Applicants are open to artisans or designers who held the nationality of any Asean member state. Qualified applicants must have at least five years experience of creating art and crafts, basketry, wicker basket, wickerwork and visual arts from natural or synthetic materials. The submitted works must conform to the theme.

The submitted works must be original and should express the identity, wisdom and culture of the applicant’s own country. The works must also show innovative creativity, notably in the selection process and use of materials, as well as production techniques that are extended from local wisdom in their own countries. The works should be meticulously created with the use of suitable raw materials and stand out from other products already available in the markets.

Interested persons should fill in the application form and attach images of artworks through http://www.Sacict-award.com. The 10 outstanding works from will be announced on May 25. The winners will receive the honourable plaques and have a chance to display their works in an exhibition. The award presentation will be held in July.

For details, call (091) 846 9441 or e-mail Aseanselections2017@gmail.com.

The facebook pages of La Fete and Alliance Francaise Bangkok have been filled with announcements of cultural programme of late, leading to joy and excitement among the event’s many fans. But then a new website was launched with a much simpler title – “French Highlights”.

Ensemble Multilaterale is now collaborating with Silpakorn University’s Faculty of Music. Photo/Ugo Ponte

Curious as to what is going on, we asked French cultural attache Vanessa Silvy to clarify.

“You can call it by either name, actually. We wanted to create a new website that’s simple – less is more – and where you can look at the photos of the works, read their short descriptions as well as book your tickets,” she explains.

“This website is linked with our organising and venue partners as well, like the Alliance Francaise Bangkok and Sodsai Pantoomkomol Centre for Dramatic Arts.

“I confirm that the festival format of La Fete finished in 2015, and last year we had year-round programming, which I think is easier for the audience to attend at different times throughout the year and more practical for us as we have more opportunity to programme performing arts events that come into the region outside the two months of the old La Fete format. In a way, it’s continuing as La Fete is already a cultural label for France here.”

So why “French Highlights?”

“The French Embassy’s Cultural service and cultural coordination decided to have a common communication of cultural activities and programmes with the Alliance Francaise Bangkok,” she says. “After all, this is French programming and so we want to promote it together. The cooperation varies from one programme to another – some events are funded through the French Embassy budget, but are staged at Alliance Francaise. And of course, we’re still working with other venues as well. We’re using these events to say to the audience, ‘This is French culture’. And this also reconfirms that we’re now programming cultural events all year round.”

Head to Live RCA tomorrow night for a concert by Yelle. Photo/Alex Sabot

“French Highlights # 1” kicks off tomorrow with two concerts that will attract different audiences to two venues.

At the Alliance Francaise Bangkok auditorium, French cellist Marc Poppey will share the stage with the Bangkok Chamber Orchestra and later on Yelle will be at Live RCA, thanks to the Institut Francaise’s French Miracle Tour, which brings new artists to perform in Asia.

“It’s my birthday: that’s why we have two concerts,” Silvy laughs, confirming that she’ll be able to attend both as the latter will go on until midnight.

This is what Gilles “Globe Painter” Rieu created in Beijing: let’s see how Bangkok inspires him. Photo/Gilles Rieu

On May 22, Gilles “Globe Painter” Rieu will be at Alliance Francaise’s gallery for the vernissage of his “One Stop in Bangkok” exhibition of works on 10-metre long paper rolls, which continues until June 11. Afterwards, the gallery will host “Intersection”, an exhibition of multi-colour palettes by Bangkok-based French artist Diane Fourlegnie. Another visual arts programme is “FRAC: What is not visible is not visible”. After showings at the Singapore and Gwangju biennales, it will be at Bangkok Art and Culture Centre from June 16 to July 23.

On May 25, the audience can watch – free with advanced registration – a contemporary dance performance “Escape” in which French choreographer Nathanael Marie works with French, Thai and Swiss dancers.

Also in late May, Ensemble Multilaterale will have two concerts, at Chulalongkorn University Music Hall and Chiang Mai University Arts Centre.

“They were part of the regional tour last year and matched very well with Silpakorn University and so they’re now doing a collaborative project.

