The opening ceremonies in both cities will be preceded by a talk by special guests. The exhibition shows a sense of the connections between past and present, how the search for a new vision of the city – a search that gained momentum in Japan half a century ago – has unfolded over time, and how those earlier efforts relate to today’s architecture and urban environments. The exhibition will provide an opportunity to reexamine the issue of urbanisation while grasping the current challenges and future directions of our ever-burgeoning cities in terms of specific relevance to each host location.

Taking as its point of departure the various experimental ideas on the city that flourished in Japan in the 1960s and using a combination of diverse media — from architectural scale models to photographs and slides, along with animations and other audio-visuals – the exhibition examines various circumstances of Japanese and other cities up to the present day, and identifies the distinctive aspects of those circumstances as they are manifested in present-day Tokyo.

Find out more at http://www.JFBjkk.or.th

Boutos has been taking photographs for more than three decades. Originally self-taught, he perfected his knowledge by attending seminars led by Platon Rivellis at the Photography Circle of Athens in 1985 covering the history and aesthetic of photography. In 2003, while on sabbatical leave, he attended a selection of courses at the School of Visual Arts, and the International Centre of Photography in New York.

“My roots are in street photography. It’s a tricky proposition to reconcile my two worlds. When faced with new places and cultures, I try to determine where my personal artistic interest lies. One can feel at the same time empty and overwhelmed. Undoubtedly there is a connection between the two states. ‘Access! You have access!’ was the exhortation of an old photographer friend. She’s right. Access is the photographer’s most valuable asset. Access in this case was at the cusp of both worlds.”

Known in Thailand for his mesmerising series on natural devastation and resurrection in ‘Fire/Regeneration’ (2017), Boutos’ new collection covers the fascinating world of official gala functions, which he must attend in his diplomatic persona.

Kathmandu Photo Gallery is open Tuesday through Saturday from 11am to 6pm, It’s at 87 Pan road (near Indian Temple), Silom, Bangkok. For more information, call (02) 234 6700 or visit http://www.KathmanduPhotoBkk.com

IN THE island state where many seem to hold to their heart what Heraclitus said millennia ago that everything changes and nothing stands still, the Singapore International Festival of Arts (Sifa) has just been reformatted again. This is notwithstanding the fond, and still fresh, memories of the four annual editions curated by former festival director Ong Keng Sen.

Part of the reason for this change is the new festival director Gaurav Kripalani who has brought with him many years of experience and international connections as the artistic director of Singapore Repertory Theatre (SRT). It’s because of his vision that we Southeast Asian theatregoers had a chance to watch, without any jetlag, such internationally acclaimed productions as Royal Shakespeare Company’s (RSC) “King Lear”, with Sir Ian MacKellen in the title role, as well as Sam Mendes’ “The Bridge Project”.

Ballet Prelcocaj’s “Playlist #1” : Photo/JeanClaude Carbonne

Kripalani explains: “I’ve been privileged to have travelled to several international arts festivals over the years where I have witnessed some of the best music, theatre and dance. This gave me a good foundation to begin programming Sifa over the next three years. The conversations and idea exchanges with the directors of these festivals has been a great resource and inspiration for me.”

In a city that hosts events and festivals all year round, Kripalani confirms that Sifa still stands out from the rest, saying: “Our goal is to excite audiences about new art forms, as well as how work is interpreted so that it is relevant today. Sifa reaches out to multiple audiences, art-heeled or otherwise. Audiences know that they can look forward to quality works from Singapore and around the world that they don’t normally see here. They can make their choices from the multiple genres and different art forms offered.”

Parable of the Sower : Photo/Paul Marotta 

As engaging and thought-provoking as they were, many works in the previous editions of Sifa have been criticised for being “too niche”. Kripalani has a totally different approach.

“I grew up looking forward to the Singapore Arts Festival every year. Watching shows across different genres from around the world played a big part in shaping my artistic sensibilities. In the 1992 Festival, [late Japanese director Yukio] Ninagawa’s ‘Macbeth’ changed my perception of how Shakespeare could be performed. I was blown away. It is this emphasis on great artistic experiences from the best in the world that is core to the festival, and will be familiar to those who have followed it over the years,” he explains.

