Within a Sky Full of Earth

Four hundred little people frolic au naturel with overgrown songbirds and raspberries; a pudgy blue demon serenades a fashionable young couple with a tune piped through his own elongated nose; a knife-wielding set of disembodied ears stalks the damned through hell. The phantasmagoric imagery of Hieronymus Bosch (d. 1516) has been the source of widespread interest ever since the painter’s lifetime, and is still so enigmatic that scholars have theorized that it contains hidden astrological, alchemical, or even heretical meanings. Yet none of these theories has ever seemed to provide an adequate understanding of Bosch’s work. Moreover, the considerable professional success that the artist enjoyed in his native Hertogenbosch, not to mention his membership in a traditional religious organization, suggests that he pursued not a sinister secret agenda but simply his personal artistic vision.
This intriguing new monograph by noted art historian Larry Silver interprets that artistic vision with admirable lucidity: it explains how Bosch’s understanding of human sin, morality, and punishment, which was conceived in an era of powerful apocalyptic expectation, shaped his dramatic visualizations of hell and of the temptations of even the most steadfast saints. Silver’s account of Bosch’s artistic development is one of the first to benefit from recent technical investigations of the paintings, as well as from the reexamination of the artist’s drawings in relation to his paintings. Hieronymus Bosch is also unique in how securely it places its subject’s work in the broader history of painting in the Low Countries: Silver identifies sources of Bosch’s iconography in a wide range of fifteenth-century panel paintings, manuscript illuminations, and prints, and describes how, despite their own religiousness, Bosch’s pictures helped inspire the secular landscape and genre scenes of later Netherlandish painters. Augmented by 310 illustrations, most in color, including many dramatic close-ups of Bosch’s intricately imagined nightmare scenes, this is the definitive book on a perennially fascinating artist.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Larry Silver, a historian of Northern Renaissance art, received his Ph.D. from Harvard University and is currently Farquhar Professor of Art History at the University of Pennsylvania. His other books include the general survey Art in History and the recent Landscapes and Peasant Scenes: The Rise of Pictorial Genres in the Antwerp Art Market.

Hieronymus Bosch, by Larry Silver • ABEVILLE PRESS • 2006

The Hong Kong Youth Arts Foundation (HKYAF) is announcing an open call for submissions for the third Bloomberg Emerging Artists Programme! Having assisted two innovative and engaging exhibitions through this programme over the past two years, proposals and selection of the artists for 2009 are now on its boundary.
Bloomberg has a reputation for its support of educational and cultural institutions worldwide, promoting public awareness and appreciation for the arts and encouraging higher education in its fields. Through this programme YAF and Bloomberg hope to cultivate Hong Kong’s innovative art scene by assisting local artists in their development as professional artists by providing a platform to showcase their work to the public.
The selected artist(s) will be engaged in a 3-month residency period to create a series of work that will culminate in a major exhibition / performance in Hong Kong. As part of the programme, the artist(s) will be required to work on a community art project with YAF to encourage young people’s engagement in art. [Application deadline: 11/5/2009 6:00pm]
• OFFICIAL WEBSITE
• THE FIRST EMERGING ARTISTS [2007]

First is the whole environment where this architectonic project is build, a green area, full of trees and just the sky to watch. It moves and it's called the Sliding House. It's an amazing home created by London architects studio dRMM. The brief was simple: to build a house to retire to in order to grow food, entertain and enjoy the East Anglia landscape. The outcome was as unconventional as they come. A structure that has the ability to vary or connect the overall building's composition and character according to season, weather or simply a desire to delight. The part-prefab home consists of a glasshouse, main house, open space and annexe aligned on a track. A garage, off the track, adjoins the open space, creating a courtyard. This is a video from Wallpaper* Magazine who captured the physical phenomenon in the only medium that serves it justice - film. See by yourself and give us your opinion. We know that Macau is not the spot for these wonders but anyhow we dream with such a place.EXTRA LINKS:
• dRMM Website
• Sliding House at Dezeen
• Detailed project in PDF
• At bdonline
• Stephen Bayley writes about it on The Observer
• Finally another great one!
[CLICK ON THE IMAGE TO SEE THE VIDEO © WALLPAPER*][BACK TO BLOOMLAND]

From the body to the soul
Where our hearts lead we must go
Wherever love may flow
Oman by DEAD CAN DANCE • TOWARDS THE WHITHIN • 4AD • 1994

Doet Boersma is a dutch artist who steps into Asia for the first time showind and presenting the project "Hong Kong Impressions". Having an inspiring time as an artist-in-residence at aco_air in Hong Kong, she converted all her impressions, meetings and feelings about HK into drawings on packaging papers dumped by offices around her studio at Fotanian, and also on rice papers and canvases. They show the atmosphere, intimacy and loneliness of being a passer-by in HK. In the talk, she will explain how she transformed her impressions into the artworks. and she will explain the differences between her former experiences as an artist-in-residence in Ireland and here in Hong Kong.