Compagnie Uzumaki’s “Sadako” combines butoh, hiphop and origami. Photo/Carmen Ramos

“We always ask [French artists] if there’s possibility for collaboration [with Thai artists], and that’s why we’re bringing Compagnie Uzumaki to Asia for the first time. Besides performing ‘Sadako’ on June 15, the company’s director Valentine Nagata-Ramos will give a three-afternoon workshop with professional Thai hip-hop dancers at the Alliance Francaise from June 12 to 14, and create a new work with them to be presented on June 15,” Silvy continues,

Another hip-hop event – and hip-hop always reminds us of La Fete – is Compagnie Swaggers’ “In the Middle”, which will be making a stop for one evening at Alliance Francaise during its regional tour. That will allow us to see how they live up to the slogan “Let’s ignite, but install an atmosphere.”

In another example of the long-term relationship created by La Fete, Compagnie Non Nova will return to Sodsai Pantoomkomol Centre for Dramatic Arts – where its “PPP” had its Asia premiere six years ago even before the venue officially opened – with two works: “l’Apres-midi d’un Foehn” and “Vortex” from June 7 to 10.

“Having been staged for hundreds of performances in many countries, ‘l’Apres-midi d’un Foehn’ is now being nominated for a Moliere Award, the most prestigious award in French theatre, and we’ll find out if they won before they arrive here,” Silvy says.

Wind plays a major role in Compagnie Non Nova’s “Vortex”; this one’s not for kids. Photo/JeanLuc Beaujault

“With the shorter version of the show already seen a few years ago at TK Park, I’d like to show its full version and sustain the company’s friendship with the Thai audience.”

As for the future of “French Highlights”, Silvy says, “It could be every two or four months [that we’re launching our big pool of programmes like this]. The next pool of cultural events [perhaps ‘French Highlights #2’] will be in October and November, when we’ll work with the ‘Unfolding Kafka’ Festival. We’ll also bring in street performance artists and are working on a big [modern] circus show, which is the only programme we cannot confirm yet for this year.”

 WHAT THE FRENCH!

– “French Highlights # 1” starts from two concerts tomorrow and runs until July 23 at many venues in Bangkok and Chiang Mai. Visit http://www.French-Highlights.com to access more details and to book tickets or check out Facebook/lafete.festival and Facebook/AllianceFrancaiseBangkok

– The writer wishes to thank the French embassy’s Asma Sentira and Janjira Kingkannak for all assistance.

Chiba University graduate school researchers are making 3D images of Buddhist statues and other cultural assets in the prefecture as a safeguard against their theft or deterioration.

The project is also benefiting local communities, with one temple, for example, selling miniature 3D models of its statuary as charms and an artist who engraves metal using the data to produce accessories.

Professor Akira Ueda, left, and Hironobu Aoki of Chiba University show replicas of cultural assets made using 3D scans. Photo/Japan News

Professor Akira Ueda of the graduate school of engineering proposed the project in 2013 to people involved with temples and shrines.

Researchers used a portable scanner at 10 temples, shrines and the Kamogawa-shi Kyodo Shiryokan history museum in the town of Kamogawa to record 3D images of about 40 objects, including woodcarvings.

Doctoral student Hironobu Aoki, 25, plays a leading role. “The data could be useful for preservation, repairs and restoration of cultural assets,” he says. “I hope more people become aware that we’re doing this so we can collect more data.”

Initiatives to use the 3D data have already begun. At Komatsuji Temple in Minamiboso, 1,300 years old, 2.5-centimetre-tall reproductions of its Kisshoten and Bishamonten statues dating to the later Heian Period (794 to the late 12th century) are being produced from the data with a 3D printer.

The statuettes are sold as charms on special occasions, in bags made of cotton from nearby Kimitsu.

Artist Hiroshi Deguchi, 50, who works with metal at his studio Tomigin in Tateyama, has been producing silver jewellery on a trial basis from the 3D data of a woodcarving of a lion at Konrenin Temple in that town.

Hiroshi Deguchi fashions silver jewellery from a 3D model of a venerable woodcarving. Photo/Japan News

The carving, known as “A”, was made by Goto Yoshimitsu, one of two prominent sculptors in the Awa region – now part of Chiba Prefecture – who specialised in shrine and temple decorations during the Early Modern Period.

The original carving is 31cm tall, 48cm wide and 31cm thick. Deguchi used a 3D printer to create a replica that’s 3cm wide and then used that to make a casting mould. He pours molten silver into the mould to produce miniatures for bracelets, pendants and rings.

