Within a Sky Full of Earth

The Albergue opened officialy yesterday. Lights, sound, exhibitions, a fashion show, scheduled the event that started at 6 o'clock with a a mighty organization and a crowded audience. Among them many of the VIPs of Macau leaded by the Chief Executive, Edmund Ho. It was an effusive ocasion to glow a line of projects that are coming to this venue. The event marked the intention to grow to a new level. The potential is all there, we will see in the coming months what the future reserves for the whole space and for the district of St. Lazarus where creative industries pretend to flow.
For our part, Bloom is still displaced on the heart of its body. We're still walking and beating but through alleys and sideways. If there's the challenge to overcome for a new life, on a second and strong opportunity, on the same way we are faced for a huge operation that must be accomplished without scars and that needs certainty and consistency. We just want to clean everything, forget the past and start from ground zero onwards. Still today it's hard and painful to return to Bloom Red where the bones and remains of its destruction are completly visible. It's a nightmare on air going through weeks and weeks and we're tumbling down on the way to something that will come, but has time goes it gets more close to a dream then to anything else. We're hoping for the happy ending though.
Bloom Yellow is at Albergue, where the flashes went on. But even there we're faraway to engage on something solid, because we're still raining. Yellow is part of a rainbow and can't be made of shaded colors. We'll give it time. But we can't last forever on the side of un-definition.

Apart from all that, with or without us, Bloom wishes a long life and a great success to Albergue.
[PHOTO BY BLOOMLAND.CN | CLICK TO ZOOM IN]

This was the result of my creative writing exercise on Shirley Lim's workshop. After a process of relaxation, the idea was to bring back a distant smell from the depths of your memory. Writing freely without stopping for a few minutes.

It was the house. The view. As if you could smell the view. The floor, not the scent of the floor, but the touch as a smelly little torture. The doors. The walking in. The ring bell. The summer. The smile of the face that would walk you in. The face that is just a memory, ageless in time, as now and forever. The room inside. The weight of your jacket that was about to be put asside. Thorned. And then someone was there. Rich, perfect, beautiful. And that person was all hands. Hands lighting up a cigarette. Matches probably. Or a cigarette that would be lighten up by itself, just like that, with those magic hands. Hands that would flow to the pages of a book or so many books placed on the shelfs of the wall. And then he would hold his head in an endless thought. Endless in time. Through the steps of the memory.
But the smell was the smoke. The smoke all over the place, unnoticeable. Like the smoke of a gun that is about to blow your head. Smoking coming in and out, invisible, just targeting your eyes sleepless into your rememberings.
The hands that hold the cigarette, yes. And the smoke that from the truth was not really there.

Papoilas. Lírios. Rosas. Brincos-de-princesa.
Lembro-me de cheiros diferentes que se misturavam, tornando-se impossível distinguir. Cheiros que me invadiam enquanto circulava por diferentes jardins e parques em busca do conjunto de flores perfeitas.
O meu pai perguntava: "Estas servem?" Aproximava-me lentamente, absorvia o aroma, observava a cor, o formato e a textura. "Sim, servem", respondia, dependendo da sensação que me causassem.
No fim do dia, tinha conseguido reunir cheiros doces, frescos, acres, todos no meu caderno. Orgulhosa, entreguei-o à professora, com a sensação de dever cumprido.
Claro que, com o passar do tempo, os cheiros daquele caderno alteraram-se, mas, na minha memória, permanece o aroma daqueles campos abertos cheios de flores. Como se fosse o espelho da minha infância.
Luciana Leitão • Jornalista

Before time, everytime my sista like be the boss of the food.
We stay shopping in Mizuno Superette
and my madda pull the Oreos off the shelf
and my sista already saying, Mommy,
can be the boss of the Oreos?

The worse was when she was the boss
of the sunflower seeds.
She give me and my other sistas
one seed at a time.
We no could eat the meat.
Us had to put um in one pile on one Kleenex.
Then, when we wen' take all the meat
out of the shells and our lips stay all cho cho,
she give us the seeds one at a time
cause my sista, she the boss
of the sunflower seeds.

