“Paradise Art Space is a hub of new Asian modern and contemporary art where Korean and global cultures are brought together, and will show contemporary art transcending national boundaries by exhibiting works of renowned artists from Korea and abroad and by offering the visitors with an opportunity of hands-on experience,” said Phillip Chun, Paradise Group chairman.

The entrance of Paradise Art Space is home to a permanent exhibition hall, where “Gazing Ball-Farnese Hercules” by Jeff Koons and “Aurous Cyanide” by Damien Hirst are on view. As part of the artist’s Gazing Ball series, Jeff Koons’ “Hercules”, which dominates the entrance hall, depicts Greek Mythology’s ultimate hero and is tellingly constructed in delicate white plaster. The sculpture sees a delicate blue bauble perched atop Hercules’ right shoulder, allowing interaction with visitors whose reflections are caught in the blue sphere.

Covering the entirety of one wall is Damien Hirst’s “Aurous Cyanide”, one of the most famous pieces of his Spot Painting series. This is the world’s largest single canvas painting at 9 by 3 metres and plays on the themes of life and death in a range of bright colours, with a title that directly infers chemical toxicity.

Special exhibition halls on the first and second floor respectively display massive installations by two Korean artists that consider the beauty of the colour black. Here viewers encounter the overwhelming power generated by traditional materials of charcoal and ink in works of contemporary art.

The ground-level hall showcases “Issu du feu”, a work by Korean artist Lee Bae which brings together hundreds of charcoal pieces on Korean hanji paper. A combination of rough texture of charcoal and hanji paper smoothly absorbing various angles of lights makes this a pure visual delight.

Upstairs, “All of Sudden, Drawing the Space”, an installation by Kim Hodeuk awaits visitors. The hanji papers on the wind and smoothly waving inky water are placed harmoniously, creating a tranquil rhythm. As its title suggests, the shadow cast by the installation on the surrounding white walls purposefully forms part of the work.

City Hall cut about Bt80 million in annual support over the past two years, forcing the BACC to seek funding from the business sector and donations from the public. Money is so short now, that BACC is finding it difficult to pay its electricity and water bills.

“Since the two-year term of the BACC board of directors ended in March, Bangkok Governor Aswin Kwanmuang has selected a six-member team of advisers to choose a new board for BACC,” BMA’s deputy governor Thaweesak Lertprapan told The Nation.

The junta members who have joined as advisers are former Navy commander-in-chief Admiral Na Areenit, Defence Forces chief General Thanchaiyan Srisuwan and spokesperson for the National Legislative Assembly General Chat-udom Titthasiri. The remaining members of the team are BMA adviser Dr Wallop Suwandee, Silpakorn University lecturer Sutee Kunavichayanont and Thaweesak as chairman.

The advisers met for the first time yesterday to study the regulations on selecting the new BACC board of directors. “The new advisers are working on finding members for the new board, and will meet again in two weeks,” Thaweesak explained. At least half of the board members should have management skills, while the rest should be knowledgeable in art and culture, he said.

Critics and art experts, meanwhile, have voiced scepticism about military personnel playing a part in BACC’s management.

“The BMA will not take over the management of the BACC. The new board will only help close the loop-hole that has allowed City Hall to get away with not paying the art centre,” Thaweesak said.

Separately, BACC director Pawit Mahasarinand will hold a press conference today to explain how the cost-cutting measures have affected the BACC and its future plans. BACC has been forced to reduce its opening hours for the first time since launching as an art hub a decade ago.

THERE’S NOTHING more romantic than a wedding but when the Singapore Dance Company adds ballet to the mix, the occasion is elevated to a whole new level.

The Singapore Dance Theatre, which turns 30 this year, brings a triple dose of love to Bangkok’s 20th International Festival of Dance & Music by staging the wedding scenes from three ballets – “Coppelia”, “Sleeping Beauty” and “Don Quixote” for its performance entitled “Classical Weddings” this Wednesday at the Thailand Cultural Centre.