Singular Screens “A Man of Integrity” : Photo courtesy SIFA

“What I’d experienced years ago with the arts festivals is the very same experience I want audiences to walk away with. Sifa will be festival for the people, and everyone who comes should feel there is something in it that speaks to them personally.”

Instead of one major theme for each edition in the recent past, this festival has multiple themes.

“We want to grow audiences, to include new and occasional theatre-goers, and with the multiple themes, we hope to reach out to a more diverse audience with which these various themes might resonate. The multiple themes allow us to explore, and have discourse on the many different aspects of life that we face today. Many of the topics presented through our shows confront audiences with the current issues of the day. The world we live in does not just have one theme; daily, we face universal issues, and we believe by offering multiple themes, the mind and heart of audiences can be expanded, and in the process, lives enriched.”

Jacob Collier: Photo/Betsy Newman

And while the previous editions of Sifa have been accompanied by pre-festival “OPEN”, and the total combined period of the two was a few months, this year’s Sifa will last only 17 days.

“The shorter timeframe aims to offer a more intense three-week experience that comprises multiple shows over the opening weekend, both indoors and free outdoor performances [like aerial circus “Sodade” by French collective Cirque Rouages and Korean indie band Sultan of the Disco at the Empress Lawn], as well as a closing concert by the legendary Duke Ellington Orchestra at the Singapore Botanical Gardens,”

Sultan of the Disco : Photo courtesy of SIFA

Kripalani explains.

“I want people to look forward to the festival and plan with their friends and loved ones what they want to catch.”

The historic building that once housed the parliament became the Arts House years ago and during Sifa this will become the Festival House.

“It will be the hub and pulse of discourse, conversations, discussions, book and poetry readings and master classes. Within its intimate spaces, audiences can engage in deeper discussion on the different subjects and themes that they have watched on stage. For example, [in the same weekend as its new theatre adaptation from the UK is staged at the nearby Esplanade Theatre] literary critic Dr Gwee Li Sui will lecture on how many of the themes in George Orwell’s dystopian classic “1984”– like surveillance, fake news and strongmen politicians – remain as relevant today.”

LEV Dance Company’s “OCD Love” : Photo/Regina Brocke

Also at the Festival House is “Singular Screens”, a mini festival showing 13 independent films. The opening film on April 28 is “A Man of Integrity” the Iranian movie that won Un Certain Regard recognition at Cannes Film Festival last year. Thailand’s sole representative in this year’s Sifa, multi-award winning director and screenwriter Nawapol Thamrongrattanarit, will see his “Die Tomorrow” screened on April 30 and May 1.

“Many of these films centre on issues that we face in our everyday lives –love, grief, suffering, mental health, social and political injustice, religion and, of course, death, as seen through the eyes of Nawapol, one of Thailand’s most promising young directors. In ‘Die Tomorrow’, I like his combination of documentary-style interview footage, news reports, sound recordings, statistics and archive materials in presenting the subject of death. There is blurring of the divide between art and reality, and this resonates with many of the underlying themes in some of our Sifa shows – where the topics dealt with are often too uncomfortably close to reality. In fact, death and mortality is something everyone will experience, but they are topics a lot of us would rather avoid.”

Schaubuhne Berlin’s “Enemy of the People” : Photo/Arno Declair

Kripalani finishes our interview with a personal invitation, saying: “We welcome visitors from Thailand to fly down to join us at Sifa 2018. There are some unique performances for both English and non-English speaking audiences. Besides the English-language theatre productions, dance, music and lovers of innovative and funky art are also in for a treat.”

To illustrate his point, he describes Israeli dance company L-E-V’s “OCD Love” as “compulsive and contemporary”; French choreographer Angelin Preljocaj’s “Playlist #1” as “a sublime ballet repertoire of ten beautiful solos, duos and emsembles”; and “The Blues Project” as “an emotive evening of tap dancing set to emotive blues music by the [American] powerhouse team of Michelle Dorrance, Derick K. Grant, Toshi Reagon and Dormeshia Sumbry-Edwards”.

And so, it’s time to plan our trip to Singapore again. See you there!

The writer wishes to thank Christina Stanley Lee and Willy Beh for all kind assistance.

MULTIPLE LAYERS IN 17 DAYS

Sifa 2018 runs from April 26 to May 12 at the Arts House, a short walk from MRT City Hall station, and other nearby venues. There are both free-admission and ticketed events.