ABOUT THE ARTIST
Doet Boersma finished Art Academy in 1985 and worked years as a drawing and painting teacher in secundary school and vocational school. Since 1991 she founded her own painting school It Frysk Skildershûs, where now are teaching 12-15 artists. Since the late eighties she used more and more time for her own artistic career. Different themes passed, but landscapes were always the most important. In the landscapes, she could show her passions of light, directions, atmosphere and colour.
She painted in Italy, Portugal and France, worked in the European Academy in Trier, Germany (2006), had an artistic residency in Ireland (2006). And in Hong Kong, she had a residency for 6 weeks, painting Hong Kong impressions of streetmarkets and people in the street. The materials changed from canvas to rice-paper.

Hong Kong is a total different residency than I had before, because of the totally different culture and small spaces", she commented.

Doet is exhibiting in different countries in Europe.

Art for All is celebrating its 1st anniversary at St. Paul’s Fine Art gallery tomorrow, 8th of December, with a cocktail party at 6:30pm. Concurrently more than ten local prominent artists, including Konstantin Bessmertny, James Chu, Bianca Lei, James Wong, José Drummond, Cindy Ng, Ung Vai Meng, Ng Fong Chao, Tong Chong, Kent Ieong and João O, will display their works for rummage sale to raise funds for the art group’s 2009 operation.

Art for All is a non-profit association founded on 8th December 2007 by a group of Macao artists with the aim to promote the contemporary art development of Macao. Supported by the private organization St Paul’s Corner , in December 2007 Art for All moved to Travessa de S. Paulo to open and manage the gallery “St. Paul’s Fine Art” and six artist studios. In 2008 the gallery has already held seven solo and two collective exhibitions of Macao artists showcasing 100-odd art pieces, presenting local artists’ creative outcome in the past year. Furthermore, Art for All has organized artists to participate in large scale international art events such as the “Beijing Art Fair 2008” in September and the “2008 ACAF NY – Asia Contemporary Art Fair New York” in November, striving to promote Macao’s contemporary art overseas.

Apart from the Macao artistic base “St. Paul’s Fine Art”, Art for All sought development beyond the region. In October, it set up the Beijing Art for All Contemporary Art Exchange Center located at the 318 Art Garden in Beijing. Its debut exhibition - the “Macao Contemporary Art Exhibition” featuring 15 Macao artists and 24 representative works - has received wide acclaim from the mainland artistic community. It provides not only a window for introducing Macao artworks to the dynamic art market in Beijing, but also a platform for artistic exchanges, creating opportunities for local artists to develop in the capital.

On the same occasion, Art for All will unveil a commissioned installation work “High Ladder” by João O who is a Master of Art course student at the Barcelona University of Spain. The artist hopes to share his latest creative work with the audience.
[CHECK HERE • ADD THEM TO YOUR FACEBOOK]

AFA presents "Monumentum Pro", a new exhibition of works by Konstantin Bessmertny, curated by Amelia Johnson.

"Monumentum Pro" further develops themes from Konstantin Bessmertny's series "Si Monumentum Requiris, Circumspice" which was created for the 52nd Venice Biennale. The paintings and sculptures comprising Konstantin Bessmentny's "Monumentum Pro" meaning " monument for…" intriguingly allude to the Latin verb monere – to warn, to advise, to remind from which monumentum is derived. Employing Konstantin Bessmertny's idiosyncratic characters and distinctive technique, the works appear to be part monument and part morality tale, their tantalizing warnings, whimsical commemorations and cautionary narratives appearing to form visual declensions of monere.

Konstantin Bessmertny is one of the most distinguished artists working in Asia today. His technical mastery, achieved after seven years of studying Fine Art in the grand academies of the former soviet union, combined with his detailed knowledge on a wide-range of subjects including literature, music, history and politics lend to his work an intelligence and a credibility that is rarely witnessed in contemporary art. Konstantin Bessmertny's work is utterly unique, employing humour and candour in depictions so subtle and gentle that they require revisiting time and time again to uncover all that they have to offer. Never formulaic or predictable, Bessmertny uses his work as a means of exploring and experimenting with new ideas, finding inspiration in the bizarrest of places and creating work that continues to challenge and excite preconceived notion.

The artist will be present at the opening reception, this Friday, 24th of October.

Start Time: Friday, October 24, 2008 at 6:30pm
End Time: Sunday, November 23, 2008 at 8:00pm
Location: St. Paul's Fine Art
Address: Travessa de S.Paulo Nos 3, 5 e 7
City/Town: Macau, Macau