Swanilda and Franz celebrate their wedding in “Coppelia Act 3”. :Photos/Bernie Ng

In “Coppelia Act 3” choreographed by Arthur St Leon, Swanilda and Franz say their vows. “Sleeping Beauty Act 3” with choreography by Marius Petipa, is a grand celebration of the wedding of Princess Aurora and Prince Florimund with fairy tale characters from all over the kingdom joining the happy event. . The wedding scene from “Don Quixote Act 3” is also choreographed by Marius Petipa and here the focus is on Kitri and Basilio who celebrate their marriage with a show-stopping grand pas de deux.

All three stagings are by Janek Schergen, the artistic director of the company and promise the audience a bouquet of experiences.

The Singapore Dance Theatre, founded in 1988 by Goh Soo Khim and Anthony Then, is the city-state’s premier professional dance company with 32 dancers. With a repertoire that ranges from classical to contemporary, the company dancers perform the works of renowned choreographers like Choo-San Goh, George Balanchine, Stanton Welch, Xing Liang, Val Caniparoli, Edmund Stripe, Kinsun Chan, Edwaard Liang, Nils Christe, Toru Shimazaki, Christina Chan, Timothy Harbour and Francois Klaus.

Under the leadership of artistic director Schergen the company has added 29 world premieres and 19 company premieres and several new productions to its repertoire, in addition to numerous revivals of the existing repertoire.

Schergen’s illustrious career has taken him from Royal Winnipeg Ballet to Washington Ballet and the Royal Swedish Ballet. He has also staged his own production of “The Sleeping Beauty” for Ballet Met, The Milwaukee Ballet, and Norwegian National Ballet among others.

As artistic director and board member of the Choo-San Goh & H Robert Magee Foundation, he has staged more than 120 productions of Choo-San Goh’s works worldwide. His stellar role in the growth of ballet in Singapore and the region has been recognised with the Award for Culture at the Leadership Awards 2015. He is also a recipient of Singapore’s National Day Award – The Public Service Medal in 2017.

Supporting the festival are Crown Property Bureau, Bangkok Bank (PCL), Bangkok Dusit Medical Services (PCL), BMW Thailand, B.Grimm Group, Dusit Thani Bangkok, Indorama Ventures, Ministry of Culture, Nation Group, Major Cineplex, PTT (PCL), Singha Corporation, Thai Union Group, Thai Airways International, Tourism Authority of Thailand and True Corporation Public Company Limited

Love En Pointe

Tickets are available at Thai Ticket Major counters, online at http://www.ThaiTicketMajor.com and by calling the hotline at (02) 262 3191.

For more information, visit http://www.BangkokFestivals.com.

FANS of the Bangkok’s International Festival of Dance and Music, now in its 20th year, probably have fond memories of Taiwanese contemporary performance groups like Cloud Gate Dance Theatre and U-Theatre. And that’s thanks to the cooperation between the festival’s organiser International Cultural Promotions (ICP) and the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Thailand (Tecot). And now that the Republic of China is promoting cultural exchange with Southeast Asia with its southbound policy, we were given another treat last Sunday with Ju Percussion Group’s (JPG) concert “Stunning Virtuosity”, which more than lived up to its title.

Ju Percussion Group from Taipei took the audience on a memorable journey. /Photo:International Cultural Promotions

The energy and charm of this ensemble could be felt as soon as their members walked onto Thailand Cultural Centre’s main stage. The keenly designed programme juxtaposed French composer Gerard Lecointe’s “Epilogues” with Liu Yu-Yun’s “Zhong Kui Marrying His Sister Off” which featured pipa musician Chung Pei-Lin. The first part finished with a bang in “Solar Myth” in which the male percussionists put on masks – their folding fans were not to cool them down in tropical Thailand –and their sole female counterpart red arm accessories. No member was confined to just one instrument, and at many moments it looked like a dance piece, a performance with which the musicians were obviously comfortable.

And while the last piece Ho Hong-Chi’s “Drumming Fest” was an emphatic finale, the audience’s applause suggested clearly they hadn’t seen and heard enough of the Taiwanese group. In a straight line downstage full-fronting the audience, they made use of different parts of their bodies as percussion instruments in “Body Language” and then sent the audience smiling our way home with a popular tune of Latin origin, “Love Story.”