One time she was the boss
of the Raisinettes.
Us was riding in the back
of my granpa's Bronco down Kaunakakai Wharf.
There she was, passing us one Raisinette at a time.
My mouth was all watery
'cause I like eat um all one time, eh?
So I wen' tell her, Gimme that bag.
And I wen' grab um.
She said, I'ng tell Mommy.
And I said, Go you fuckin' bird killa;
tell Mommy.

She wen' let go the bag.
And I wen' start eating the Raisinetes all one time.
But when I wen' look at her,
I felt kinda bad cause I wen' call her bird killa.
She was boss of the parakeet too, eh,
and she suppose to cover the cage every night.
But one time, she wen' forget.
When us wen' wake up, the bugga was on its back,
legs in the air all stiff.
The bugga was cold.
And I guess the thing that made me feel bad
was I neva think calling her bird killa
would make her feel so bad
that she let go the bag Raisinettes.

But I neva give her back the bag.
I figga what the fuck.
I ain't going suffer eating one Raisinette at a time.
Then beg her for one mo
and I mean one mo
fuckin' candy.
BY LOIS-ANN YAMANAKA

"Boss of the Food" was the introdoctury text that Shirley Lim brougth to us. She read it aloud with all the tones of the little young girl who was supposed to be the voice of this story on the form of a beautiful poem. Lois-Ann Yamanaka is a Japanese American writer from Hawai. She often uses this Hawaiian Pidgin. Somehow shows how your inner voice can be reached on your own special language. And that's what was all about: bringing up your voice as a creative writer.

LIVRARIA “BLOOM” ORGANIZA “WORKSHOP”
Vencedora de dois “American Book Awards”, a escritora asiática Shirley Lim esteve ontem em Macau para falar e ensinar algumas técnicas de escrita criativa.

O antigo albergue da Santa Casa da Misericórdia de Macau foi ontem palco de um “workshop” de escrita criativa liderado pela escritora Shirley Lim, da Malásia e actualmente residente nos Estados Unidos. Durante duas horas, macaenses, portugueses, japoneses e americanos residentes na RAEM trocaram ideias e aprenderam algumas das principais técnicas de escrita criativa.
Depois de uma sessão de relaxamento, os alunos foram desafiados a ir buscar ao “baú das memórias” um cheiro que lhes lembrasse uma situação, sentimento ou vivência marcante. Depois, durante dez minutos, realizou-se um exercício de escrita livre, que Shirley Lim descreve como “um dos mais difíceis, pois requer a abstracção total do ambiente envolvente e da rotina”. O resultado foram alguns textos que poderão um dia dar origem a uma história curta ou até a um romance, “se o autor for persistente neste tipo de trabalho”, explica a escritora. Shirley Lim defende que “ser-se criativo é ter a capacidade de acreditar em si próprio e de aceitar riscos”.
No final da aula, os participantes leram os seus textos e trocaram ideias e Shirley Lim leu alguns poemas da sua autoria e outros resultantes do projecto “Moving Poetry”, que envolveu crianças de Hong Kong. Esta foi uma proposta diferente para uma tarde de sábado que partiu da Livraria “Bloom”.

Nascida em Malaca, Shirley Lim começou a escrever aos nove anos de idade e aos onze sabia que “queria ser poeta”. Depois de alguns poemas e histórias curtas publicadas na Malásia, partiu para os Estados Unidos. Hoje é professora na Universidade da Califórnia e realiza “workshops” de escrita criativa por todo o mundo, desde Hong Kong à Austrália, Singapura, Malásia. Esta foi a segunda vez que a autora veio à RAEM, depois de, em 2001, ter dado aulas a cerca de 400 crianças na Universidade de Macau.
Entre as obras publicadas de Shirley Lim, encontram-se “Monsoon History”, “Two Dreams”, “Among the White Moon Faces”, “Tilting the Continent” e “Life’s Mysteries”.
[POR PATRÍCIA NEVES • JORNAL TRIBUNA DE MACAU • FOTOS: BLOOMLAND.CN]

A Bloom agradece a: Shirley Lim, Andrew Moody e a todos os participantes; Bambu Sociedade de Artes Ltd., Santa Casa da Misericórdia de Macau, Casa de Portugal em Macau, Jornal Hoje Macau, Jornal Tribuna de Macau e Teledifusão de Macau. A todos o nosso obrigado!