“When Matisse dies,” Pablo Picasso remarked in the 1950s, “Chagall will be the only painter left who understands what color really is.” As a pioneer of modernism and one of the greatest figurative artists of the twentieth century, Marc Chagall achieved fame and fortune, and over the course of a long career created some of the best-known and most-loved paintings of our time. Yet behind this triumph lay struggle, heartbreak, bitterness, frustration, lost love, exile—and above all the miracle of survival.
Born into near poverty in Russia in 1887, the son of a Jewish herring merchant, Chagall fled the repressive tsarist empire in 1911 for Paris. There he worked alongside Modigliani and Léger in the tumbledown tenement called La Ruche, where “one either died or came out famous.” But turmoil lay ahead—war and revolution; a period as an improbable artistic commissar in the young Soviet Union; a difficult existence in Weimar Germany, occupied France, and eventually the United States. Throughout, as Jackie Wullschlager makes plain in this groundbreaking biography, he never ceased giving form on canvas to his dreams, longings, and memories.
Wullschlager explores in detail Chagall’s complex relationship with Russia and makes clear the Russian dimension he brought to Western modernism. She shows how, as André Breton put it, “under his sole impulse, metaphor made its triumphal entry into modern painting,” and helped shape the new surrealist movement. As art critic of the Financial Times, she provides a breadth of knowledge on Chagall’s work, and at the same time as an experienced biographer she brings Chagall the man fully to life—ambitious, charming, suspicious, funny, contradictory, dependent, but above all obsessively determined to produce art of singular beauty and emotional depth.
Drawing upon hitherto unseen archival material, including numerous letters from the family collection in Paris, and illustrated with nearly two hundred paintings, drawings, and photographs, Chagall is a landmark biography to rank with Hilary Spurling’s Matisse and John Richardson’s Picasso.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jackie Wullschlager is chief art critic for the Financial Times. Her books include a prizewinning life of Hans Christian Andersen and an acclaimed group biography of children’s book writers, Inventing Wonderland.

Chagall, by Jackie Wullschlager
KNOPF • BIOGRAPHY • HISTORY • OCT 2008

Prefiro situar-me nas margens

Quem o diz é António Conceição Júnior, um dos mais destacados artistas de Macau. Afirma que não tem vocação para o feérico e daí a vocação solitária e solidária. São estes alguns dos pontos de uma entrevista, onde discorre ainda sobre a paisagem cultural, a sua actividade, a obra de arte, falando da obscuridade como fundo da vida. O fio da compreensão está na disponibilidade do encantamento, afirma nas páginas do Hoje Macau na edição de hoje.
Uma exposição e um livro assinalam o seu regresso público. É já amanhã, Sexta-feira, pelas 18 e 30, no Clube Militar.

ENTREVISTA QUE PODE SER SEGUIDA NA SUA TOTALIDADE AQUI.
[TEXTO E FOTOS FABRICADOS @ BLOOMLAND.CN]

Recently published and available at Bloom Yellow is the quarterly issue of ARTICHOKE, the official magazine of the Design Institute of Australia. Interesting, relevant and sometimes controversial, ARTICHOKE communicates good design and the discussion of design issues to industry professionals and a broader audience of design aware consumers.
ARTICHOKE covers interior architecture and design, textile design, product design, exhibition design and graphic design, and provides designers with news and information on current trends and projects, and is published four times a year.
ARTICHOKE is endorsed by the Design Institute of Australia (DIA) and the Australian Institute of Architects.
See some sample print pages here and come to Bloom to buy it, we can tell you is worth every dime spent. Good photos, good design, good texts and a beautiful piece of printing material.

ARTICHOKE MAGAZINE • AVAILABLE AT BLOOM NOW!

It's a new arrival at our yellow shop the frieze magazine, an English venture on contemporary art and culture.
This publication is managed by the Frieze Foundation, a non-profit organization established in 2003 and responsible for the curated programme at Frieze Art Fair, who comprises artist commissions, talks, films, music and education.
Frieze Art Fair is held every October in Regent’s Park, London. It features more than 150 of the most exciting contemporary art galleries in the world. As well as these exhibitors, the Fair includes specially commissioned artists’ projects and an ambitious talks calendar. Frieze Foundation is funded by the European Commission’s Culture 2000 programme.
The magazine, along with its website, is now the front-head of the whole project and the scratch from where it began. Launched up in 1991, frieze magazine, is the leading magazine of contemporary art and culture. frieze is published eight times a year and includes essays, reviews and columns by today’s most forward-thinking writers, artists and curators. You can buy it now in Macau at Bloom Yellow at St. Lazarus district. For subscriptions send us an email. Thank you!
RELATED LINK: frieze project

Last May, Karen Smith has given an interview for the official Beijing 2008 Olympic Games' TV Channel, on a talkshow called 'China Through My Eyes', who invites foreigners to talk about the city of Beijing and the Chinese country. This is an excerpt of it:

You have organized exhibitions for many contemporary Chinese artists since you came to Beijing, for example, Ai Weiwei and Liu Xiaodong. So how many exhibitions have you organized?
More than ten, but not all by myself. In the early 90s, I was more a coordinator than a curator. Most of my work was just to introduce artists to galleries. I started to work on my own around 1998, organizing exhibition tours around art galleries in northern cities of the UK.

Exhibition tours about contemporary Chinese art?
Yes. But back then most of the artists were figure painters or figure photographers.

Early this year, you were listed as one of the earliest "Foreign Pushing Hands" for contemporary Chinese art by Chinese print media. Do you know what "pushing hand" means? It means you've helped Chinese artists become more international -- you've paved their way to the world. So how do you see this title?
I'm really honored. I guess that's maybe because in the days when I first came to China, few people in western countries were interested in Chinese art. Today, we see a lot of young westerners here investigating the contemporary art of China, but back in the old days, there were only a few of us. And to make matters worse, most went back home in the early 90s. I'm among those who have stayed here the longest.

Since there are "foreign pushing hands," there must also be "Chinese pushing hands." How many Chinese are doing similar work as you?
I think there must be quite a few. As far as I know, Gao Minglu, Fei Dawei, and many others have been doing this since the 80s. And today, people like Huang Zhuan have also done a lot of work. Their research, papers, and exhibitions are very important.