For the complete line-up, visit http://www.SIFA.sg, and http://www.facebook.com/SIFA.sg.

THE FIRST Van Gogh painting to go under the hammer in France in more than two decades was unveiled on Wednesday.

“Women Mending Nets in the Dunes”, which the Dutch artist painted early in his career at Scheveningen near The Hague, is expected to go for around five million euros (Bt192 million) when it’s auctioned in June.

But with the art market booming and prices for artists like Vincent Van Gogh rocketing, experts say it’s hard to predict exactly where the bidding would stop.

The scene dates from the same period in 1882 when Van Gogh painted “View of the Sea at Scheveningen”, which the Italian Camorra organised-crime syndicate stole from the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam in 2002.

It was recovered in Naples in 2016 thanks to a tip-off from a suspected drug trafficker.

The oil on paper, which belongs to a European collector, also graced the walls of the Van Gogh Museum for several years after being previously on show in Montreal.

Bruno Jaubert of auction house Artcurial says the work comes from very early in Van Gogh’s career, when he was painting working-class people in his homeland.

“He had only started painting two years before,” says Jaubert.

“He describes the sale, “with fewer and fewer Van Goghs coming to the market”, as an art-market event.

The world record for a Van Gogh was for his “Portrait of Dr Gachet”, which sold for $82.5 million in 1990 (Bt2.58 billion).

“Women Mending Nets in the Dunes” will be sold on June 4 along with five minor works by Van Gogh’s friend Paul Gauguin.

One of them, a portrait of the artist’s childhood friend Claude Antoine Charles Favre, is expected to go for between 180,000 and 250,000 euros.

LED BY CO-ARTISTIC directors Danny Yung and Matthias Woo, Zuni Icosahedron, Hong Kong’s leading experimental, and multi-disciplinary, arts company, has been organising the Hong Kong-Taipei-Shanghai-Shenzhen City-to-City Cultural Exchange Conference and Asia Arts Net since 1997, when Hong Kong returned to the sovereignty of China.

An internationally acclaimed artist as well as a scholar, cultural administrator, independent cultural worker and creative industry operator, Yung once said that the historic handover “would be a cultural opportunity to initiate an important discourse on Chinese culture, Chinese and foreign cultures, as well as Eastern and Western cultures”.

Hong Kong Cultural Centre recently hosted an open discussion of cultural exchange issues. /Photo courtesy of Zuni Icosahedron

The recent Four-City Conference, as it’s commonly referred to, expanded its scope to become “Hong Kong Belt-Road City-to-City Cultural Exchange Conference”, with the aim of “promoting arts and cultural exchanges and collaborations among the respective cities, and to provide an impetus to the new paradigm of multicultural interactions between the East and the West”.

In her opening speech at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre’s (HKCC) Grand Theatre, Hong Kong SAR chief executive Carrie Lam noted: “For a few years now, much has been said about the Belt and Road Initiative and many conferences have been held in Hong Kong harping on this important theme. But placing ‘culture’ as the theme of a Belt and Road conference is both pioneering and commendable.

“The Belt and Road Initiative is not only about trade and business. One of the five main areas of connectivity that this Initiative aims to boost is a people-to-people bond,” she added, then quoted chairman of the National People’s Congress Standing Committee Zhang Dejiang’s observation that Hong Kong has been an important window for cultural exchanges between the East and the West given their open and inclusive cultural atmosphere.

“My government will continue to provide the policy and resources for transforming Hong Kong into Asia’s cultural hub and take advantage of our cultural foundation to promote people-to-people interactions along the Belt and Road,” Lam added.

At the HKCC’s Studio Theatre, the first two days marked the 20th anniversary of the four-city conference, where the main speaking language was Putonghua with English simultaneous interpretation. That was reversed for the latter two days when more international arts scholars, practitioners and cultural administrators spoke. The theme was “cultural exchange and city branding” and both parts were divided into four forums in accordance with four sub-themes. These forums explored the challenges, evaluation and way forward of, first, international arts events and arts festival organisations; second, government and legislatures; third, universities and research institutes; and last, foundations, public media and awarding bodies for arts awards on enhancing cultural exchange and city branding.

