THE MODERNIST architect IM Pei, who was once pilloried for plonking a glass pyramid into the courtyard of the Louvre, turned 100 on Wednesday with his controversial creation now an icon of the French capital.

The Chinese-American designer endured a roasting from critics before the giant glass structure opened in 1989, with up to 90 per cent of Parisians said to be against the project at one point.

“I received many angry glances in the streets of Paris,” Pei later said, confessing that “after the Louvre I thought no project would be too difficult.”

Yet in the end even that stern critic of modernist “carbuncles”, Britain’s Prince Charles, pronounced it “marvellous”.

And the French daily Le Figaro, which had led the campaign against the “atrocious” design, celebrated its genius with a supplement on the 10th anniversary of its opening.

Pei’s masterstroke was to link the three wings of the world’s most visited museum with vast underground galleries bathed in light from his glass and steel pyramid.

It also served as the museum’s main entrance, making its subterranean concourse bright even on the most overcast of days.

This file photo taken on June 22, 2006 in the Napoleon courtyard of the Louvre museum in Paris shows US-Chinese architect of the Louvre Pyramid Ieoh Ming Pei posing for photographers./AFP 

Pei, who grew up in Hong Kong and Shanghai before studying at Harvard with the Bauhaus founder Walter Gropius, was not the most obvious of choices for the job, having never worked on a historic building before.

But the then French president Francois Mitterrand was so impressed with his modernist extension to the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC that he insisted he was the man for the Louvre.

The Socialist leader was in the midst of attempting to transform Paris with a series of architectural “grands projets” that included the Bastille Opera and the Grand Arch of La Defense.

Already in his mid-60s and an established star in the United States for his elegant John F Kennedy Library and Dallas City Hall, nothing had prepared Pei for the hostility of the reception his radical plans would receive.

He needed all his tact and dry sense of humour to survive a series of encounters with planning officials and historians.

One meeting with the French historic monuments commission in January 1984 ended in uproar, with Pei unable even to present his ideas.

“You are not in Dallas now!” one of the experts shouted at him during what he recalled was a “terrible session”, where he felt the target of anti-Chinese racism.

Not even Pei’s winning of the Pritzker Prize, the “Nobel of architecture” in 1983, seemed to assuage his detractors.

Jack Lang, who was French culture minister at the time, says he is still “surprised by violence of the opposition” to Pei’s ideas.

“The pyramid is right at the centre of a monument central to the history of France [the Louvre is the former palace of the country’s kings].

“The project also came at a time of a fierce ideological clashes” between the left and right, he adds.

The Louvre’s then director, Andre Chabaud, resigned in 1983 in protest at the “architectural risks” Pei’s vision posed.

The present incumbent, however, is in no doubt that the pyramid is a masterpiece that helped turn the museum around.

Jean-Luc Martinez is all the more convinced of the fact having worked with Pei over the last few years to adapt his plans to cope with the museum’s growing popularity.

Pei’s original design was for up to two million visitors a year. Last year the Louvre welcomed nearly nine million.

For Martinez the pyramid is “the modern symbol of the museum”, he said, “an icon on the same level” as the Louvre’s most revered artworks “the Mona Lisa, the Venus de Milo and the Winged Victory of Samothrace”.

Pei is not alone in being savaged for changing the cherished landscape of Paris.

In 1887, a group of intellectuals that included Emile Zola and Guy de Maupassant published a letter in the newspaper Le Temps to protest at the building of the “useless and monstrous Eiffel Tower”, an “odious column of sheet metal with bolts”.

The predatory starfish is naturallyoccurring but has proliferated due to pollution and runoff at the World Heritagelisted ecosystem, which is also reeling from two consecutive years of mass coral bleaching.

Until now other expensive chemicals such as bile salts have been used to try and eradicate the pest  which consumes coral faster than it can be regenerated  but they can harm other marine organisms.

Tests by James Cook University, in collaboration with the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority (GBRMPA), showed vinegar was safe, effective and cheap.

Study head Lisa BostromEinarsson said crownofthorns were injected with vinegar at four sites on the reef over six weeks, causing them to die within 48 hours with no impact on other life.