This is the event that will mark the return of Bloom to activity. We've been closed in both Red and Yellow during these past weeks. Flood came and we were gone. We can announce now that Bloom Red will be closed for good. We will not be part of the same square anymore, we will say goodbye to the Chinese Temple just in front. But the good news is that we're opening a new place soon near the center of Macau. But that will come in the near future and we will tell when time comes. This is now.
Shirley Lim is an awarded Asian American writer and will be in Macau for an afternoon at Bloom Yellow in St. Lazarus Albergue. The event will bring together a Creative Writing Class followed by a Lecture on Shirley's career of multi-ethnic discipline across the immeasurable world of Literature. A freedom where there's no language and no identity but an entirety mix of tones and voices. Shirley Lim is just an illustration of the diversity and quest for that exceptional accent.
Born in Malacca, Malaysia, into a life of poverty, deprivation, and abandonment in a culture that, at that time, rarely recognised girls as individuals, Lim had a pretty unhappy childhood. Reading was a huge solace, retreat, and escape. Scorned by teachers for her love of English over her "native" tongue. Her first poem was published in the Malacca Times when she was ten. By the age of eleven, she knew that she wanted to be a a poet.
These are just the first lines of a story. You should come for every bit of it. Will be on this coming Saturday, 6th of December, at 4 pm. Don't miss it.
As we have limited seats available you should send us an email to reserve your place.
[DOWNLOAD THE FLYER HERE OR CLICK ON THE IMAGE]

Shirley Geok-lin Lim was born in Malacca, Malaysia, came over to the United States as a Fulbright and Wien International Scholar in 1969, and completed her Ph.D. in British and American Literature at Brandeis University in 1973. She has published two critical studies, Nationalism and Literature: Writing in English from the Philippines and Singapore (1993) and Writing South East/Asia in English: Against the Grain (1994), and has edited/co-edited many critical volumes, including Reading the Literatures of Asian America; Approaches to Maxine Hong Kingston’s The Woman Warrior; Transnational Asia Pacific; and Power, Race and Gender in Academe; and three special issues of journals, Ariel (2001) on microstates, Tulsa Studies, on transnational feminism, and Studies in the Literary Imagination, on contemporary Asian American literature. Her work has appeared in journals such as New Literary History, Feminist Studies, Signs, MELUS, ARIEL, New Literatures Review, World Englishes, and American Studies International. She edited/co-edited Asian American Literature; Tilting the Continent: An Anthology of South-east Asian American Writing; and The Forbidden Stitch: An Asian American Women's Anthology which received the 1990 American Book Award. Among her honors, Lim has received the UCSB Faculty Research Lecture Award (2002) and the Chair Professorship of English at the University of Hong Kong (1999 to 2001), as well as the University of Western Australia Distinguished Lecturer award, Fulbright Distinguished Lecturer award, and t J.T. Stewart Hedgebrook award. She has served as chair of Women’s Studies and is currently professor of English at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Lim is also recognized as a creative writer. Her first collection of poems, Crossing the Peninsula (1980), received the Commonwealth Poetry Prize. She has also published four volumes of poetry: No Man's Grove (1985); Modern Secrets (1989); Monsoon History (1994), which is a retrospective selection of her work; and What the Fortune Teller Didn't Say (1998). Bill Moyers featured Lim for a PBS special on American poetry, "Fooling with Words" in 1999, and again on the program “Now” in February 2002. She is also the author of three books of short stories and a memoir, Among the White Moon Faces (1996), which received the 1997 American Book Award for non-fiction. Her first novel, Joss and Gold (Feminist Press, 2001), has been welcomed by Rey Chow as an “elegantly crafted tale that places Lim among the most imaginative and dexterous storytellers writing in the English language today.” Her second novel, Sister Swing, appeared in March 2006, and her children’s novel. Princess Shawl, was published in March 2008.
• SHIRLEY LIM ON WIKIPEDIA