Contemporary Chinese art is more and more recognized around the world, and more and more people are starting to notice Chinese artists and their work. Do you remember the situation when you first came to China?
The reason why people tend to keep their distances from "contemporary" or "avant-garde" art is that they never had the chance to understand it. Unknown things always cause insecure or uneasy feelings. Just like if you don't know a person, you may have some imaginary doubts about that person. But after you get closer to him or her, you may find that he or she is not as weird as you thought. Contemporary art is the same. Since the 80s, many Chinese artists have started to study art, and have tried to discover new ways of expressing themselves, their culture, or Chinese art as a whole. Chinese avant-garde art started to take on a fresh new look in the 90s, especially after China's WTO accession. A lot of new media, including websites and magazines, began to introduce art, and people here began to understand that art is an important part of their daily lives.

Did you feel alone when you first came here?
I was not alone, actually. I had partners. But back then, the only visitors to our exhibitions were professionals. Ordinary people or outsiders seldom had the interest or opportunity. But today, we have more and more outside visitors. That's good.

What changes have occurred in the Chinese art circle since you came to China?
Individuals are much stronger today. In the early years, conversations about art were mostly restricted within the art circle, since artists knew outsiders would not be interested in what they were doing. But today, the "groups" have broken up into "individuals," and individual development and positioning has turned out to be very successful. It's very different from the situation in the 90s. There are more and more famous artists today.

How about your work? Is there any difference?
There are many differences, actually. In 1998, when I started to arrange exhibitions all by myself, as I mentioned just now, presenting an exhibition in a foreign country was a very rare and precious opportunity for a Chinese artist. But today, they have more and more opportunities to present exhibitions both in China and in foreign countries. Meanwhile, the quality of the work is better and better, too. More foreign galleries also have come to China. They are very attractive to the artists here, by the way. Besides, the artists have more choices now. They have different themes and come up with different works of art all the time.

So every new exhibition will be a new challenge for you -- to meet new people and learn about new ideas.
Yes, totally. The projects have become bigger and bigger and more and more complicated and professional, since each artist has to think about his own personal development.

Actually, "art curator" is a new phrase for most of us. Only several years ago, we had no idea what art curators did. But today, as avant-garde art becomes more and more popular, people have started to turn their eyes to the organizers of the exhibitions. More and more "famous art curators" are appearing in China. Could you say something about your daily work?
As an art curator, you have to have a good sense of art. For example, since my field is contemporary Chinese art, I have to know what everybody is doing here, and which works are good or bad. Art curators are not as free as some artists or other people may think. Each gallery has its own orientation, you know. And we have to think about this and decide whether it is necessary to cooperate with them. For example, commercial galleries may want something that they can sell, instead of things just for exhibition.
Before I start working, I have to know what the artist has been doing recently and what theme would be the best for his exhibition. Instead of looking around their studios, I prefer to talk with them in person and to learn about their recent concerns, so as to see what kind of new works I can extract from their ideas and how to express them in the exhibitions. [...]
[THE WHOLE INTERVIEW IS HERE]

Avant-garde means "advance guard" or "vanguard". The adjective form is used in English, to refer to people or works that are experimental or innovative, particularly with respect to art, culture, and politics.
Avant-garde represents a pushing of the boundaries of what is accepted as the norm or the status quo, primarily in the cultural realm. The notion of the existence of the avant-garde is considered by some to be a hallmark of modernism, as distinct from postmodernism. However, this is not true in the case of music as many pieces are still being released which are generally considered avant-garde in popular culture. Many artists have aligned themselves with the avant-garde and still continue to do so, tracing a history from Dada to the Situationists to postmodern artists such as the L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E writers in the 1980's to many art collectives in the "post-postmodernist" times of today.
[SOURCE WIKIPEDIA]

A fascination for the contemporary art of China. What might inspire this? Newness, spirit, energy, diversity, the subversion of a system by society’s underdog - for history repeatedly tells of the fate of artists in so-called repressive regimes. Perhaps the fascination is bound up in all of these things. Perhaps none of them at all, for how many would believe us, if we said that it is the sheer quality and diversity of the art being produced in China now?

For western people, steeped in the history of western art, the fascination should be with witnessing the evolution of the contemporary as thought and expression, of witnessing a fundamental shift in thinking and perception by China’s growing body of artists, that is coupled with the kind of zeal that produced myriad schools of art in Europe at the turn of the century. Bearing witness to history in the making, born of the foresight suggested by the past, now draws the gaze of a growing number of western viewers. We can only read about developments in western art in historical accounts in books - the works themselves are so often denied their original, historical impact when placed in contemporary settings - and try to imagine the exuberant mood of a time in which art was suddenly so radically different from its immediate past; art that caused chaos in the salons and museums as it shocked patrons and public alike.

