Tourism Ministry to produce the commercial, which has since been withdrawn.
But the apology and explanation failed to mollify Indonesians. Local media reported that Indonesian hackers defaced several Malaysian websites on Monday in a coordinated attack timed to coincide with Malaysia's Independence Day celebrations on Aug 31. Dozens of students picketed the Malaysian embassy in Jakarta on Tuesday,pelting it with rotten eggs.
Ong Hock Chuan, a Jakarta-based Malaysian public relations consultant, said there was more to the dispute than the issue of cultural heritage.
"Indonesians are frustrated with their government for doing so little to capitalise on their culture, which is varied and rich beyond description, and hence letting great opportunities slip away from their hands,"Mr Chuan wrote in his blog.
"What is needed here is for Indonesians and Malaysians to get together to have a reasonable conversation about what can be done about the Malaysian tendency to use what they feel is theirs by right of ancestry,against the Indonesian tendency to carp about their neighbour stealing what they think is theirs," he said.
Indonesia, despite being the world's largest archipelago nation with stunning beaches,volcanoes and coral reefs, has been struggling to capitalise on its enormous tourism potential. In 2008, Indonesia attracted 6 million foreign tourists, while Malaysia drew 22 million visitors.
The Indonesian government said protests and verbal attacks on Malaysia had become irritants, but insisted relations between the two countries remained strong.
"We are neighbours and problems are to be expected from time to time. We hope this is just a temporary outburst and will not escalate further," Foreign Ministry spokesman Faizasyah said."We understand Malaysia is uncomfortable with the disproportionate expressions of anger so there's a need to manage the situation well."
Wimar Witoelar, a television talk show host and political commentator, said the uproar against Malaysia exposed the feeling of inferiority among Indonesians.
"There is no need to belabour the current issues of cultural piracy because culture by definition must be accessible and imitation is often the best compliment," Mr Witoelar wrote in Tuesday's edition of The Jakarta Post ."People enjoy an enthralling production of the ballet Giselle or the Ramayana dance without disturbance from French or Indian nationalists who claim cultural piracy.
"In Indonesia, the experience of our national history is different. Traumatised by different occupying powers and abused by our own leaders, we have yet to regain our confidence as a people," he stated.
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
SHOW ME THE MONET
The impressionist master's inspiration is revealed in an exhibition that places his greatest paintings alongside works from Japan
In the 1870s, a flood of Japanese exotic art and handicrafts poured into European galleries as Japan opened up to the world after centuries of isolation. The philosophy of simplicity and respect for nature it brought fascinated numerous European artists including Vincent Claude Monet.
Monet was particularly attracted by Japanese naturalism, and quickly built a collection of 276 ukiyo-e woodblock prints and paintings. He explained his love affair with Japanese art thus: "If you absolutely must find an affiliation for me, select the Japanese of olden times; their rarefied taste, their aesthetic that evokes a presence by means of a shadow, and the whole by means of a fragment. They are a profoundly artistic people."
Exploring the "father of impressionism's" relationship with Japanese art is a must-see show at the Palazzo Reale in Milan. "Monet and Japan, the Time of Water Lilies" showcases 20 paintings, an extraordinary loan from the Musee Marmottan Monet in Paris. The museum is the home of the world's largest collection of Monet's water lily paintings and has never granted so many for a single show.
Hanging alongside them are 56 Japanese prints by renowned Japanese ukiyo-e artists Katsushika Hokusai and Utagawa Hiroshige, on loan from Paris's Musee Guimet. And more insight into Monet's inspiration is offered by an extremely rare selection of hand-painted 19th-century photographs of Japanese gardens, on loan from an Italian private collection.
Monet's water lily series was mostly painted between 1900 and 1923 in his enchanting garden in Giverny, a tiny village in northern France that he had first seen through a train window and immediately fallen in love with.
He moved his family into a rented house in the village but by 1890 had made enough money from painting to purchase the house and the land around it. He dedicated himself to creating a spectacular garden, shaping nature according to his artistic tastes. His neighbour, who studied Japanese art and land-scaping, helped him obtain exotic plants for the pond, putting him in contact in Japanese nursery gardeners. He built a humped-back bridge, copied from those he'd seen depicted in Japanese prints. He also bought a small boat to serve as a bateau atelier, or "boat studio", allowing him to paint while out on the water.
Monet's garden on the lake is considered an example of a traditional Japanese "cup garden", where the water forms the bottom of the cup and the plants its sides. These days it's a popular visitor attraction, along with his old house, where works by Utamsro, Hokusai and Hiroshige still hang on the walls.
On completion ofh is natural masterpiece, Monet exclaimed, "I am filled with delight, Giverny is a splendid spot for me."
He spent the rest of his life in this private paradise, trying to capture the garden's beauty - the bridge, trees, water lilies, cherry blossoms and pond - on canvas. His obsession with the water lilies was particularly strong and fuelled countless renditions of these delicate flowers, including his giant masterpiece, the 90-metre-long waterscape of 22 panels that winds through two oval rooms at Musee de l'Orangerie in Paris - the so-called Sistine Chapel of Impressionism.
Though he painted the same subject over and over, for Monet, no two scenes were ever alike as the play of light in different weather conditions transformed what he saw. But he insisted that his subject keep still, and one of his seven gardeners was assigned the special task of repositioning water lilies that floated downstream during the hours he dedicated to painting. He once said, "These landscapes of water and reflections have become an obsession. It is beyond my powers as an old man and yet I want to arrive at rendering what I feel. I again ... And I hope something will finally come from so many efforts."