In the end, “Stunning Virtuosity” didn’t only show the Taiwanese ensemble’s prowess. This cultural ambassador showed how tradition and modernity as well as the West and the East live together happily in contemporary Taiwan, and reminded us again that music is after all a universal language.

It took 32 years for JPG to make their Thailand debut, and this is the 33rd country they have performed in. I’m sure we won’t have to wait until the 50th edition of this festival before we get to experience this musical bliss again.

And I’m not the only member of the audience who also wishes the Taiwanese group had more time to exchange with their Thai counterparts and further strengthen the ties between our two countries and our diverse cultures.

The writer thanks the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Thailand’s for all kind assistance.

The Festival Continues

In celebration of the 60th anniversary of the diplomatic relations between Republic of Korea and Thailand, the Korean Symphony Orchestra performs this evening.

Celebrating its 30th anniversary, Singapore Dance Theatre (SDT) performs “Classical Weddings” on Wednesday evening.

Most performances in the festival start at 7:30pm at the Thailand Cultural Centre.

Tickets are from Bt 1,000 to Bt 3,000 at http://www.ThaiTicketMajor.com.

Find out more at http://www.BangkokFestivals.com.

Featuring 35 original pieces that come alive through augmented reality, the project aims to spark the curiosity of visitors around the world and inspire them to come (re)discover France’s rich heritage.

France has long been a coveted travel destination, inspiring artists from all over the world to depict its landscapes in their work. Cameras in hand, four international photographers—Ishola Akpo of Benin, Edu Monteiro of Brazil, David Schalliol of the United States, and Lourdes Segade of Spain—set out to explore different parts of the country. Over the course of their journeys, they each captured France’s rich heritage from a fresh new perspective. Visitors are invited to follow in their footsteps – whether to stroll through ramparted fortresses and castle grounds, visit contemporary museums and exhibitions or gaze upon vaulted abbeys and arch bridges.

A road map of emotions, the exhibition has four main chapters: “From one arch to another… Admiration for how an architectural feature as simple as the arch has evolved and endured over time”; “Remembrance of things past… Nostalgia for the deep history that lies behind every castle and fortified city”; “The world is a museum… Astonishment that art can be found everywhere—private homes and palaces, former industrial sites, and avant-garde structures”; and “Metamorphoses… Fascination for the places the photographers have captured in a magical new light”.

Over a series of 35 diptychs, a fascinating panorama unfolds— a breathtaking journey through the ages that spans prehistoric times to the present day. Similarities and contradictions emerge amid the photographers’ choices of colour, angle, and composition. Guided by each artist’s lens, the viewer is drawn in by a captivating variety of sites and decor. Together, the images depict a history marked by change and constant reinvention, right up to the futuristic designs of contemporary architects.

Animations in augmented reality created by Julie Stephen Cheng and Thomas Pons lend a delightfully poetic aspect to the exhibition. Superimposed over the images, a shape-shifting virtual character comes to life and moves through the photos. By infusing the photographers’ work with graphics that bridge reality and imagination, the exhibition builds a dialogue between two forms of expression to deepen the experience of each place.

The exhibition started in France, after which it will head to Mexico, Canada, the United States, Spain, Italy, Germany, Brazil, and Benin on an international tour ending in 2020.

To take part, download the free France eMotion app, available for iOS and Android on the App Store and Google Play. Grant access to your device’s camera. Point your lens at the photographs and enjoy the animated experience!

For more information, go to http://www.TKPark.or.th

NATIONAL ARTIST Inson Wongsam has been creating art for most of his 84 years, and last weekend he celebrated his birthday by opening a grand exhibition, “The Never-ending Scooter Journey”, at Temple House Lamphun Gallery and at his residence-cum-museum, Dhamma Park and Gallery.

The house alone holds more than 20,000 paintings and sculptures created since 1960. Another 31 are on view at Temple House, dating from 1960 through 2012.

Inson opens his home-studio, Dhamma Park and Gallery, to visitors every weekend.