From the perspective of the present, it is hard to grasp the venom that was unleashed at the work of Cezanne, Matisse, Picasso and Cubism, let alone the Surrealists, yet whether we like the works or not, all acknowledge the contributions these artists made to art history and to the evolution of western culture. The parallel here is the creative spirit and energy of a specific time, at which a certain set of circumstances, events and philosophising aligned themselves to allow a particular environment for aesthetics. In short, it is the artistic and creative possibilities that are unleashed by a period of rapid and dramatic social and economic change; 1990s China just as turn of the century Europe.

A fascination with contemporary art from China is like that of a parent watching the struggles of a child as it grows to maturity; the crossing of each barrier, the conquering of every obstacle, gives rise to intense joy in new discovery and achievement, that builds on all that has gone before. Western art continues to dominate world trends but perhaps Chinese artists, free from the weight of an academic history of artistic development, manage to escape this complexity and touch base with simpler, more essential truths.

Today, few places in Asia remain more mysterious than China. Even in this modern age of globalisation where cultural boundaries are being reduced by the march of mass media, China retains its own distinct and complex characteristics as almost no other nation. Whilst Chinese culture remains steeped in the creative aura of its ancient civilisation, the contemporary art of the middle kingdom stands apart. The reason is both natural, modern rebellion against tradition and an enforced socio-political break in the middle of this century. Post 1979, these combined to set the stage for a contemporary art that would be a dynamic and reflective aspect of the modern period. And so it is; reflective of the tremendous change sweeping through the annals of this long-standing culture; dynamic because it represents a spiritual and social awakening that is currently unique to China alone.

In the mid-1980s, art that was being produced throughout China was doused in Western thought and culture that surged in as the long-closed door began to open. Just ten years on in the mid-1990s, it is possible to see that the manifest forms and styles of expression that appeared in China’s new art, were, and remain, inextricably tied to the traditions of Chinese life; the tangible aspects of Western materials and approaches are but grafts onto an ineluctable body of Chinese thought and philosophy. This Chineseness is the appeal, strength, and significance of China’s contemporary art.

Art in China of the 1990s and the beginning of the millennium is increasingly marked by a profound diversity. There is realism, academicism, expressionist styles, abstract compositions and a mixing of media, all existing side by side. There are equally great works being produced in oil on canvas, ink on paper, in print-making, sculpture and photography. As the outlook of artists matures, it looses none of its vital impetus. What could be more fascinating to all who seek the thrill of art at the cutting edge?
BY KAREN SMITH
[© 2008 China Avant-Garde Inc.]

Karen Smith will be in Macau at Bloom Yellow in Albergue. Tomorrow at 18.30!

Mighty Tuesday #1 - 18.30
Nine Lives, The Birth of Avant-Garde Art in New China, by Karen Smith
Book Presentation with the Author / Updated Edition by Timezone 8 • Published in Mar 2008

In the early 1990s, the idea of contemporary art in China simply did not compute to a foreign audience. But in 1993, ten contemporary Chinese artists debuted at the 48th Venice Biennale.

They were immediately hailed as progenitors of a Chinese 'avant-garde.' Their brightly colored, Pop Art-inspired paintings played with socialist motifs, parodied Mao, and gave a visual expression to the feelings of disaffected Chinese youth. They were everything western audiences expected of contemporary art from the People's Republic of China. But a number of critics were rather guarded in their opinions. Was this another flash-in-the-pan phenomenon just as Soviet art had been in the 1980s? Could a Chinese avant-garde maintain a distinct identity of its own and shake off its penchant for imitation? The answer is clearly "yes."

The emergence of a market for their art transformed the lives of these avant-garde pioneers from rags to riches, from outcast to hero, from social pariah to cutting-edge cool in a Chinese society adapting to a new era. They did not change but China has changed. The ideology they once had to fight now propagates a cultural climate of laissez-faire that is tantamount to encouragement. Set against China's official program of modernization, Nine Lives paints a compelling picture of artists working beyond the pale of official culture, who started a new cultural revolution that is sweeping China today.

Nine Lives introduces nine artists (Wang Guangyi, Geng Jianyi, Fang Lijun, Gu Dexin, Li Shan, Zhang Xiaogang, Xu Bing, Zhang Peili, and Wang Jianwei), their personal histories and views on China today. Karen Smith's highly accessible introduction to an emerging art scene in a society unknown to most of us makes good reading not only for art-world insiders, but for anyone curious about recent history and its effect on the booming Chinese society. The book opens with a glossary for readers unfamiliar with Chinese history and culture, and a time line placing each of the nine artists within the context of the Chinese art world and political history.

Karen Smith was born in Hertfordshire in the United Kingdom. She graduated from Wimbledon Art School in Fine Art. In 1988, she moved to Asia curious to explore its practically unchartered art scene. She calls Beijing her home, where she lives since 1992, and is one of the foremost authorities on China’s contemporary art scene, both in China and abroad. Karen Smith also curates exhibitions, including The Real Thing, Tate Liverpool, 2007, and Chinese Photography and Video, Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, amongst others. She is also on the advisory board of Three Shadows Photography Art Center in Beijing.