Using 3D data for commercial purposes while creating a system that’s beneficial to cultural assets is a challenge for Chiba University and others, but it does bring rewards.

Deguchi is upbeat. “In the future I’d like to increase the variety of products and sell them as commercial goods.”

The history museum in Kamogawa recently hosted an exhibition featuring carved works from the Awa region. Works by Goto and Takeshi Ihachiro Nobuyoshi, the other prominent sculptor of their day, were shown alongside 3D replicas. Deguchi’s products were also displayed.

Still on Jakkee’s mind

Artist Jakkee Kongkaew shows new woodcut-print portraits of His Majesty the late King Bhumibol in the exhibition “Still in My Mind” continuing through June 10 at Ardel’s Third Place Gallery on Thonglor Soi 10. The show takes its title from that of a song composed by the late monarch, his first attempt at writing lyrics. Jakkee expresses his affection for the King using traditional woodcut techniques. Find out more at http://www.ThirdPlaceBangkok.com.

The self in Southeast Asia

Subhashok the Arts Centre is hosting “The Concept of Self: On Power, Identity and Labels”, an exhibition of work by Thai artists Alisa Chunchue, Anon Pairot, Chayanin Kwangkaew, Chulayarnnon Siriphol and Kitikun Mankit and Indonesians Antonio Sinaga, Patriot Mukmin, Theo Frids Hutabarat and Rega Ayundya Putri.

In photos, paintings, videos and installations on view from May 13 through June 17, the artists muse on macro and micro sociology in Southeast Asia that might be heralding a new cultural age. The show – a collaboration with Arcolabs and supported by the Indonesian Embassy, touches on politics, superstition, voyeurism and self-analysis.

Call (02) 662 0299 and visit the “sacbangkok” Facebook page.

No surrender at Tentacles

The gallery Tentacles inside the N22 art complex on Narathiwas Rachnakarin Road is currently showing “Defendant of Love” with the work of female artists Chomphupak Poonpol, Napatsakorn Nikornsaen, Nuttinan Phukama and Athapha Rattanaphongthara. The ladies demonstrate they have no intention of “surrendering” to gender oppression, but will instead transform the “pain” into “something acceptable, which is very ironic”. The show, comprised of video, installation, photos and paintings, has the support of the Marsi Foundation. See the “tentacles” Facebook page.

Where fairies are afoot

Known for his 2006 movie “All for Nothing”, Thai-British filmmaker-photographer Shane Bunnag has a solo exhibition at the Kathmandu Photo Gallery until June 24. “Dryopes” finds Shane among nature entities known as Mani in Greece, his childhood home. He toured sacred sites, capturing each one’s soul in long exposures of a model dancing and creating hallucinatory images. A maiden in a long black robe throws shape-shifting shadows as if some sort of dark fairy.

“Dryopes alludes to metamorphosis, the animism of antiquity, while referencing a local settlement close to where most of these images were captured,” says Shane. “Apart from one composite image, the photographs all occurred in-camera, with no adjustments later.”

Discover more at http://www.KathmanduPhotoBkk.com.

THE THAILAND Creative and Design Centre (TCDC) might not be as BTS-convenient at its new digs in the Grand Postal Building on Bangkok’s Charoenkrung Road, but it’s determined to liven things up in old Bang Rak district.

Having just moved from the Emporium, its home for 11 years, the centre reopened on Friday with twice the space – 8,600 square metres across five floors. It has a library, exhibition area, materials and innovation centre, creative business centre, “maker space” and a “co-working space”.

The TCDC has moved its extensive library of books, magazines and other media on art and design to the new location on Bangkok’s Charoenkrung Road.

Managing director Apisit Laistrooglai says the goals have not changed.

“Our aim is to promote a knowledge-based society by cultivating creative ideas among youth and sparking creative and practical business models among entrepreneurs,” he says.

“We have to add value to people and products by matching modern trends to international standards to compete overseas.”

The new locale has as its concept “Redefining the District”, meaning Bang Rak – one of the city’s original neighbourhoods.

“Another significant mission is to develop a concrete example of a creative district by making the surrounding area a centre of arts and creativity. The TCDC aims to push Bangkok to become the World Design Capital in 2022,” Apisit says.