In both places, the continuing birthday party is also a celebration of Inson’s powerful use of colour, his adherence to Buddhist philosophy and the result of that – his evident peace of mind.

“I do my art every day, in the morning,” he told The Nation at the opening of the show at Temple House. “Art is not my work, but my life.

“I still do all the painting by myself. For the wood sculptures, I do sketches and send them to my team to execute. My inspirations come from my long experience – the 50-plus years of my working life.”

“Out of Space”, an oil on canvas with gold and silver leaf, catches the eye at Temple House Lamphun, which is cohosting Inson Wongsam’s exhibition “The Neverending Scooter Journey”.

Inson developed diverse interests – in painting, woodcuts and sculpture – while studying the fine arts at Silpakorn University from 1955 to 1961. On graduation, he travelled around the country, making 75 sketches. Of these, he sold 69 to the Tourist Organisation of Thailand magazine, earning Bt30,000.

“With that money I planned to go learn more about art in Italy, which is the homeland of my revered professor, Silpa Bhirasri. I could have flown, but I chose a more challenging path – travelling by scooter, all the way from Bangkok to Italy – which I did in 1963.”

“Do the best you can not to waste anything” and “Live in the Moment” are on show at Temple House.

He set off with a friend, but when they reached India, the friend decided to turn back, and Inson continued the odyssey alone.

Along the way he did more sketches and paintings and sold them to cover costs. A year and a half later, he was in Italy, where he spent three months studying art. Then he did the same in France for another year, and finally settled down in France to work for two more years.

“After my three years in France, I wanted to go to the US,” Inson said, but he had trouble raising the money.

“I could only sell one woodcut painting. I had collectors, but they always wanted me to discount the prices. I decided to leave everything behind rather than selling it to the collectors.

“So I had only $1 when I arrived in the US!”

A sculpture in wood at Dhamma Park.

He padded out that dollar well enough to spend eight years in America, designing jewellery and creating more art, and then finally it was time to go home.

“When I came back to Lamphun, my hometown, I stayed in the woods in Pasang district and sculpted tree roots. I was living on Bt10 a day.

“I also tried to grow a million chilli plants in the forest and reckoned I’d get Bt1 million for them, but there was a drought that year and all the plants died. I realised I was born to be artist, not a farmer.”

Inson used the heel of his foot to make this oil painting.

In his younger years, working every day, Inson could produce 15 pieces a day on average. At age 84, he’s still doing two paintings a day, as well as the sketches for his sculptures.

Inson used the heel of his foot to make this oil painting.

The exhibition “The Never-ending Scooter Journey” continues until December 10 at Temple House Lamphun, 102 Intayongyos Road, Muang district. It’s open Wednesday to Monday from 7am to 7pm. Call (065) 056 9839.

Find Dhamma Park and Gallery at 109/2 Moo 1 Baan Pasang Noi, Baan Pan, Muang Lamphun. It’s open weekends from 10am to 4pm and free to visit. Call (053) 521 609 or (089) 434 5743.

CLICKETY-CLACK, clickety-clack, ding rings out from a home in India’s Mumbai where Chandrakant Bhide is creating his latest artwork – on a typewriter.

The 72-year-old thumps the keys of the bulky, manual machine to draw portraits of famous people, all bearing an unmistakeable resemblance to their subject.

From politicians and film stars to cricketers, animation characters and religious symbols, Bhide has produced around 150 pieces of typewriter art over the past half century.

Indian artist Chandrakant Bhide poses with artwork showing various portraits of public figures and deities which he created using a typewriter./AFP

“I have done many personalities like Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi, Charlie Chaplin, Laurel and Hardy. This is my hobby, my passion,” he says. Bhide has held 12 exhibitions of his work and become something of a local celebrity since discovering his unique talent in the late 1960s while employed as a bank clerk.

As a young man he had wanted to go to art school and become a commercial artist but his family was unable to afford the costs so he trained in stenography instead.

Bhide was working in the administrative department of Union Bank of India when in 1967 his boss asked him to type up a list of staff intercom numbers.

“I typed it in the form of a telephone itself. When I saw it I thought, ‘This is fantastic, I can make art through this medium.’ Everybody seemed to like it too,” he recalls.