The lush green, blue, pink and purple painted water lilies in the exhibition reflect just that - his vigorous, endless attempts to capture the beauty and grace of nature at different hours of the day.
The paintings are arranged according to theme: water lilies, willows, the pond and Japanese bridges, and appear alongside the Japanese prints. As visitors progress through the exhibition, they appreciate more and more Monet's deep engagement with Japanese art, history and philosophy.
Although seeing so many similar pictures left this reviewer with art fatigue left this reviewer with art fatigue at times, the chance to examine Monet's splotches and brushstrokes, his unusual colour combinations, and even live footage of him working by the pond, brought the painter's passion to life. Witnessing the work of a man who spent decades trying to capture the perfect light on his canvases gave me the sensation of floating along in a dreamlike paradies.
AT A GLANCE
"Monet and Japan, the Time of Water Lilies" is on display every day at the Palazzo Reale Milan until September 27. For a glimpse of the show, visit www.MostraMonet.it/gallery.php.
In the 1870s, a flood of Japanese exotic art and handicrafts poured into European galleries as Japan opened up to the world after centuries of isolation. The philosophy of simplicity and respect for nature it brought fascinated numerous European artists including Vincent Claude Monet.
Monet was particularly attracted by Japanese naturalism, and quickly built a collection of 276 ukiyo-e woodblock prints and paintings. He explained his love affair with Japanese art thus: "If you absolutely must find an affiliation for me, select the Japanese of olden times; their rarefied taste, their aesthetic that evokes a presence by means of a shadow, and the whole by means of a fragment. They are a profoundly artistic people."
Exploring the "father of impressionism's" relationship with Japanese art is a must-see show at the Palazzo Reale in Milan. "Monet and Japan, the Time of Water Lilies" showcases 20 paintings, an extraordinary loan from the Musee Marmottan Monet in Paris. The museum is the home of the world's largest collection of Monet's water lily paintings and has never granted so many for a single show.
Hanging alongside them are 56 Japanese prints by renowned Japanese ukiyo-e artists Katsushika Hokusai and Utagawa Hiroshige, on loan from Paris's Musee Guimet. And more insight into Monet's inspiration is offered by an extremely rare selection of hand-painted 19th-century photographs of Japanese gardens, on loan from an Italian private collection.
Monet's water lily series was mostly painted between 1900 and 1923 in his enchanting garden in Giverny, a tiny village in northern France that he had first seen through a train window and immediately fallen in love with.
He moved his family into a rented house in the village but by 1890 had made enough money from painting to purchase the house and the land around it. He dedicated himself to creating a spectacular garden, shaping nature according to his artistic tastes. His neighbour, who studied Japanese art and land-scaping, helped him obtain exotic plants for the pond, putting him in contact in Japanese nursery gardeners. He built a humped-back bridge, copied from those he'd seen depicted in Japanese prints. He also bought a small boat to serve as a bateau atelier, or "boat studio", allowing him to paint while out on the water.
Monet's garden on the lake is considered an example of a traditional Japanese "cup garden", where the water forms the bottom of the cup and the plants its sides. These days it's a popular visitor attraction, along with his old house, where works by Utamsro, Hokusai and Hiroshige still hang on the walls.
On completion ofh is natural masterpiece, Monet exclaimed, "I am filled with delight, Giverny is a splendid spot for me."
He spent the rest of his life in this private paradise, trying to capture the garden's beauty - the bridge, trees, water lilies, cherry blossoms and pond - on canvas. His obsession with the water lilies was particularly strong and fuelled countless renditions of these delicate flowers, including his giant masterpiece, the 90-metre-long waterscape of 22 panels that winds through two oval rooms at Musee de l'Orangerie in Paris - the so-called Sistine Chapel of Impressionism.
Though he painted the same subject over and over, for Monet, no two scenes were ever alike as the play of light in different weather conditions transformed what he saw. But he insisted that his subject keep still, and one of his seven gardeners was assigned the special task of repositioning water lilies that floated downstream during the hours he dedicated to painting. He once said, "These landscapes of water and reflections have become an obsession. It is beyond my powers as an old man and yet I want to arrive at rendering what I feel. I again ... And I hope something will finally come from so many efforts."
The lush green, blue, pink and purple painted water lilies in the exhibition reflect just that - his vigorous, endless attempts to capture the beauty and grace of nature at different hours of the day.
The paintings are arranged according to theme: water lilies, willows, the pond and Japanese bridges, and appear alongside the Japanese prints. As visitors progress through the exhibition, they appreciate more and more Monet's deep engagement with Japanese art, history and philosophy.
Although seeing so many similar pictures left this reviewer with art fatigue left this reviewer with art fatigue at times, the chance to examine Monet's splotches and brushstrokes, his unusual colour combinations, and even live footage of him working by the pond, brought the painter's passion to life. Witnessing the work of a man who spent decades trying to capture the perfect light on his canvases gave me the sensation of floating along in a dreamlike paradies.
AT A GLANCE
"Monet and Japan, the Time of Water Lilies" is on display every day at the Palazzo Reale Milan until September 27. For a glimpse of the show, visit www.MostraMonet.it/gallery.php.
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