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

Yesterday we had a full house. It is an amazing book, China: Portrait of a Country, and just to look at the pictures we can talk about them for ages. It was really a pleasure to have Liu Heung Shing and once again Karen Smith with us. We would like to thank to everybody who came to this and to the other events. We will soon post some pictures of all the sessions and we'll return with more in September. This was our first try to revive a lovely area in Macau. We want to do it like the beat of the city's art! Hope you can enjoy it as we do.

OUR BIGGEST THANKS TO PETER SUART, XU XI, KUNG CHI SING, KAREN SMITH, LIU HEUNG SHING, PHILIP TSANG, MARJORIE YAU, MARY CHAN, SHEILA LO, JOSEPHINE MA, ALICE WU, CATHERINE CHENG, LIZ LAM, GLENN TIMMERMANS, ANDREW MOODY, JORGE MESQUITA AND VICENZO. TASCHEN, HONG KONG UNIVERSITY PRESS, HAVEN BOOKS, CHAMELEON PRESS, TIMEZONE 8, ASIA PUBLISHER SERVICES, FOREIGN PRESS DISTRIBUTORS, BAMBU SOCIEDADE DE ARTES LIMITADA, SANTA CASA DA MISERICÓRDIA DE MACAU, CASA DE PORTUGAL EM MACAU, JORNAL HOJE MACAU, MACAU CLOSER MAGAZINE AND TO ALL THE ONES WHO KNOW THAT THIS WOULDN'T BE POSSIBLE WITHOUT THEM!

[...] Liu Heung Shing got the idea for the book shortly after China won its bid to host the Olympics. “I began to wonder what people in 2008 would understand about the journey that Chinese people have undergone from 1949 till today. When people get off at the airport they’ll be surrounded by luxury – villas, fast trains, cars, stadiums – but will not necessarily appreciate or understand the road that has lead to today.”

The photographer says he wanted to present as balanced a portrait of the country as possible. In Western media, he notes, “China is either too backward or it’s flooding the West with all these goods and is a threat to its neighbours… at what point does conversation turn into demonisation?” At the other end of the spectrum, Chinese media tend to see “China through a viewing glass that is not always propagandistic, but the Chinese have a tendency to put the best face forward.”

The book takes a panoramic, decade-by-decade look at the nation’s development, from the founding of the People’s Republic, to the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution, to the Opening and Reform and Tiananmen, right up to its ongoing economic miracle. Even China’s most recent heartrending national tragedy, the Sichuan earthquake, makes an appearance. Liu has spent the last four years pouring over archives, travelling the country meeting photographers and gaining access to negatives. “Surprisingly when I started calling the photographers, I had a very warm welcome.” Many of them already knew Liu’s 1983 work, China After Mao, which was circulated ‘unofficially’ in China.

Between 25 and 30 per cent of the works in the new book have never been published, including one of Madame Jiang Qing, purported to be the last photograph taken of her before she was arrested that same evening. Another shows Chairman Mao with more than a dozen of his personal staff, an image Liu says “would have been impossible to publish during Mao’s lifetime.” Another photo depicts one of Mao’s ‘railway attendants’ in fashionable dress. Elsewhere, we see original images alongside official photographs, such as the Gang of Four at Mao’s funeral, placed beside the official photograph in which the four were airbrushed out. [...]
[STACEY DUFF in TIME OUT HONG KONG]

Due to the very hot weather and mostly because Dan Waters is 88 years old, Bloom and MCCM Creations decided to postpone the presentation of One Couple Two Cultures, event scheduled to this Saturday, 2nd of August, to another date, on a cooler time, to be announced soon.

To everybody our sincere apologies and to Dan our most deep regards.