Historic Charoenkrung Road is lined with retro bars and chic galleries as well as old shophouses and other venerable buildings. King Rama IV had the thoroughfare built in 1861, parallel with the Chao Phraya River. It’s regarded as Bangkok’s first “proper road” and had its own tramway.

The TCDC, long an attraction at the Emporium, is now housed in the historic Grand Postal Building.

The European-style neo-classical Grand Postal Building was built in 1935 and designated an historical site in 2004. Not far away on Soi 40 are the Roman Catholic Assumption Cathedral dating to the early 1900s and Wat Suan Phlu on Soi 42/1, where a statue of Guanyin, goddess of mercy, resides. Posh local galleries include the Serindia and the Atta.

Twitee Vajarabhaya of the private firm DOA (Department of Architecture) says its interior design for the TCDC was geared to networking.

“It had to be flexible to serve different functions, and it’s minimalist to show off the old building’s beautiful architecture. We inserted white steel structures with both clear and opaque acrylic sheets, like placing a modern box inside a vintage box, so the two designs can co-exist.”

A gift shop

The lobby has a gift shop and a gallery for temporary exhibitions, beginning with “Creativity Onwards”, continuing into September – an array of clever Thai notions that are expected to become lifestyle trends.

The commercial brands that have taken up residence at the TCDC reflect the current popular preference for personalised items and anything digital and innovative. Shoppers are no longer obsessed with particular brands and patronise shops and services that can meet their individual needs.

The TCDC gallery’s debut exhibition is titled “Creativity Onwards”, a look at clever Thai notions expected to become lifestyle trends.

One example is local brand Selvedgework letting customers design their own denim jeans. It has more than 30 choices of denim available, from Japan, Italy and the US. Clients specify the material and cutting style they want – and the thread colour, button shanks, rivets, leather patches, logo tags, pocket lining and even the font used in their laser-etched initials.

Thinkk Studio’s Lanna Factory machine

At Thinkk Studio you can learn how to make a yarn lampshade on an all-wood Lanna Factory weaving machine that uses no electricity. Five spindles hold different-coloured threads that are coated with glue and wrapped around a foam lampshade mould as it spins. You pick the shade shape and control the direction of the weave and the colours woven in. The possibilities are almost infinite.

If you need some new sneakers or flip-flops, you can have Kraftka footwear custom-made based on your own design, using royalty-free graphics, drawings or photos. You upload that to a website, get a preview of what the shoes will look like, and agree to have them delivered to your door.

The Material & Design Innovation Centre is the place to go for innovative materials and a database of suppliers. 

The TCDC also has the Material & Design Innovation Centre, formerly known as Material ConneXion Bangkok. It’s a branch of a New York materials library that also has outlets in Milan, Italy, and Cologne, Germany. Here you can see innovative materials available around the world and consult a database of suppliers. The focus is on Thai and other Southeast Asian materials and assorted intriguing products.

Thai suppliers can fit you out with Metiles made of wood handsomely fused inside metal.

Metiles from Inno Composite Co, for example, is a tiling material with wood fused in metal, so it has the natural grain of wood plus the sheen of metal. It looks great when used in interior pieces like furniture and is appealing when incorporated into souvenirs.

Combining wood and molten aluminium sounds like a fire hazard, but the patent-pending casting process prevents burning as it creates different shapes under high pressure. You can get Metiles with teak, parawood, bamboo and acacia nestled into the matrix of aluminium.

At Shannta, which also has a shop at the Bangkok Art and Culture Centre, they’ll prove you don’t need to be a silversmith to make one-of-a-kind silver jewellery. And it’s easy and fun.

They use a “nano silver clay” not unlike the doughy clay kids play with – molecules of pure silver mixed with water and non-toxic binders. You mould it by hand into the desired shape and fire it in a small kiln to remove the binders and fuse the metal powder into solid, 99.99-per-cent silver.

Thai start-up Enlicium is already installing its “smart home” automation system in residential areas.

At the TCDC soft opening, the Material & Design Innovation Centre had start-up firm Enlicium displaying its remarkable “smart home” automation system. It lets you use your phone to control the TV, air-conditioner, lighting, curtains, door and window locks and surveillance cameras, or you can just bark out a command (English only for now – Thai coming soon).