“We recorded live coral cover, abundance of coral disease, fish abundance and diversity, fish diseases and the abundance of closely related invertebrates before, during and after the sixweek study period and found no detrimental effects,” she said.

Keeping crownofthorns under control however is a tough ask, with dive teams needing to individually inject each starfish before it dies and breaksup.

But despite the labourintensive job, it is far more efficient than extracting them from the water before killing them.

A major study of the reef’s health published in 2012 showed cover had halved over the past 27 years and attributed 42 per cent of the damage to crownofthorns starfish.

‘Massive effort’

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GBRMPA director of tourism and stewardship Fred Nucifora said the new method would be used to target reefs identified as having high conservation and tourism values.

“Culling crownofthorns starfish is a critical management activity to protect coral cover and boost reef resilience, particularly in the wake of coral bleaching,” he said.

Earlier this month, scientists revealed the 2,300kilometre (1,400mile) long Barrier Reef was suffering its second consecutive mass bleaching event due to warming sea temperatures, and said some coral had “zero prospect” of recovery.

The reef contributes more than Aus$7.0 billion (US$5.2 billion) a year to Australia’s economy, supporting the livelihoods of some 70,000 people, and there have been warnings that dying coral could cost the region more than a million tourists a year.

BostromEinarsson said while the innovative new method was good news, it would be tough to wipe out starfish altogether.

“There are millions of starfish on the Great Barrier Reef and each female produces around 65 million eggs in a single breeding season,” she said.

“It would take a massive effort to try and cull them all individually, but we know that sustained efforts can save individual reefs.”

Vinegar has now been added to the GBRMPA’s list of approved control chemicals, meaning operators can apply for permits to start controlling the starfish.

This is Natee’s most intimate series to date and follows on the heels of the successful “Samlee & Co, The Absolutely Fabulous Show” which was also shown in Jakarta. “It Would Be Silly to Be Jealous of a Flower” is a follow-up series to the artist’s most recent survey project of the 5 genres within the traditions of classical Western art.

“Flowers and paintings of flowers aren’t the same thing, though there is a connection. In a still life the flowers are free. They are what they are. They are brought forth to be a painting. They are not meant to be an image representing flowers,” he wrote in his artist note “Forget Me Not With Artist Palette”.

Flower still-lifes, to Natee, navigate fact and fiction. By painting flowers, the artist contemplates life, the human consciousness, reminisces about fond memories, and questions the propriety, custom and ethics that govern our everyday lives. The artist records his ruminations through the painting of these classical metaphors for virtues and vice.

Richard Koh Fine Art is at 229 Jalan Maar in Bukit Bandaraya, Bangsar, Kuala Lumpur.

The opening reception will be held on May 18 from 5 to 8 pm.

For more information, visit http://RKFineArt.com.

 The country boy who became a successful painter of movie posters and ultimately an esteemed artist will be at the gallery for the opening and again on May 13 at 1pm for a talk about “Memories of Old Bangkok”.

Nostalgia is a theme of the exhibition continuing through May 25, with many of Choosak’s hand-painted film posters on view, evoking happy times at the cinema. Other works address various topics, including his admiration for the monarchy and a series on the Indian emperor Ashoka the Great, who did so much to propagate Buddhism.

Vikrom Kromadit, chairman of the Amata Foundation, will open the exhibition today at 6pm.

The Queen’s Gallery is open daily except Wednesday from 10am to 7pm. There is no admission charge. Learn more at (02) 281 5360-1 or http://www.Facebook.com/queengallerybkk.

On Monday, scientists hypothesised that the Norwegian painter’s inspiration may in fact have been rare clouds which form in cold places at high altitude.

The first version of “The Scream” was released in 1893. It depicts a dark humanlike figure clutching its head in apparent horror against the backdrop of a swirling, red-orange sky.

In 2004, American astronomers theorised that Munch had painted a sky brightly coloured by particle pollution from the 1883 Krakatoa volcanic eruption.

But the new paper, presented at a meeting of the European Geosciences Union in Vienna, said he more likely depicted a rare sighting of “mother-of-pearl” clouds over Oslo.