Bhide started using the “x” key to produce images of Hindu god Ganesha to mark India’s annual festival celebrating the elephant-headed deity.

He then began to experiment with other keys – including “w”, dash, asterisk, ampersand and percentage sign – progressing to create portraits of celebrities from India and abroad. While Bhide takes only 15 minutes to draw Ganesha, several hours are required to complete a famous face in what is a painstaking process.

With steely focus he uses his left hand to grip the knob that controls the platen – the roller that feeds the paper through – as he taps the keys with his right index finger.

 Bhide creates artwork using his typewriter that depicts elephantheaded Hindu god Lord Ganesha./AFP

He stops every so often to change the angle of the page before typing again.

Sometimes he’ll flick the colour-change lever from black to red or vice-versa and he’ll glance down regularly at the photograph he is working off to make sure he hasn’t made an error. “Typing requires dedication and concentration. If you put one stroke in the wrong place then you have to start again.

“It’s not like a computer where you can delete. Many times I’ve made mistakes and had to start again,” says Bhide.

The septuagenarian has drawn several Indian actors over the years including Amitabh Bachchan and Dilip Kumar as well as American cartoon characters like Mickey Mouse and Archie.

From politicians and film stars to cricketers, animation characters and religious symbols, Bhide has produced around 150 pieces of typewriter art over the past half century./AFP

Cricketers feature heavily, such as Brian Lara and Sachin Tendulkar, whose famous curly hair Bhide recreated with hundreds of “at” symbols used in email addresses. Bhide, who doesn’t sell his artwork or take orders, has been featured in several Indian newspapers and has been able to show his portraits to many of the Indian stars he has drawn.

He says he plans to attempt Donald Trump, Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II |and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

All of his works have been produced on the same Halda typewriter he used for the 30 years that he worked at Union Bank. The bank gifted it to him for one rupee when he retired in the mid-90s.

“I have got so many things out of this typewriter. Typing is an art,” he says.

ONE OF the joys of attending a student theatre work – when it’s not the typical graduation project for which many of the aspiring artists have to do what their professors prescribe to get good grades –is that we can feel the energy, creativity and artistic freedom. Of course, we don’t usually know what we’re going to get when it’s a new work, but that’s part of the excitement too.

Taipei National University of the Arts’ (TNUA) School of Theatre Arts and Chulalongkorn University’s Department of Dramatic Arts have been members of the Asia Pacific Bond of Theatre Schools (APB) for almost a decade – their respective country’s sole representative.

Three playlets by Taiwanese and Thai students made for an entertaining and insightful evening./Photo: Chatchadaphan Sangangam

At last year’s APB festival, their students got along well and consequently their professors paid visits to each other’s campus and the two institutions finally signed an MoU. And so this year on their way to the APB festival in Yogyakarta, the Taiwanese theatre students made a week-long stopover in Thailand capital to create a new work “Level with Me” with their Thai friends. Last Wednesday and Thursday at Sodsai Pantoomkomol Centre for Dramatic Arts, the audience was treated to the result, along with the former’s “Being, Beside a Burning Sun” and the latter’s “Pathway in the Darkness” – the same triple bill they presented yesterday in Indonesia.

“Being, Beside a Burning Sun”: Photo/ Chatchadaphan Sangangam

Staged by TNUA student Chiu-Jung Chen, “Being” started with an audience participation part in which an actor came up to the audience stand and asked a few audiences about Taiwan. Juxtaposing this with songs and physical movements, the piece turned from light-hearted to solemn, with props used as symbols to express their thoughts, subtly yet effectively, on Taiwan’s relationship with not only “the burning sun” across the sea but also the world. A devised theatre performance in which all the actors seemed to have a similar amount of input, “Pathway” reminded us what else was happening when 12 boys and their football coach were being rescued from a Chiang Rai cave. For example, a Northeastern Thai luk thung dancer lost her soldier husband in one of the daily bombings in Southern Thailand. As a satirical drama, it was both hilarious and poignant, although they forgot to mention how much of Thai taxpayers’ money was spent on this global mission.

