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Arts - Entertainment & It |
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Two Master Artists
An art exhibition featuring two well known Thai artists
will be held at Galerie Panisa starting on December 2.
Insom Wongsam is one of
Thailand’s National aAtists, having received that distinction in the Visual
Arts (sculpture) in 1999. A Northerner, he was born in Pasang in Lamphun
where his father was a goldsmith. He traveled from Thailand to Italy in 1961
on a Lambretta scooter after he graduated from Silpakorn University in a bid
to visit Florence.
He started woodcuts and
opened a gallery in the United States but returned to Thailand in 1974 where
he built a log cabin in a degraded forest which he brought back to life. He
changed to wood carving there and has since produced many sculptures
Pichai Nirand is the
other National Artist on display, honored in Painting in 2003, he was
invited to make the illustrations for HM the King’s book The Story of
Mahanajaka. This exhibition features both landscape paintings and Buddhist
paintings evoking a sense of philosophy and beliefs.
Galerie Panisa is
located at 189 Mahidol Road and is closed on Sundays.
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PTIS International School hosts Opera Under the Stars
The cast of the PTIS hosted
opera gala show “Opera Under the Stars” included members of the European
Chamber Opera Company and Bangkok Opera Company.
By Christopher Hall
On 17 November over 150 guests gathered by the lake at
PTIS International School’s amphitheatre for an evening of grand opera
performed by singers from Portugal, Spain and Thailand.
Stars from the European Chamber Opera Company and Bangkok
Opera Company travelled to Chiang Mai for their second visit, following a
very successful concert in 2010. The recent concert under the stars gave
soprano Pimluk Vessawasdi the opportunity to fulfil one of her dreams –
performing in an outdoor arena – a dream she has held since attending a New
York open-air performance some time ago. Stefan Paul Sanchez, Artistic
Director of the European Chamber Opera Company (ECHO) proved that opera need
not be a stuffy, stale affair, charming the members of the audience with his
comic antics during many of the more light-hearted songs from such operas as
Rossini’s The Barber of Seville and Mozart’s The Magic Flute.
The concert included many popular songs from a wide range
of operas: La Traviata, Cosi fan Tutti, The Marriage of Figaro and La
Bohème as well as some lesser-known songs from operas such as Simon
Boccanegra and Gianni Schicchi.
The venue was “a magical experience” according to one
visitor. The evening started with a stroll along candle-lit pathways to the
PTIS amphitheatre where flood lights illuminated the trees and sparkled on
the lake. A grand piano gleamed dimly in the starlight – but was brought to
life by the talented fingers of pianist Arithas Udomtasnee, currently
Professor of Piano at Mahidol University Bangkok. A display of fireworks
and sky rockets lit up the evening sky at the end of the concert.
“Thank you for bringing opera to Chiang Mai!” a visitor
enthused as she left with stars in her eyes and performers’ autographs
firmly clutched in her hand. Opera Under the Stars will return in November
2012 and further information may be obtained from the organisers at
christopherh@threegeneration.org
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Chiang Mai hosts the 11th International Dance Festival 2011
On the auspicious occasion of His Majesty King Bhumibol
Adulyadej 84th birthday celebration. Friends-of-the-Arts Foundation and
Office of Contemporary Art and Culture, Ministry of Culture will organize
the International Dance Festival 2011 on December 3 and 4 at Chiang Mai
Playhouse Entertainment Complex.
In the 11th year of the festival most
of the performances are geared towards contemporary dance productions as
originally planned since the year 2000. An evening of double bill
performances by T42 Dance projects from Switzerland and Last Number perform
by Chiara Rosenthal will be on Saturday Dec. 3. Six workshops for
professional dancers and beginners will be during the two days of the
festival. Free performances of students from local dance companies and
Chiang Mai Ballet and Jazz association and dance film “Collective Identity”
Some of the highlights program this
year are the T42 dance project from Switzerland. T42 is an exuberantly
energetic duet that juxtaposes Swiss and Japanese cultures through an
encounter between a Swiss man and a Japanese woman whose language
difficulties are humorously overcome through warm-hearted movement. T42
Dance Projects is comprised of Félix Duméril and Misato Inoue.
The Last Number is another highlight;
a spectacular dance by Chiara Rosenthal from Italy. The snakes and ladders,
a left-handed spiral, the oldest form of board game of Chinese origin,
handed down through the centuries intact in the symbolism attached to his
number 63. A mystical journey, initiation, and anthropological research of
the essence of the meaning of life, to anyone who has the courage to get
involved, to look within and address the milestones of their lives. An
archetypal path that brings us inexorably to grow to a beginning, a 1, in
which everything is contained and understood, and nut after nut, lap after
lap, gradually a new beginning, a rebirth ... continues to victory, an
allegory of reunification with Mother Nature Nirvana or whatever God you
believe!
Sandra Ingrid dance company from
Romania will present Collective Identity it’s a short film based on the idea
of building a collectivity by destroying the personal identity; Combining
elements of classical ballet in a powerful postmodernist technique and
working with emotions that generate movements, the film is a travel search
into the mind of the performers and most off all into their feeling.