Timezone 8 Limited is a Hong Kong based publisher, distributor and retailer of books on contemporary art, architecture, photography and design.
In collaboration with Asia Publishers Service • HONG KONG

It happened last year in March, the month we started this website, Peter visited us to present his first comic book, The Black Book of Falling. It was at the tiny Bloom Red, where at the time we still had space to squeeze everybody in. Now books conquered all of it. But we have Bloom Yellow and the beautiful venue at Albergue. It was a joy to have meet Peter and to listen to him last year. Will be a pleasure to have him with us again for a great event on one of the eternal books: "The Master and Margarita" by Mikhail Bulgakov.
[DON'T MISS IT! IT'S TOMORROW AT BLOOM YELLOW, FROM 6PM ON.]

Não é o ângulo recto que me atrai
nem a linha recta, dura, inflexível,
criada pelo homem.
O que me atrai é a curva livre e sensual,
a curva que encontro nas montanhas
do meu país,
no curso sinuoso dos seus rios,
nas ondas do mar,
no corpo da mulher preferida.
De curvas é feito todo o universo,
o universo curvo de Einstein.

Neste livro, apesar da liberdade plástica, total, que procuro praticar, vocês, meus irmãos portugueses, vão encontrar muita influência da sua velha arquitectura colonial, tão repetida em meu país. Refiro-me às velhas casas de fazenda, senhoriais, todas caiadas de branco, com largas varandas a protegerem e ampliarem os espaços interiores. E, mais ainda, as belas igrejas barrocas nascidas com vocês aí em Portugal. O resto é a minha arquitectura, os longos anos que passei debruçado na prancheta, mas sempre encontrando tempo para sentir a vida, a família, os amigos, este mundo que precisamos melhorar. Tudo isto que, para mim, é mais importante que a arquitectura.
Meu Sósia vem de longe, de outros continentes, de tempos tão distantes que deles só os livros podem lembrar. Mas vem também de áreas mais próximas, vem de Maricá onde nasceram meus avós. Quer ocupar-se de coisas em demasia. Desenhar, fazer esculturas e literatura. Procuro contê-lo, fazendo autocrítica, ouvindo os amigos, lendo muito. Mas ele insiste. Diz que a arquitectura deve estar ligada a todos os assuntos da cultura e lembra como afirmativas de Heidegger e Malraux me foram úteis na defesa de meus projectos. Tudo o que faço tem sua participação e com ele divido o que vocês acharem de bom ou ruim neste livro.
[Oscar Niemeyer]

Oscar Niemeyer, agora com 100 anos de idade, é unanimemente considerado um dos maiores vultos de sempre da arquitectura mundial, tendo assinado projectos como a cidade de Brasília, ou a sede das Nações Unidas em Nova Iorque assim como muitas, muitas outras obras de indiscutível valor, espalhadas pelas mais diversas cidades do Mundo.
Este Livro tem a finalidade de expor de maneira mais clara, mas sempre poética, sob os mais diversos ângulos em que ela se compõe - o Arquitecto, o Artista, o Escritor, o Criador, o Cidadão, o Amigo - a personalidade de Oscar Niemeyer. O seu caminho, as pessoas que marcaram presença na sua vida, as coisas que lhe interessam.

Meu Sósia e Eu, de Oscar Niemeyer • CAMPO DAS LETRAS

July 23rd - Wednesday - 18.00
The Master and Margarita - The Passion, Faust and Mikhail Bulgakov
A Talk by Peter Suart

The Russian writer and dramatist Mikhail Bulgakov died in Moscow in 1940. His masterwork novel. The Master and Margarita, first appeared in a Moscow journal in the 60's. It later went on to achieve cult status around the world.
In 2007 Peter Suart illustrated the book for The Folio Society in London, and it is from this work that this talk as sprung. Peter will show his illustrations for the book and discuss the following subjects:
• Bulgakov’s vision of Jesus as a non-divine seer;
• Faust, Science and the whirlpool of good and evil;
• The life and work of Bulgakov.

Peter will close with a look at the presence of some of these ideas in his own series of illustrated books, the Tik and Tok adventures, published by MCCM Creations.

PETER SUART, born in Jamaica, was raised in Hong Kong and schooled in England. In 1985 he returned to Hong Kong to work as an artist, musician, writer and theatrical performer. Since 1999 he has lived in England. He is a zealous sportsman.
[In English / Limited seating]

In collaboration with MCCM Creations • Supported by the British Council
Image frontispiece of the Folio Society's The Master and Margarita

July 26th - Saturday
The City as a Subject for Literary Expression
Talk + Creative Writing Session by Hong Kong writer Xu Xi
[15.00-17.00 Workshop / 18.00 Talk]

Focused on urban, congested life, Xu Xi, a Chinese-Indonesian native of Hong Kong, writes from within, zooming in on her own life in the city and its vanishing culture and sensibility. This surreal example of post-modernity transformed into a 21st Century Communist Chinese city informs her latest book, Evanescent Isles: From My City-Village, a collection of personal essays.