“We also have a sensor to detect smoke to reduce fire risk and to monitor carbon-monoxide levels if there’s a health issue,” said Enlicium co-founder Piyapoj Kasempakdeepong. “The sensor will send a notification to your mobile app and trigger an alarm.

“Another smart sensor detects water leaks to guard against home flooding and the possible risk of electrocution. We’re currently installing these sensors at a Sansiri residential project.”

The Maker Space rents out 3D printers, laser-cutting equipment, embroidering and weaving machines and woodworking tools.

The Maker Space on the third floor – a collaborative effort with creativity-friendly FabCafe Bangkok on Soi Ari – hosts an open platform where folks can share and develop their ideas. You can rent 3D printers, laser-cutting equipment, embroidering and weaving machines and woodworking tools.

“With digital fabrication tools, anyone can bring their ideas to life and make anything from parts and accessories to architectural models,” says Kalaya Kovidvisith, a co-founder of the Bangkok outlet.

“FabCafe is a creative network that originated in Tokyo’s Shibuya district in 2012. There are nine of them around the world now, Bangkok’s being the fifth to open.”

The rooftop garden is terrific for relaxing and brainstorming.

The library on the fourth floor has an extensive collection of books, magazines and other media on art and design. The creative business centre is on the fifth floor, with meeting rooms, its own library, a cafe and an area just for relaxing. You can conceive your next brainstorm over a game of foosball or while banging on a drum kit – or just loaf in the rooftop garden.

GET THOSE JUICES FLOWING

A slew of activities is being held today starting at 4pm. A free-admission Creative Market offers interesting products and workshops, film screenings and live performances of jazz and soul.

The entrance fee will be waived all this month.

Membership in the TCDC costs Bt1,200 per year (half that for students, seniors and government officials), or you can get a one-day pass for Bt100. Ask about group and corporate rates.

The TCDC at the Grand Postal Building on Charoenkrung Road is open daily except Monday from 10.30am to 9pm.

Call (02) 105 7441 or visit http://www.TCDC.or.th.

Initiated by HRH the Prince of Wales, the event responds to a renaissance in the appreciation of creativity and craft and the role of unique skills and true talent.

The khon performance featuring the Tosakanth courting Sita episode from the Ramayana was staged at the opening party last night at the Victoria and Albert Museum. It will be repeated tomorrow and Friday (May 4-5) at Two Temple Place, and on Saturday (May 6) at the Thai Embassy in London. Both morning and afternoon sessions are available.

The third edition of London Craft Week has as its concept “Beyond Luxury”. The curated programme brings together more than 230 events from all corners of the globe fusing making, design, fashion, art, luxury, food, culture and shopping.

 “Tosca X” is the first performance in a new project by Casadei called “Corpo d’Opera”, which is dedicated to the choreographic re-interpretation of some of the main 19th century operas with a special focus on female figures

Tosca is one of Giacomo Puccini’s most famous operas. Tonight’s performance focuses on the central act of Tosca and investigates the relationship between Baron Scarpia, a man who craves material possessions, and Tosca, a woman who lives for art. “Tosca X” is a little like a thriller, with Tosca playing the role of the victim and Scarpia personifying her persecutor.

Through this new creation, the artistic director and choreographer of the Artemis Danza proposes her personal version of Tosca through dramatic choreography and the rushing musical rhythm of the act.

Founded in 1994 by Casadei, Artemis Danza has performed with great success in Europe, Asia and Africa.

The Music Hall is right next to the Faculty of Architecture. For more information visit Facebook Page Italian Festival Thailand or call (02) 250 4970. Admission is free.

 The world’s first museum dedicated to China’s Tiananmen Square crackdown will once again open its doors in Hong Kong after a months-long closure as the city prepares to mark the 20th anniversary of its handover to Beijing.

The June 4th Museum closed its doors last July after organisers said they were being targeted for political reasons in the semi-autonomous city where concerns are growing that Beijing is tightening its grip.

Tenants in the commercial building which housed the museum from 2014 said the museum breached regulations that said the premises could only be used for offices.

The museum, now housed at a new temporary venue, will open to the public at a time when Hong Kong is revving up the fanfare for the 20th anniversary of its handover to China by Britain, with expectations of a high-profile visit by Chinese president Xi Jinping.