A volcanic outburst does not account for the “waviness” of Munch’s clouds, Helene Muri, a researcher at the University of Oslo, told journalists in Vienna.

Furthermore, volcano-tinted sunsets tend to be common for several years after an outburst, “whereas Munch’s scary vision was seemingly a one-time experience, the way he described it in his journal,” she said.

In his diary, Munch wrote of the sky turning suddenly blood red.

Mother-of-pearl or “nacreous” clouds, require unusual conditions to form — very cold temperatures in the atmosphere, in a high altitude band of about 20-30 kilometres (12-19 miles).

They tend to appear at high latitudes in winter.

Because they are thin, these clouds are typically not visible during daytime, but before sunrise or after sunset.

“We do know that there were mother-of-pearl clouds in the Oslo area in the late 19th century,” said Muri.

At least one scientist documented the phenomenon and wrote “they are so beautiful you could believe you are in another world”, she added.

Similar sightings of nacreous clouds over southeast Norway in 2014, and their striking resemblance to Munch’s painting, is what sparked the latest research.

“Edvard Munch could well have been terrified when the sky all of a sudden turned ‘bloodish red’,” the researchers concluded.

“Hence, there is a high probability that it was an event of mother-of-pearl clouds which was the background for Munch’s experience in nature, and for his iconic Scream.”

Muri conceded the latest was but “another hypothesis”.

“There are other hypotheses. But of course, we are natural scientists, we tend to look for answers in nature, whilst the psychologists have suggested it was inner torment that made Munch paint ‘The Scream’.”

To celebrate the opening, the TCDC is holding a series of special activities from May 5 to 7.

The first takes place inside the TCDC office and will test the operation flow of the exhibition area, the library and new zones like the creative space, maker space and business service.

The second is held around the building, which is designed as a new concept market and where selected shops will provide workshops for customers.

The event will also feature movie screenings, digital art and music performances from The Paradise Bangkok Molam International Band, Yellow Fang, Summer Dress and more. Admission is free.

With more than 9,000 sqm space, the new TCDC comprises of an exhibition space, auditoriums, meeting rooms, multi-function rooms and several new zones.

For more information, visit Facebook.com/tcdc.thailand

“We never had a bad year, it’s been a consistent grow,” said Forrester, who is based in Stellenbosch — the wine region just north of Cape Town.

But like many South African vineyard owners, he is nervous about what the future holds for the industry, facing price pressure and for many an unsustainable return on investment.

“Look at this moisture, it’s perfect, this one is ready to be picked,” Forrester told AFP as he caressed a handful of chenin blanc grapes.

“It’s very important to pick the grapes at the right time. If not, the blend that you’re creating is an average one, and with an average one you achieve nothing because anyone else can do it.”

In 2016 “Mr Chenin” as he is known to his friends made 500,000 bottles of his trademark versatile, zesty white.

But increasing quantity will not be enough to keep his business viable, Forrester warned.

“There’s a critical price problem for the South African wines. It’s very difficult to get the right prices,” he said.

Cape Town’s Vinpro winemakers association says 40 per cent of its 3,200 members are loss-making and 900 have thrown in the towel in the past decade even as national production rose around 50 per cent between 2005 and 2015 to 9.68 million hectolitres with 4.12 million exported.

Last year production fell back 19 per cent, according to the Paris-based International Organisation of Vine and Wine.

“South African wine producers have an average two per cent return on investments for their wine production and that is too low to be sustainable,” said Edo Heyns, Vinpro’s communications chief.

– ‘Image and branding’ –

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Despite the industry’s challenges, wine production remains vital to South Africa’s economy: it employs 300,000 people and in 2015 contributed $2.77 billion (2.6 billion euros) to South Africa’s gross domestic product.

“We need to get better prices for our wine,” says Heyns. “South African brands are often viewed as value for money only. That needs to shift for quality, image and branding.”

Forrester agrees, lamenting exports of mainly cheap wines, calling it “a bad mistake because this positioned us incorrectly in the market place.”