XU XI (pronounced “Shoe-See”), is one of Asia’s leading English language writers. Author of seven books of fiction & essays, and editor of three anthologies of Hong Kong literature in English. THE NEW YORK TIME named her a pioneer writer from Asia in English. Awards include an O. Henry prize story, shortlist for the inaugural MAN Asian Literary Award, Cohen Award from PLOUGHSHARES for best story, a NYFA fiction fellowship, the South China Morning Post story contest winner, among others. Her work is taught, broadcast and anthologized internationally. Her language is described as “uncluttered” and “arrestingly poignant.” She is, above all, uncompromising.
[APPLY NOW FOR THE CREATIVE WRITING WORKSHOP - LIMITED AVAILABILITY]

Co-organized by the Department of English of the University of Macau.
MORE INFO AT: www.xuxiwriter.com
PHOTO CREDIT: Peter Hilton

July 27th - Sunday - 20.00
The Box in Bloom

In 1987 Peter Suart and Kung Chi Shing formed THE BOX, a theatrical music ensemble, and the duo presented concerts and music theatre works alone and in collaboration with visual artists, choreographers, theatre folk and musicians in Hong Kong and Taiwan. For their 20th anniversary, they play Bluebeard at the Kwai Tsing Theatre in Hong Kong

First time in Macau together, Peter Suart and Kung Chi Shing, a classical music professor, will perform a selection of material from their twenty-year history; Suart on voice (sung and spoken), keyboard and percussion, and Kung Chi Shing on violin and flute. The music is dark, bizarre and lyrical.
Words in English.

Supported by the British Council
PHOTO from 2008 show: the box, side fourteen — bluebeard CREDIT: Liu Wai Tong

July 29th - 18.00
Mighty Tuesday #1
Nine Lives, The Birth of Avant-Garde Art in New China, by Karen Smith
Book Presentation with the Author / Updated Edition by Timezone 8 • Mar 2008

Nine Lives introduces nine artists and their personal histories and views on China today. Karen Smith‘s highly accessible introduction to an emerging art scene in a society unknown to most of us makes good reading not only for art-world insiders, but for anyone curious about recent history and its effect on the booming Chinese society.

In the early 1990s, the idea of contemporary art in China simply did not compute to a foreign audience. But in 1993, ten contemporary Chinese artists debuted at the 48th Venice Biennale. They were immediately hailed as progenitors of a Chinese „avant-garde." Their brightly colored, Pop Art-inspired paintings played with socialist motifs, parodied Mao, and gave a visual expression to the feelings of disaffected Chinese youth. They were everything western audiences expected of contemporary art from the People‘s Republic of China. But a number of critics were rather guarded in their opinions. The emergence of a market for their art transformed the lives of these avant-garde pioneers from rags to riches, from outcast to hero, from social pariah to cutting-edge cool in a Chinese society adapting to a new era. They did not change but China has changed. The ideology they once had to fight now propagates a cultural climate of laissez-faire that is tantamount to encouragement. Nine Lives paints a compelling picture of artists working beyond the pale of official culture, who started a new cultural revolution that is sweeping China today.

Karen Smith was born in Hertfordshire in the United Kingdom. She graduated from Wimbledon Art School in Fine Art. In 1988, she moved to Asia curious to explore its practically unchartered art scene. She calls Beijing her home, where she lives since 1992, and is one of the foremost authorities on China’s contemporary art scene, both in China and abroad. Karen Smith also curates exhibitions, including The Real Thing, Tate Liverpool, 2007, and Chinese Photography and Video, Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, amongst others. She is also on the advisory board of Three Shadows Photography Art Center in Beijing.

The author will show the works of Wang Guangyi, Geng Jianyi, Fang Lijun, Gu Dexin, Li Shan, Zhang Xiaogang, Xu Bing, Zhang Peili, and Wang Jianwei.

Timezone 8 Limited is a Hong Kong based publisher, distributor and retailer of books on contemporary art, architecture, photography and design.
In collaboration with Asia Publishers Service • HONG KONG

August 2nd - Saturday (time to be announced)
One Couple Two Cultures: 81 Western-Chinese Couples Talk about Love and Marriage • A presentation by the Author, Dan Waters
NEW POCKET SIZE EDITION BY MCCM CREATIONS

There are those who believe a Western-Chinese marriage is no different, say, to a blond marrying a red-head, although there are others who are more cautious and say that two sometimes antagonistic cultures inevitably add heat to the mix and an added dimension to marriage. There are also opposing views and beliefs having been raised on different codes of conduct and varying lifestyles. After marriage what sort of lifestyles do such couples lead? There can be compatibility and communication problems, not just with each other, but also with in-laws and partners' friends. What cuisines do they prefer? How do they raise their Eurasian children?
While a certain amount has been written about Blacks married to Whites, and Whites to Pakistani, and so on, next to nothing has been written about Westerners married to Chinese. Researched and written by Dr Dan Waters, who can claim approaching half a century of actual experience in such a marriage, is the best person to research the subject of mixed marriages.
One Couple Two Cultures is based on original research of eighty-one couples involving among others Chinese from the People's Republic of China and Caucasians of different nationalities. Examples included in this book are of both successful and not-so-successful unions.

Dan Waters was born in 1920 in Norwich, England, a city of pubs and churches. 'There's a pub for every day of the year and a church for every week'. He's now 88 year old and a whole life of experience. Dan and his Hong Kong Chinese wife, Vera Chan, were married on the Queen's Birthday in 1960, and they have lived together in Hong Kong ever since.