On the first two evenings, when chairs and tables were removed from the floor of the studio, conference participants and the public witnessed an example of cultural exchange in “One Table Two Chairs”, a concept for interdisciplinary and intercultural collaboration initiated by Yung. Such renowned international artists as classical Chinese opera master Ke Jun, classical Javanese dancer and choreographer Didik Nini Thowok, Israeli contemporary theatre director and choreographer Saar Magal and New York-based Japanese choreographer Yoshiko Chuma showcased what they had been working together with international participation from the Eurasia Young Performing Artists Cross-Cultural Exchange and Education Programme, members of which had previously been to workshops and masterclasses in Zurich and Taipei. On the third evening at the grand theatre, we watched the conference’s co-curator Woo’s “Architecture of the City”, a music theatre performance inspired by Italian architect Aldo Rossi’s book of the same title, as part of Zuni’s biannual “Architecture Is Art Festival”.

Jitti Chompee

Thailand was well represented in all aspects of this conference. Young artist Junior Dearden, a graduate of the Patravadi School in Hua Hin, was part of the aforementioned exchange and education programme and performed in both Magal’s and Chuma’s creations for “One Table Two Chairs”. Contemporary dancer and choreographer Jitti Chompee arrived early in the SAR to work with two acrobat students from the National Taiwan College of Performing Arts for his work in the same platform.

Member of the Bangkok Art and Culture Foundation’s board of directors Chatvichai Promadhattavedi and the foundation’s office manager Nongratt Thanjitt also spoke, commented and moderated different forums at the conference. National artist Patravadi Mejudhon was present and actively shared her thoughts.

Chatvichai Promadhattavedi, Danny Yung and Junior Dearden at the conference

In the end, the conference was more than a think tank but also a spark for an international network of arts and cultural practitioners and scholars. This can be sustainable if governments of other cities or countries pick up this initiative and develop on it, instead of starting a new network. For me, most noteworthy is the fact that young artists, most of whom are still students, were not only attending workshops, masterclasses and rehearsals and performing for the conference participants and the public, but also openly sharing their thoughts and opinions in the conference’s last session. In many cities and countries, the gap between arts academia and professional practice is becoming wider. For example, one arts department chairperson resigned because her colleagues reached a consensus to continue to teach the way they had been doing and leaving professional artists to continue doing whatever they want. In addition, the gap between artists, who seem to be unable to receive enough state support, and cultural administrators, who appear to create new policies every few years, is also getting wider.

Patravadi Mejudhon

And for this, Yung has a good suggestion, writing in his preface to the city reports on cultural exchange: “As an artist, one ought to constantly expand the horizon through the crossing over of many roles. It is through crossing over many different roles that we become enriched by our experience. Enriched by more experiences, we can remain calm and rational, and be more outspoken in addressing issues of cultural policy and institutions, economics and politics, and taking up the role of reflecting on social responsibility.

“In the very first place, creativity is in fact about commentary, communication and advocacy. Yet we know that as we can go onstage, we can also detach ourselves and go offstage in order to return to the role of an ordinary citizen. In this way, we affirm our duty as artists who are capable of independent thinking and dialectical investigation in a detached manner.”

The writer’s trip was fully supported by Zuni Icosahedron and the Faculty of Arts, Chulalongkorn University.

CHECK IT OUT ONLINE

For more information, visit http://www.ZuniSeason.org.hk. To read reports on cultural exchange written by experts from Bangkok to Zurich, go to Issuu.com/zuni_icosahedron/docs/city_reports.

THOUSANDS of visitors have posed on his trompe-l’oeil facades, he made the pointed tip of the Buenos Aires Obelisk disappear, and he even tricked visitors into thinking they were seeing others underwater in a giant pool.

Argentina’s Leandro Erlich is shaking up the art world with his wonderful world of illusions.

The 44-year-old conceptual artist divides his time between his hometown Buenos Aires and Montevideo, the very liveable capital of neighbouring Uruguay.

Erlich poses inside “Elevator Maze” at his studio in Buenos Aires./AFP

In his dream factory – a three-storey studio in the Villa Crespo residential area of Buenos Aires shielded from the road by a giant metal barrier – Erlich creates his giant installations, which have earned cult status in London, Paris and New York.

Erlich has managed to wow both art amateurs and discerning critics with his work. The biggest display of his work to date – 44 pieces in total – drew 400,000 visitors to the Mori Art Museum in Tokyo last month.