Former Springboks flanker Jan “Bolen” Coetzee wore the national side’s jersey six times before following his forebears and buying a vineyard in Stellenbosch in 1980.

Coetzee, now 72, is critical of the recent quantitative rather than qualitative approach, even though South Africa is now the world’s eighth largest wine producer.

“When the market opened up to exports in 1994, everybody was curious about South African. But instead of selling our better wines, we were selling bulk wines by millions of litres. The only kind of brand we had was price, and the price was cheap,” he said.

Although South African wines have begun to break onto the international stage and win critical recognition, they are still saddled with their humble viticultural origins.

Those origins go back three centuries, but the industry took a hit notably in the 1980s amid international sanctions imposed over apartheid.

After those sanctions were lifted, producers moved to offload stocks, with little heed for price.

“I was shocked in Europe the other day because guys are willing to spend more for a bottle of water from Norway… than for a bottle of South African wine,” said Coetzee.

In a bid to increase the market value of the country’s output, industry organisation Wines of South Africa (WOSA) has sought to reshape the perceptions of overseas buyers.

– ‘Save the industry’ –

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“We have 500 odd wine brands but we don’t have one that stands out and is recognised worldwide. That’s one of our challenges,” said WOSA chief executive Siobhan Thompson.

Forced to do battle with new world wines from Australia and Chile, the South African wine industry is struggling in traditional markets like Germany and Britain while expanding into China and elsewhere in Africa.

“We don’t have the consumer demand that can drive up the prices to the level that one wants. The SA market is relatively small,” said Nick Vink, a lecturer at Stellenbosch University’s Department of Agricultural Economics.

Experts warn the industry is facing an uphill struggle when it comes to growing the domestic market and attracting newly affluent drinkers from among the black majority.

“If you’re sort of cutting more than half of your market off and say we’re not going to sell to them — or we can’t sell to them — you’re cutting yourself off from a large proportion of what you need to sort of save the industry,” Vink added.

For Coetzee, the veteran winemaker and rugby star, the future is in the hands of young winemakers.

“Only the producers can turn around the image of South African wines,” he said. “Our new generation is very talented, they can make it happen.”

For the five consecutive years, the Thailand centre of the Internatcoiional Assation of Theatre Critics, the largest community of theatre critics with a history going back more than six decades, has held an event to honour the year’s best contemporary Thai dance and theatre works, notwithstanding decreasing financial support.

Last Tuesday, the day many of us returned to work following the Thai new year holiday, MCs Malys Choeysobhon and Alice Tsoi hosted “the IATC Thailand Dance and Theatre Review 2016” at the Bangkok Art and Culture Centre (BACC). The event was well-attended, with more than 120 artists, journalists, students and performing arts lovers turning out to applaud the winners. Due to the Songkran break, the glass trophies were still in the factory – the award winners received certificates for now – and the book of reviews is in the computer, ready to be downloaded soon. Despite this, there was more interest from the mainstream media than before.

 A scene from “Fundamental”, whose director, B-Floor Theatre’s cofounder Teerawat “Kage” Mulvilai, saw it win three of the four awards for which it was nominated. Photo by Wipat Lertpureewong

A critics’ overview of contemporary Thai dance and theatre over the past year as well as current trends kicked off this small event. IATC Thailand’s honorary president Kittisak Suwanaphokin, “Season” magazine’s theatre critic, noted the greater connection between academia and the professional world, a good sign for the future. Vice president Amitha Amranand, who writes for the Bangkok Post, voiced concern about the rising number of works that had been inspired by or adapted from foreign works yet failed to duly credit them. Newest member, Khaosod English’s Kaewta Ketbungkan added that last year many theatre productions were marking the 40th anniversary of October 6, 1976.

For my part, I noted that Thong Lor Art Space was now so prolific – with different programmes of dance, theatre, film and interdisciplinary works by Thai and international artists almost every weekend – that the place must be on speed.

The evening’s first award was given to the art direction of politically charged physical theatre “Fundamental” by B-Floor Theatre’s co-founder Teerawat “Ka-ge” Mulvilai, who said that the work’s main set prop, the orange road barricades often seen in political demonstration, was nicknamed “salmon”.