THE PUBLISHER
Since going into book publishing in 2001, the aspirations of MCCM Creations in books have not changed: a wish to bring to you original and inspiring books from creators who share a passion in books as well as having a strong desire to explore new concepts and visualise their experiences, stories and perception in their medium of preference - words, images, sound etc… who often take them across boundaries of illustration, visual art, design, architecture, photography, culture, socio-culture, and literature. Their titles have ‘crossover’ appeals to different age groups and interest groups. MCCM is owned by Mary Chan.
Event Co-Organized by MCCM Creations

August 3rd - Sunday - 18.00
China: Portrait of a Country A book launching presented by Pulitzer-winning photojournalist Liu Heung Shing

China: Portrait of a Country is a landmark on the history of publishing. Initially a book on photography it brings the whole history of a country from the past 60 years to a vivid and close-up form. After a research that took more than 4 years, Liu Heung Shing shows the work of 88 Chinese photographers who gave their perception along the extraordinary hardship that makes way to the humanistic course of this immense country. A document that will make its own life on the standards of gradual change and a monument on the passion of photography. When China opens the curtain at the summer Olympics in 2008 and the world’s focus falls upon Beijing, these images will serve to map out the remarkable road the Chinese have traveled to rejoin the rest of the world and the process by which China navigated the path from periphery to a central position in the world.

Liu Heung Shing’s journalistic involvement with China runs parallel with the development of the People’s Republic. Following the 1979 China-U.S. diplomatic normalization, Liu was Time Magazine’s first photojournalist based in Beijing. His first story was on the death of Mao Zedong. He has worked as a foreign correspondent for the The Associated Press in Beijing (1979-1983), Los Angeles (1983-85), New Delhi (19851-89), Seoul (1989-1990) and Moscow (1990-1993). Liu is the author of China After Mao (Penguin 1982), and USSR: Collapse of an Empire(Associated Press 1992). In 1992 he shared the Pulitzer Prize for Spot News Photography on the coverage of the Soviet Union, and in 2005 French Photomagazine named Liu Heung Shing one of the 100 most influential figures in contemporary photography.

THE PUBLISHER
TASCHEN is an art book publisher founded in 1980 in Germany. Taschen has been a noteworthy force in making lesser-seen art available to mainstream bookstores. Bringing this art into broader public view, by publishing potentially controversial volumes alongside its more mainstream books of comics reprints, art photography, painting, design, fashion,advertising history, film, and architecture. TASCHEN's mission is to choose the most interesting, important, and pertinent subjects within a delectable range of disciplines, to make beautiful, unique and high-quality books.
Co-Organized by TASCHEN • Hong Kong

All the events will take place at Bloom Yellow and its boundaries at Albergue, previously know as The Old Ladies House, a complex for Arts and Creativity in Macau.
SUPPORTED by BAMBU SOCIEDADE DE ARTES LIMITADA
ALBERGUE - CALÇADA DA IGREJA DE SÃO LÁZARO, 8 - MACAU

KAREN THERESE + LIZZIE THOMSON PERFORMANCE • AUSTRALIAAn artistic exchange of ideas and research of Australian artists Karen Therese and Lizzie Thomson is happening tonight at the Art and Culture Outreach (ACO) in Hong Kong. They have been in residence at aco_air for 1 month and would like to share their research in an open forum with Hong Kong based artists. OUR HONG KONG is a work-in-progress series of video and conceptual performance works,
which are currently being developed in collaboration with Hong Kong based artist Carrie So.

Karen Therese is a collaborative artist, activist and producer making work grounded in performance, community and media. Her current work includes the multi art ensemble performance work titled, The Riot Act which investigates the relationship between social unrest and news media. Karen is also director and producer of the ground-breaking community arts initiative Gathering Ground - history, ceremony, protest. Gathering Ground brings together over 30 interdisciplinary artists, to create a large scale, site specific performance work developed in Sidney.

Lizzie Thomson collaborated extensively with choreographer Rosalind Crisp for 9 years, performing in her works throughout Europe and Australia. She has recently worked in projects directed by artists including Karen Therese, Dean Walsh, Samuel James, Hans van den Broeck, Fiona Malone, Opera Australia and Nikki Heywood, in addition to her own Performance Space Residency with Brian Fuata and Jane McKernan. Lizzie teaches regularly for professional companies, as well as lecturing at educational institutions.

Carrie So is one of the founders of The Studio - a multi-discipline art-based space where the core intention is to transcend the boundaries of various art mediums, such as visuals and fashion. Carrie has returned to Hong Kong after completing her Honours degree in Theatre and Performance at the University of New South Wales. Her main area of interest is in the effects of spatial manipulation for performance. Her self devised solo works include Begins, exploring memory and her recorded self which focuses on the moving work using visual installation and light. Her experiments sample drama, live music, song, dance, video projection and poetry.

Spearheaded by independent arts and cultural worker Ms May Fung, and generously supported by Dawei Charitable Foundation, Art and Culture Outreach (ACO) is a non-profit making organization founded in 2005, aiming to facilitate both local and overseas art and cultural practitioners to have cross boundary / discipline development encouraging cross-over collaboration in different aspects.

LOCATION: 1/F, FooTak Bldg, 365 Hennessy Road, Wan Chai, Hong Kong
SCHEDULE: 7.00 PM to 8.30 PM
RELATED LINK: http://www.pact.net.au