Organiser Lee Cheuk-yan stressed this was an especially important time to reopen the museum.

“It’s very important that this museum will be here to tell Xi to his face that people in Hong Kong have not forgotten what had happened 28 years ago when the Communist Party decided to open fire and send in tanks against the people’s aspiration for freedom,” Lee said.

Chinese authorities branded the pro-democracy protests in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square on June 4, 1989 a “counter-revolutionary rebellion” and many on the mainland remain unaware of the crackdown.

The cramped 100 square-metre space will be displaying newspaper clippings, large photographs and videos of tanks rolling down the streets of Beijing during the crackdown.

The exhibit, which also displays a two-metre tall statue of the Goddess of Democracy opened on Sunday and will run until June 15 in the city’s Shek Kip Mei residential region.

“It’s very much meaningful because… it counteracts against the brainwashing by the Communist party,” Lee said of the museum, which is still searching for a permanent home.

“They have the money and resources to really try to use excuses to suppress our museum, but I think we will fight on, and I think with the support of people in Hong Kong we can fight,” he said.

The Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements in China, which runs the museum, is raising funds and hopes to find a permanent location for the displays within the next two years.

Residents said it was important for Hong Kong to host the museum.

“Hong Kong is the only place in China that can act as a platform for people to comprehend this part of history,” said social worker Regan Suen, 33.

Beijing has never given an official death toll for the Tiananmen crackdown, which was condemned worldwide, but independent observers tallied more than 1,000 dead.

Hong Kong enjoys freedoms unseen on the mainland, enshrined in a deal made before Britain handed it back to China in 1997. But there are growing fears those freedoms are being eroded.

One of the most important holidays on the Buddhist calendar, Visakha Bucha marks the three important incidents in the life of Lord Buddha – his birth, his enlightenment, and his death. Coinciding with the full moon of the sixth lunar month, this year’s Visakha Bucha falls next Wednesday.

Traditionally Buddhists will go to temple to make merit, attend Buddhist sermons, and wien tien – walk around the temple clockwise three times in prayer and meditation. Phra That Haripunchai Temple in Lamphun province is the designated pilgrimage temple for 2017.

“Phra That Hariphunchai Temple contains the Buddha’s relic that is auspicious for the rooster year. The pagoda was built in the era of Phra Nang Jamthevi, the Princess from the Lawoe Kingdom of Hariphunchai city,” explains Ajarn Khatha Chinnabanchorn, a well-known fortune teller.

For those staying in Bangkok, The Mall Group is once again organising its “Visakha Bucha Auspicious Celebration” from Thursday thrpugh May 10 on the concept “Worship Buddha’s Relic of the Rooster Year, Bring Happiness Throughout the Year” and will be bringing a replica of the Phra That Hariphunchai Temple pagoda to The Mall Ngamwongwan branch.

Medallions bearing the king of roosters on one side and the symbolic Yantra on the other, which have been blessed and prayed over by Phra Kru Sitisungwon, the assistant to the abbot of Wat Ratchasitaram, and which are believed to bring better health, long life, happiness, and prosperity, will be offered to M Card and Thai Life Card members.

Khatha, who led the recent medallion ceremony involving the preparation of three-legged tents signifying a foundation in life for stability, prosperity, and longevity, explains that on one occasion in the past, His Graciousness the Supreme Patriarch Somdet Phra Ariyavongsanana went to Rangnaipa Temple to witness an incantation. As he sat in meditation, he was suddenly surrounded by a flock of enraged roosters. He chanted the incantation and the wild roosters were tamed. Some of them even came close to him and fed off the palm of his hand.

The auspicious rooster medallions have also been ceremoniously consecrated to rid the people of misfortunes and to worship the angels of the nine planets that are believed to bring good health, long life, happiness, and prosperity.

The Mall event features plenty of activities for the new generation including “The Crystal Singing Bowl” to create balance in the cells through sound waves that helps to remove negative thoughts and ease certain sicknesses. This ancient therapy will be led by Dr Gumpanat Buahombura, who will use crystal bowls made from quartz in seven sizes to connect with the seven chakras of the human body.