Ka-ge took a toilet break afterwards and as soon as he walked back into the room, was called back onstage for best performance by an ensemble award for the same work. This time he asked the ensemble who had worked with him on the creation of the work for three months to share the spotlight. With “Fundamental” packing two out of two awards by far, the next one, that for best movement-based performance, was predictable.

“With the number of IATC Thailand awards B-Floor Theatre has received in the past few years, the critics should perhaps come up with a Best B-Floor Work award next year,” MC Malys joked.

Ka-ge was also up for the subsequent award, best direction of a play/performance/musical, and “Fundamental” would have made history by sweeping all four awards it was nominated for had it won. However, the critics chose to honour Pattarasuda “Bua” Anuman Rajadhon who staged both Thai and English versions of “Stick Figures” at Thong Lor Art Space (TLAS). Besides showing gratitude to her cast and crew who believed in her crazy idea of staging two versions of the play on alternate evenings with two different casts, Bua thanked American playwright Josh Ginsburg, saying “I didn’t have to do much actually: it’s all in his writing”.

The award for Best Adapted Script went to Wannasak Sirilar for “Snakes”. Photo by Wipawee Chowlert

Then came the three awards for writers. Last year’s recipient of IATC Thailand’s lifetime achievement award Daraka Wongsiri won another best book of a musical for her adaptation of MR Kukrit Pramoj’s “Mom”. Kittisak explained that Daraka had added a good deal to the late national artist and former prime minister’s short story while retaining his original theme. The best adapted script award went to another veteran Wannasak Sirilar for “Snakes”, his “wild and anything-goes” adaptation of Chinese folk tale “Madam White Snake”. Best original script was the “unorthodox, unpredictable yet unpretentious” play “The Disappearance of the Boy on a Sunday Afternoon” by Thanaphon Accawatanyu, a Thammasat University film graduate who also thanked an uncle at a video rental shop for introducing him to so many films.

MC Malys then started to introduce the recipient of the lifetime achievement award Assistant Professor Somporn “Khru Tim” Thopanya (Fourrage), whose classes he took at Thammasat University: “She came into the classroom and asked us to explain how fact, reality and truth differ from one another and when we turned silent she simply left the room. Class over – just like that. But that was in 1990, let’s have someone with a more recent memory of ‘Khru Tim’ on the stage with us.”

Answering the call, TLAS’s curator Wasurachata “Leon” Unaprom added: “She introduced us to ‘scenography’ [while elsewhere students were learning set design] in addition to interdisciplinary works [while others are being limited to the genre of theatre] and, as we’re working in a small theatre studio, taught us how to make something out of nothing.”

Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University’s lecturer and Sun Dance Theatre’s artistic director Sun Tawanwongsri reiterated: “I’m now also working with my students in a small university theatre studio, and I really make use of what I learned from her.”

Humble as ever, Khru Tim said when she received the first call about this award she was driving and wasn’t sure whether the critics wanted her to hand out awards to someone at their ceremony. And after her former student told her about IATC Thailand she still wondered why they chose to honour her. “But now that I see what my students are doing [in contemporary Thai theatre] I understand their reason,” she said.

Young actress Varattha Tongyoo was very surprised to edge out her two seniors to take home best performance by a female artist award for her deeply layered role in the Thai version of “Stick Figures”.

When Kaewta announced the name of Witwisit “Pitchy” Hiranyawongkul, from “Cocktails the Musical”, as the winner for best performance by a male artist category, screams were loud, reporters alerted and the cameramen were back behind the lens. Pitchy revealed that he almost backed out of this work, saying “But then one evening I was on TLAS’s balcony resting and saw a few staff members cutting posters and handbills and I realised this work was not my solo.”

For the best musical award, Pitchy was back on stage again, this time with “Cocktails” producer Leon, director and co-lyricist Dulthat Wasinachindakaew, and composer and pianist Jonas Dept.

Leon commented that it was one of the riskiest projects he’d ever worked on, as the musical play about a mixologist who forgot the recipe for an important cocktail, unlike most musicals here, featured a new story and songs and only one actor and one musician on stage.