“Erlich stimulates the senses, not just the intellect – he’s asking patrons to live through an experience, as one does at the theatre,” explains Andres Duprat, director of the National Museum of Fine Arts in Buenos Aires.

“Not only are his works making waves in the art world – they are reaching a much wider public. This is not someone who is doing special effects. He’s showing how it all works. Once the visitor understands the work, he or she can begin to savour it, and reflect on it.”

“Port of Reflections” /AFP

In “Port of Reflections”, colourful rowboats seem to float – except there’s no water.

“Swimming Pool” sees people walk fully clothed into a pool – except there’s no pool.

“Elevator Maze”, a matrix of elevator banks, confuses patrons when they don’t see their own reflection in the mirror.

Visitors are thrilled, confused, annoyed or experience an emotion somewhere in between, but they are never indifferent.

“When a work is well received, it brings great satisfaction. It opens up opportunities for the future. In concrete terms, my projects are difficult to do,” says Erlich.

“There is no single format. I’ve done video, sculpture, photography and of course installations. The idea of conceptual art is now broad enough to include all forms of expression.”

“Changing Room” /AFP

Erlich’s works play with optical illusions and our perception of sound. At his studio in Buenos Aires, he works with craftsmen and designers to bring his vision to life.

Erlich said his team “came together over time and depending on need”.

“Fifteen or 16 years ago, I did one or two projects a year. Now it’s more like four.”

In Montevideo he found refuge and the “distance” needed to work. “I have lived for a long time away from Buenos Aires – five years in the United States, five years in France – before returning to South America.”

In the Uruguayan capital, he finds inspiration and time to think. “I have trouble working in places where there’s too much stimulation, too much noise.

“With globalisation, the world is smaller now. My universe is indisputably very ‘Rioplatense’,” he says, using an adjective referring to the Rio de la Plata estuary separating Argentina and Uruguay.

In Buenos Aires, many remember when he made the tip of the obelisk vanish in 2015.

He covered the point with a sort of square cap, giving the impression it was cut off. In tandem, a replica of the tip was built and placed in a museum.

“The idea was for people to take back the monument,” which cannot be entered, he says.

“Building” /AFP

The artist’s work has been displayed in New York, Paris, London, Barcelona, Madrid, Rome, Venice, Taipei, Seoul, Tokyo and Sao Paulo.

In “Building”, visitors from a dozen countries placed themselves on a building facade installed on the ground, but reflected in a mirror to the side.

“All of my work has an aspect of public participation,” Erlich says. “The starting point is my passion for challenges, and being able to express my ideas.”

The bowl, just under six inches (14.7 cm) in diameter, is decorated with falangcai — painted enamels combining Chinese and Western techniques — and flowers, including daffodils which are not typically depicted on Chinese porcelain.

The bowl, said to have been used by the emperor in the early 18th century, was sold within five minutes to an unnamed phone bidder from the “Greater China” region, said chairman of Sotheby’s Asia Nicolas Chow.

“This is the absolute finest example to exist. There are only three other examples altogether that use this beautiful pink (background),” Chow said.

The bowl was created in an imperial workshop within Beijing’s Forbidden City by a small team of craftsmen, with the help of Jesuits from Europe who had brought new techniques and materials, according to Sotheby’s.

Hong Kong’s auction houses have seen frenzied bidding among Asian buyers in recent years, with sales of diamonds, handbags and ancient ceramics shattering world records.

Last year a 1,000-year-old bowl from China’s Song Dynasty sold for US$37.7 million, a record for Chinese ceramics.

HER ROYAL Highness Princess Chulabhorn Mahidol, long associated with scientific endeavours and affectionately known as “the Princess Researcher”, shared another of her talents last week with the opening of the art exhibition “Various Patterns: Diversity of Life” at the Queen’s Gallery in Bangkok.

The 239 paintings on view until May 15 represent her output while pursuing a doctorate in visual arts at Silpakorn University’s Faculty of Painting Sculpture and Graphic Arts.

Also on display are pieces entailing embroidery, sculpture, printing and digital techniques.

Central to the Princess’ doctoral thesis is the nature of the big cats of the wild, and she cleverly links these “kings of jungle” to the King of Thailand, specifically to her beloved late father, His Majesty King Bhumibol.

