, September 14, 2009
ahhhh performance: read more
, September 14, 2009
First let me describe my coordinates and vectors. I am a performer, singer, composer, actor, improviser who has been performing in varied areas of music, theater, and art for almost forty years, involved in: solo work, group work, collaborations, ensembles, experimental, traditional, avant-garde, new traditions, contemporary, installation art, music performance, sound art, radio and…… read more
, September 12, 2009
Interweaving Performance Cultures are encounters of various kinds in which performance practices, conventions, traditions, innovations and theories enter into an integrative, cross-cultural dialogue and/or interaction out of which emerges a seamless unity that enriches mutual understanding and appreciation of contemporary global cohesion. read more
, September 12, 2009
The recent debates on the politics of intercultural theatre practice have not only critiqued artistic ‘syncretism’ and negotiations, but articulated an optimistic belief in the achievability of a common “interweaving” across worldwide performance cultures. Erika Fischer-Lichte is justly acclaimed as an exemplary de-mystifier – the thinker who has provided unsurpassed critiques of Eurocentric intercultural performance elements that lurk in the work of various western theatrical enterprises that went East & South. read more
, September 12, 2009
At the time of writing this essay (March 2009), an exhibition entitled “Bangkok 226” had just come to a close at the newly created Bangkok Art and Culture Centre. My expectation was to see an exhibition of works in the visual arts that could tell the story of how Bangkok evolved over the past 200 years. In other words, I had expected those works to speak to me on their own terms and be brought together in this specific exhibition in such a way as to engage in a seamless narrative. What I saw confused me. The choice of artworks which had been borrowed from various museums and collections as well as those specifically commissioned for this exhibition could not, on the whole, be justified on the grounds of their aesthetic value. Walking through the exhibition I soon realized that the organizers had had in mind a documentary on the history of Bangkok. Large panels with detailed accounts of the city’s historical development and descriptions of the individual exhibits had been put up. In the spirit of a documentary, the word seemed to have been granted supremacy over visual expression. I was not sure whether this was intentional. read more