The ceremony concluded with the best play award which went to “The Disappearance of the Boy on a Sunday Afternoon”. This time, Thanaphon also thanked Democrazy Theatre Studio “for the discount [in venue rent]”, then added: “I was bitten by a mouse when I was walking bare-footed in the backyard of Democrazy and I’ve just recently finished taking medicine for this, so anybody who’s using this studio, please wear shoes.”

It’s clear that notwithstanding little support from the government, Thailand’s contemporary dance and theatre persists with sheer variety in form and content, offering what the audience cannot get from screen works – TV, movies and smartphones.

COMING SOON

– “IATC Thailand Dance and Theatre Review 2016”, with reviews of all nominated works, in Thai and English, on contemporary Thai dance and theatre productions premiered in Bangkok last year, can be soon downloaded, free of charge, at http://www.Facebook.com/

IATC.Thailand

Patsri’s Miyakes on sale

The late jet-setting art collector Patsri Bunnag was a huge fan of Issey Miyake clothing and accessories, and now her personal collection, numbering more than 200 pieces, is being displayed in public for the first time. The “Mon Art du Style” exhibition is at Chiang Mai’s Mai-iam Contemporary Art Museum until June 25 and the sale at Atelier Mayasura on Bangkok’s Sukhumvit Soi 31 through June 27. All proceeds go to the Patsri Bunnag Foundation in support of young Thai artists and curators. Learn more at http://www.Maiiam.com and http://www.AtelierMayasura.com.

See Angki’s ‘prison scans’

Indonesian photographer Angki Purbandono will be in Bangkok on Saturday to open his show “Grey Area” at Bangkok University Gallery in Kluey Namthai. On view through July 26 will be examples of his “scanography”, made while he was imprisoned on a drug charge in 2012 and 2013. Denied a camera, he used a flatbed scanner to produce creative images, sometimes in collaboration with the warden and fellow inmates. The work is full of surprises, often appearing otherworldly. The gallery is open Tuesday through Saturday from 10 to 7. Call (02) 350 3626 or check the “BangkokUniversaryGallery” page on Facebook.

Why money looks different

After trying his hand as a curator for several years, Angkrit Ajchariyasophon has his artist’s hat back on again for a solo show, “Shades of Red”, at Gallery Ver in Bangkok until May 20. He addresses post-coup politics and distortion in truth by, for example, vastly enlarging a Bt100 bank note, cutting it into 500 pieces, and reassembling it using only 100 pieces. The gallery is in the N22 complex on Narathiwas Rachanakarin Road. Check the “GalleryVer” Facebook page.

The look of true nature

French photographer Philippe Moisan, a long-time Bangkok resident, has his latest work on show in “Essences” at the PT-gallery in Bang Rak district until June 30. Moisan finds the “quintessence” in nature’s raw beauty in 13 large prints of images from a Japanese forest. Alongside his photos are woodcarvings by P Tendercool, the Bangkok-based, Belgian-run furniture-design studio. PT-gallery is at 48-58 Charoen Krung Soi 30 in Bang Rak and open daily from 10 to 6.30. Call |(02) 266 4344.

First up is the Swiss film “Dark Fortune” based on the novel “Finsteres Glück” by Lukas Hartmann. It screens tomorrow (April 24) at 7 at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Thailand (FCCT). Director Stefan Haupt, who premiered the film in Chiang Mai on Saturday, will be present and available for the Q&A session that follows. The screening will be preceded by a small reception courtesy of the Swiss Embassy at 6.30.

Haupt’s documentary “The Circle” was released in Thailand through the Documentary Club programme. Admission is free for FCCT-members and Bt150 for everyone else. Find out more at www.Fccthai.com

Then on Wednesday (April 26) French director Olivier Assayas will be present for the special screening of his film “Personal Shopper”starring Kristen Stewart, which won him the best director from the Cannes International Film Festival last year. The screening will be held at the Alliance Francaise at 8pm. The director will also attend the reception starting at 6pm and lead the talk at 7pm. Admission is free but unfortunately the event is already fully booked.

“Personal Shopper” hits cinemas on Thailand (April 27).