Excerpts from The Nutcracker Suite from
the Students of Russian ballet Thailand and solos by first prize winners
from the 13th Asia Pacific Dance Competition from Chiang Mai Ballet Academy
as well as solo by Krit Prarom , the winner of More Than Dance Competition.
Ticket reservations at Playhouse
Chiang Mai tel 053-410671.
www.friends-of-the-arts.info,
artistic-director@friends-of-the-arts.info. (PR)
CAPTION: DANCE: T42 will be performing
at the 11th Annual International Dance Festival at the Chiang Mai
Playhouse Entertainment December 3 and 4, 2011.
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American Documentary showcases award winning films
Steven Klein, Producer of
Make Believe, introduces the film and discusses the making of the
documentary.
By Shana Kongmun
The American Documentary Showcase
sponsored by the U.S. Consulate General and U.S. Embassy to Thailand
features award winning films from American directors and producers and the
quality of documentaries on offer was apparent with the short film on
sustainable ranching and the opening film titled Make Believe.
The packed audience enjoyed the first
short, which featured ranchers performing sustainable ranching practices in
New Mexico, Texas and Colorado. The wide open spaces of Texas and
magnificent scenery of the Rockies kept the largely Thai crowd just as
enthralled as seeing real life cowboys live a lifestyle so familiar and yet
so different from Thailand.
Melinda
Levin answers questions from the audience about her short documentary.
Director Melinda Levin, CINE: Winner of
Golden Eagle Award 2011 for this short film, noted that at a showing in Khon
Kaen one of the film students told her that while the scenery and background
was so different, the lifestyle and beliefs were very reminiscent to her of
rural life in Thailand. Melinda took questions at the end and noted that
persuading the conservative ranchers to switch to sustainable ranching
generally required showing that the practices were in fact, original
practices by ranchers a hundred years ago and so that by making the change
they were actually reverting to traditional practices.
The longer film was an excellent
documentary following 6 young magicians attending the World Seminar of
Magic’s teen competition. The lives of the kids was played out and the skill
of the filmmakers showed as the audience grew to care about how their lives
turned out. I won’t spoil the ending since this really is a very good film
that you should make an effort to find and watch.
Vice Consul
Paul Neville (far left) is joined by the Cultural Attache to the U.S.
Embassy Michael Honnold (center) and his family at the opening of the
American Documentary Showcase on Saturday, November 12, 2011.
Directed by J. Clay Tweel and produced
by Steven Klein, Make Believe won best feature documentary at the L.A. Film
Awards this year. Steven Klein attended the screening at the CMU Art Museum
theater and discussed the film with the audience afterward.
The quality of films on offer this past
weekend was excellent and considering that next weekend’s film If a Tree
Falls, winner of Documentary Editing Award 2011 at Sundance Film Festival,
explores the notorious environmental group the Earth Liberation Front, those
interested should make time in their busy schedules to come and watch. The
films start at 7 p.m. on November 19 and 20.
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Three Sisters; a contemporary Japanese interpretation.
The Three Sisters will be
performed at the CMU Art Center this Saturday, November 5, 2011.
A long-awaited stage appearance from Japan’s
internationally renowned contemporary dance theatre company Pappa Tarahumara
will finally be realized at CMU Arts Center on 5 November 2011. The event is
presented by Pappa Tarahumara in collaboration with
Tokyo Metropolitan Government, Japan Foundation Bangkok and
CNX Art Connex.
Directed and choreographed by the troupe’s Artistic
Director Hiroshi Koike, Pappa Tarahumara will present Three Sisters,
an adaptation from Anton Chekhov’s timeless literary classic. In the new
context of the Japanese countryside in the 1960s, it’s seemingly sweet
portrayal of three bored sisters grappling with womanhood spirals into a
sensual and charged meditation on female identity, coming-of-age and the
Japanese obsession with youth culture. This eccentric comic tragedy,
narrated through a dynamic choreography, is a powerfully condensed
alternative to the company’s larger-scale multi-disciplinary works.
Since its premiere in 2005, Three Sisters has
been performed over 100 times in more than 30 countries, including at New
York’s Joyce Theatre, Singapore’s Esplanade, Guangdong Modern Dance
Festival, and has won rave reviews across the world.
Founded by director Hiroshi Koike in 1982, Pappa
Tarahumara is distinctive and extraordinary from other theater companies for
their original creative methods which the body, time, and space are blended
to create real-time ephemeral performing arts. Without taking consideration
of classifying their performance into any specific genres of theater arts,
they rather combine contemporary dance, play, music and visual arts in their
creative process, presenting a wholesome theater art. Therefore, the troupe
has attracted many audiences worldwide and has attained an international
recognition.
Three Sisters is at the CMU Art Center (on
Nimmanhaemin Rd. on Saturday, November 5, 2011 at 7 p.m. No entry will be
allowed 10 minutes after the start of the show. Tickets are 500 and 300
baht. Reservation and more information please contact: CNX Art Connex.
084 173 7575 or 081 706 2305.
cnxartconnex@gmail.com.
http://cnxartconnex.wordpress.com (PR)
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