Sermons and lectures by Phra Maha Sompong, Major Suthee Suksakol, Jatupone Chompoonich, and Khatha himself will be given as part of the “Mee Thet, Mee Talk” activity. Merit-making rites including the Uppatasanti Prayer Ceremony “Mahasanting Luang”, which will offer prayers in honour of His Majesty the late King Bhumibhol Adulyadej and the Thai Royal Family led by the monks of Pitchyayatkaram Wonwihan Temple. There will also be yoga meditation and an offering of 99 sets of Sangkhtan (household goods and dry food) to monks.

But while the few hundred diehard supporters give it their all week in week out, the now dilapidated terraces of what was once continental Europe’s biggest stadium may soon fall silent for ever.

In March the 123-year-old club, which even under the Nazis was allowed to keep its English name “Vienna”, declared itself insolvent and is trying to hammer out a survival plan.

The players haven’t been paid since December and automatic relegation looms from Austria’s already lowly third division, the Austrian Regional League East, making finding new sponsors even harder.

“If it all ends, it will be the end of an era,” sighed Robert Haidinger, head of the supporters club, as he charged five euros ($5.50) for the trickle of cars arriving for the evening match.

“A piece of Viennese history would disappear,” he told AFP.

– British import –

==================

Like elsewhere in Europe and beyond in the late 19th century, British immigrants were a major driving force in the birth of Austrian football.

The “Vienna” was founded, in a pub, in 1894 by British gardeners together with locals smitten with this exotic new combination of exercise and gentlemanly “fair play”.

The club quickly became an all-Austrian affair but its three-legged logo, the triskelion, still survives in tribute to the homeland of one of the founders, William Beale from the Isle of Man.

To this day many of the chants on the terraces are in English. “Hey ho let’s go,” says a sign, in English, on the way out of the ground.

“To hear lots of voices singing all together something like ‘Come on Vienna’ is, well, it gives you goosebumps,” said Josef Keglevic, a lifelong fan.

– ‘Wunderteam’ –

================

“Vienna” used to be a force to be reckoned with not only in domestic football but internationally too. Visiting Spain in 1925, they thrashed Barcelona 4-1.

Its Hohe Warte stadium, the biggest in Europe outside Britain when it opened in 1921, was also the home ground for Austria’s legendary national “Wunderteam”.

As many as 85,000 supporters watched trainer Hugo Meisl’s men — slayers of allcomers and unlucky favourites for the 1934 World Cup — play Italy here in 1923.

When Hitler, no fan of football, annexed his native Austria into the Third Reich in 1938, the club’s many Jewish players and functionaries were quickly expelled.

Rudolf Spitzer, who took part in the club’s first official match in 1894, was one of several people associated with the club murdered in the Holocaust.

But from a sporting point of view the Nazi era went well for the Viennese.

In 1943 they won the Tschammerpokal cup at the since-renamed “Adolf-Hitler-Kampfbahn” stadium in Stuttgart.

“It was one of most successful teams in World War II,” historian Alexander Juraske, author of a book on the club’s history, told AFP.

After 1945, once Austria was re-established and life returned to normal, the club remained highly successful and in 1955 won the Austrian championship for the sixth and, so far, final time.

Plagued by poor performances, a slow decline set in over the following decades and in 1992 it slipped out of the Bundesliga top league for the final time.

“The club also made a lot of mistakes,” Juraske said. “Financially it bit off more than it could chew.”

– Vienna got soul –

===================

Chief executive Gerhard Krisch is trying to cut spending by 700,000 euros — a third of the club’s costs — but faces an uphill battle to save this piece of sporting history.

Regulations only allow the stadium — now a “nature arena” with a grass bank on three sides — to hold 5,500 people, stymying efforts to make money through events like concerts.

And in this small Alpine country, only the big clubs like Red Bull Salzburg can make any money, filling their stadiums with 15,000-20,000 fans.

“All the others have problems, including in the Bundesliga, with fewer than 2,000-3,000 supporters. That’s not enough to run a club economically,” Krisch told AFP.

But Josef Keglevic, a supporter since he was six years old, said “Vienna” still has something special.

“At clubs like Barcelona, Real Madrid or Bayern Munich… there is no humanity any more. There as a supporter you are just a number, a revenue generator,” he said.

“But here there is something, a feeling… A soul, yes.”