It was the loss of her father that led her to delve more deeply into art as a way of working through her grief – in a pastime that he’d also loved and at which he excelled.

While the lion “king of the jungle” appears in several pieces, it’s the tiger and the leopard that predominate, and it’s the tiger specifically that Princess Chulabhorn identifies most with the human monarch on the throne.

These camouflaged cats lend themselves well to her use of symbolism, their stripes and spots sometimes augmented with musical and scientific nomenclature. The animals’ markings stem from their DNA, a subject of her biology studies, she also notes.

The Princess said she’d been keen on art as a child, but royal duties and an overriding interest in science prevailed.

“My mother once said, ‘I only have four children, so it would be helpful if each of my children studied a different field to make their combined knowledge advantageous to the country.’

“For 40 years I have devoted myself to scientific studies and research in chemistry, aquaculture, medicine and veterinary science to develop our country and improve the lives of the people. My duties are quite serious but also very stressful because of the way other people’s lives depend on them.

“As time passed, though, I reconsidered my life and found there was one thing I loved to do, which was art. Whenever I have time after work, I’m delighted to be alone and dreaming without boundaries. That feeling makes me understand true happiness. And that’s why I chose art as a form of therapy.”

Emeritus Professor Pishnu Supani- mit, who chairs the doctorate programme in which the Princess is enrolled, said there was concern initially because her background was in science and medicine and doctorate art students require basic drawing skills.

“However, to the surprise of the art instructors, when we first saw her paintings presented to the committee, our fears were allayed,” he said. “The Princess already had creative concepts in mind and her painting shows a unique style, including in the composition. It was obvious that she absorbed a sense of art through her parents.”

Her characterised her work as “naive art” since the Princess has had no formal training. “It derives from her instinct and intelligence,” Pishnu said.

There are also butterflies, flora and landscapes in the exhibition, but the tiger truly is king, a symbol of her close relationship to the family and of King Bhumibol’s function as a role model for leadership.

The Princess draws her subjects on paper with a watercolour marker, a pen whose pigment can then be diffused with a wet brush. It’s the same approach she’s used in designing jewellery. Her colours are generally bright and she overlays them to make the hues more intense and then uses a pencil or fountain pen to draw outlines and other details.

The six categories in the series begin with “Tiger and Lines (Black and White)”, with several interesting turns of imagination beyond form.

“Identity of a Tiger” underscores one of the more intriguing aspects of the Princess’ approach. The big cats are never shown stalking or attacking. Instead, as if she were depicting a king who rules with care and compassion, they’ve been shorn of any ferocity and are seen as beautiful and kind.

“Tiger and Nature” looks at the reality of nature through a pure lens. “Tiger, Nature and Composition” contains hidden messages about profound emotions. “Tiger and Scientific Symbols” associates one cat with a space rocket and pierces another’s ears with a chain of earrings.

Finally there’s “Tiger and Imaginative Creation”, as well as the “Butterflies” series.

Art instructor Panya Vijinthanasarn said Princess Chulabhorn succeeds at “learning from doing”. She might be riding a helicopter to a function upcountry, he notes, but she has her pad and watercolours in her lap.

“And she constantly showed progress in class. Her art is unique, a mix of the surreal and the imaginative. All of her tigers have their own distinctive patterns, lines, colours, volumes and shapes. You find musical symbols, eyeglasses, flowers, hearts and the Thai character for the number nine.

“I think Princess Chulabhorn uses both hemispheres of her brain when she’s doing art, so there’s both logical and creative thinking. A lot of her art suggests a scientific approach and is very detail-oriented. Overall, the composition, creativity and imagination are quite apparent and outstanding. Only a few artists can do that, such as da Vinci and the late King Bhumibol.”

PRINTS ARE AVAILABLE

– The exhibition “Various Pattern: Diversity of Life” continues at the Queen’s Gallery through May 15.

– Reproductions of the paintings as prints, postcards, T-shirts and scarves are on sale (the T-shirts cost Bt350 and Bt450) at Silpakorn University. Call the Nakhon Pathom campus at (034) 271 379 or the Bangkok campus at (02) 849 7564. Or order by mail through Siam Glitters 1957, phone (02) 598 6599.

– All proceeds after expenses will be donated to the Chulabhorn Foundation.