- Sylvie Meunier,
« Celestial Art »… A Baroque or naïve expression ? A bazaar of accessories? Of too-heavy Angels hissed by groaning pulleys, blue golden skies, cotton clouds stuck to Columbus of escaped voices from the Sistine Chapel. Celestial fireworks? Machinery invented to overcome the Peasants? Plumes of nacre or the first wings of articulated wood… A genius deployed to rule the surrounding space does not escape the burlesque. Could this be a dare for space shuttles or sputniks?
Since posting back in May 2007, Monkey: Journey to the West has continued the opera and released the accompanying album as well as the videos embedded below. It's about as close as a person can get to Willy Wonka's chocolate factory in real life."After a phenomenally successful run wowing audiences and critics in Manchester, Paris, Charleston and the Royal Opera House Monkey now finds a new home in London as the production roars its way to the 02 for its’ next incredible outing.
Take a trip down the Thames and immerse yourself in Monkey’s World, a brand new event space situated in the Meridian Gardens next to the O2 centre where a bespoke theatre has been created especially by the Monkey team to host this kaleidoscope of incredible animation, spectacular visual effects, acrobatics and martial arts."
Bitone (translating as "talents) is a Ugandan children's home and troupe that have recently produced their own album entitled Movement of Life using a laptop and a single microphone in the centre's living room. This album is being sold to fund the home and continue its work."The mission of The Bitone Children’s Home/Troupe is to restore the lives and hopes of Ugandan children between 8 and 18 years old who have been traumatized by the death of their parents or loss of their home due to disease, war, or economic hardship. The program was founded by Branco Sekalegga, and Hassan Kayemba with the vision of “Restoring Hope by Nurturing the Body and Spirit.” Bitone youth are provided with basic food and shelter, a nurturing environment, an academic education, and counseling. Through learning traditional African music, dance, folklore and theater, the children build self-esteem, become self-reliant and contribute to creating a peaceful future for the next generations of Ugandans and others worldwide."
Composer and filmmaker Thierry De Mey's short film set to Maurice Ravel's "Ma Mère l'Oye"(Mother Goose) was created in 2004 by commission from ARTE. The ballet written in 1908 is inspired by the fairy tales of Charles Perrault. This 28-minute film is a fascinating collage filmed in the woods outside Brussels.
For those of you following the WIRE, you'll know that I am a great admirer of the TED(Technology. Entertainment. Design) series of lectures. Each year a TED prize is issued from a broad range of disciplines and in 2006, the winner was filmmaker Jehane Noujaim who was granted $100,000. Her aspiration was to create a day which would bring the world together through film and thus Pangea Day was born.In a world where people are often divided by borders, difference, and conflict, it's easy to lose sight of what we all have in common. Pangea Day seeks to overcome that -- to help people see themselves in others -- through the power of film.Jehane Noujaim is also the director of the highly recommended film Control Room, a documentary on Al Jazeera putting forward an alternative vantage point on the Iraq War and media in general.
On May 10, 2008 -- Pangea Day -- sites in Cairo, Kigali, London, Los Angeles, Mumbai, and Rio de Janeiro will be linked to produce a 4-hour program of powerful films, visionary speakers, and uplifting music. The program will be broadcast live to the world through the Internet, television, digital cinemas, and mobile phones.
Pangea is the name of the original super-continent which contained all the world's land mass before the continents started splitting apart 250 million years ago. We're launching Pangea Day with the vision that the people of the world can begin to overcome their divisions, and that the power of film can help make it possible.
Movies can't change the world. But the people who watch them can.
Two new treats for fans of Bjork: the video for Wanderlust, the fourth track from her album Volta and a free remix of her album Post. The video has been created by Encyclopedia Pictura and the remix album is from Stereogum and is titled Enjoyed: A Tribute to Bjork's Post.
Klaus Obermaier is a media artist, director, composer, and lecturer. Working in dance, music, theatre, new media and creating interactive installations, video art, web projects, computer music, radio plays, and large scale outdoor performances, his work has innovated, inspired, and has been well received by critics and spectators.
"Some people seem to automatically connect the word love to something kitschy or childish. We really don't understand that."
Founded by artistic director, Ushio Amagatsu, in 1975, Sankai Juku is a unique dance troop with which Butoh is an expression of the language of body exploring the relationship between body and gravity, gravity to earth and the environment. They have been premiering a new piece roughly every two years at the Théâtre de la Ville, Paris.
Their works are abstract, employing a hefty amount of metaphor and visuals that are at first alien, but then become familiar as the meaning floats to the surface. I know it all sounds abstract and perhaps a little "pretentious" but it's only pretentious if the creator has no idea what their doing aside from being like someone/something else. I don't believe that's the case with Amagatsu.The Kage of Kagemi is shadow
The light of contrast, the image in the mirror of water's surface
The mi is seeing and being seen
Some say Kagemi is the ancient origin of "mirror" (kagemi)
In light, the surface that reflects and is reflected, looked into and looking back
Surface beginning in the horizontal water plane and transforming to
the perpendicular face
From an ambiguous and transient state to one clearly outlined
The right hand asks, the left hand answers
Once an imaginary surface is defined