“Pathway in the Darkness”: Photo/ Chatchadaphan Sangangam

The format, with both spoken English words and physical movements, of the evening’s highlight “Level with Me”, allowed the students to voice their opinions on various contemporary conflicts and issues in their countries and a few members of the audience did so too. With only seven days of rehearsal, the students formed a strong ensemble and when each had a moment to shine, individual characters came out. And that’s thanks of course to their three advisers, theatre directing professors Ling-Ling Chen, Zu-Ling Hong and Bhanbhassa Dhubthien.

 “Level with Me” : Photo/ Chatchadaphan Sangangam

The afternoon before the show I found myself facing many problems at work yet for almost 90 minutes, this triple bill made me completely forget them. It wasn’t pure escapism though – otherwise I would have watched a Hollywood film instead. Rather, it was an opportunity to see and hear what our young people, the next generation of professional artists, are concerned with and how they’re using what they’ve been studying to express these thoughts. And of course for this Taiwan-Thailand collaboration, it proves that both of our countries have a lot in common as well as many differences and that the ongoing artistic and cultural exchanges and collaborations should persist, notwithstanding the political and diplomatic counterparts.

And this is despite the fact that one grumpy old critic wondered if it were possible for the international festival audience to see a performance from Taiwan without a China reference, and one from Thailand without traditional dance and rituals.

NEXT STOP, TAIPEI

“Level with Me” will be part of the annual Kuandu Arts Festival, performing at TNUA’s Experimental Theatre on October 11 and 12 at 8pm.

It’s in Chinese and Thai, with English surtitles.

Tickets are NTD 600 (Bt 635). For more details and reservation, visit http://www.Kdaf.tnua.edu.tw.

The event puts the Thai capital along cities around the world, from Berlin to Beijing, that host biennials, bringing together creative minds to construct their own unique narratives.

The themes are always thought provoking and past events have run the gamut from the highly conceptual to the physically tangible.

The idea was popularised by the Venice Biennale, first held in 1895. The gathering in the city of canals has since become the exemplar for all other locales, setting a high bar for large-scale international exhibitions of contemporary art.

Bangkok as city of culture is full of rich tradition, creativity and contemporary art. Renowned for its heritage, hospitality, entertainment and gastronomy, Bangkok will serve as a grandiose venue for exciting international contemporary art.

The Bangkok Art Biennale, continuing through February 3, will be the first for the city and renew its reputation as an alluring destination for the arts. Artists, art enthusiasts, writers and media will converge for creative encounters.

Everyone is invited to experience dynamic interpretations of joy, happiness and enrichment. Since bliss can be momentary and ephemeral, artists often end up capturing its different variants depending on the perspective of the individual. The quest and yearning for bliss can provide both nourishment as well as escapism for the mind.

Artists will reflect and share different points of view regarding exuberance, refuge and serenity. Some will comment on the lack of bliss due to the sociopolitical problems and destruction of green environment. Others will embrace bliss’ abundance in sacred and peaceful places of Bangkok.

Regardless of their viewpoint, artists will be challenged by Bangkok’s complexities as their backdrop, working with the city’s past, present and future to tell their own stories on bliss.

The artwork will be seen along the Chao Phraya River and in the inner city, including at Wat Phra Chetuphon (Temple of the Reclining Buddha), Wat Arun (Temple of Dawn), Wat Prayurawongsawas (Temple of the Iron Fence), Bank of Thailand Learning Centre, the Jam Factory, OP Place, the Peninsula Bangkok, the Mandarin Oriental Bangkok, the East Asiatic Company, the Bangkok Art and Culture Centre and Lumpini Park.

For more information, visit http://www.BkkArtBiennale.com.

Biondo schooled at the Accademia Albertina di Belle Arti of Turin and since 2008 has participated in international symposiums and won awards.

The Bangkok show has as its concept “the wistful glorification of beauty appearing in all its popular magnificent decadence, without that aesthetic voluptuousness that clouds the mind”.

In Biondo’s hands, marble becomes “a reflection on time and concept of abandonment, taking inspiration from products in common use and from the consumer icons of our time, subject to their inescapable laws”.