ESTREIA MUNDIAL EM HONG KONG E MACAU
A história deste livro começa no dia em que a China venceu a disputa pela organização dos Jogos Olímpicos de 2008. Liu Heung Shing, agora com 56 anos de idade, um veterano da revista Time, explica que a partir desse momento a primeira questão em que pensou foi qual seria a imagem do país e de que maneira ele iria ser visto por todas as pessoas que o iriam visitar durante os Jogos Olímpicos. Daí nasceu a necessidade de criar um documento para a compreensão de todo o caminho que a China e as suas gentes percorreram para chegar até aos dias de hoje, um país aberto ao mundo.
A editora alemã TASCHEN responde assim à curiosidade despertada pelas Olímpiadas com uma grande antologia de fotografia que percorre toda a existência da República Popular da China, desde 1949, mostrando a face de todas as suas disputas internas, até aos acontecimentos mais recentes, como o terramoto de Sichuan e o elevar da Tocha ao Monte Everest. O responsável por este ambicioso empreendimento é Liu Heung Shing, foto-jornalista chinês nascido em Hong Kong e formado nos Estados Unidos, onde ganhou respeito como fotógrafo na prestigiada revista Life.
Em 1992, Liu, recebeu o prémio Pulitzer de fotografia, partilhado com os seus colegas da Associated Press, com uma reportagem sobre o desmembramento da União Soviética. "China: Portrait of a Country" parte de um percurso inverso, o de ligar todas as linhas da história registadas dentro das objectivas fotográficas e a partir daí, pela costura de imagens nunca antes vistas pelo resto do mundo, definir com testemunhos reais o retrato de todo um país.
Na China pós-Mao, o líder do governo central Deng Xiaoping incitava os seus concidadãos a "procurar a verdade perante os factos". Levado por este lema, Liu, parte na sua intensa procura, que durou mais de quatro anos, contactando e pesquisando os arquivos de muitos fotógrafos, muitos deles já reformados, que guardavam os seus negativos como relíquias em caixas de sapatos debaixo da cama. Talvez com receio de que o trunfo guardado fosse desconfortável à luz do dia. Pelo pó e pela “verdade” a selecção não deixou nada de lado, não se limitou pela perspectiva de reprovação das autoridades oficiais. Visitar visualmente a história da China era uma tarefa difícil até aqui, é certo que as imagens valem mil palavras e é por aí que se tornam claros todos os pequenos e grandes indícios da construção de uma nação.
Hoje a o grande continente é uma das economias de topo a nível mundial com uma ascensão vertiginosa de sucesso nos últimos anos. Este livro procura acima de tudo apresentar toda essa transformação, unindo todos os seus vértices. Pelos olhos de 88 fotógrafos chineses, Liu leva ao mundo uma viagem visual através dos 60 anos da República Popular, ilustrando pelas suas páginas todo o seu curso humanista e mostrando como o povo chinês floresceu, apesar de uma longa austeridade e privação sofridas nas décadas anteriores.
Com uma edição extremamente cuidada e ao longo de 424 páginas, a editora lendária alemã, que escolheu as cidades de Hong Kong e Macau para o lançamento mundial desta obra, marca um ponto de viragem na sua já longa carreira, entrando na edição de documentos históricos de objectiva relevância. Com este livro e de olhos postos no esplendor olímpico, que festeja acima de tudo a interligação de povos, o universo chinês irá porventura despertar para uma nova era.
Em última instância este é um trabalho que homenageia os fotógrafos chineses e o poder de captação que a pertinência da Fotografia estabelece como plena forma de arte e de vida.

No próximo Domingo, apartir das 18 horas, numa organização conjunta entre a TASCHEN e a Bloom, Liu Heung Shing irá estar presente em Macau na Bloom Yellow situada no Albergue em São Lázaro para apresentar “China, Portrait of a Country”.
[EDIÇÃO TRINLIGUE: INGLÊS, FRANCÊS E ALEMÃO]

I was born at the dawn of the People's Republic in Hong Kong, which was then still under British rule. This was not the place in which I passed my formative years. That was to be China, for my parents sent me back to the Mainland in the early 1950s, not much more than a mere toddler, whose first hours of "play"were devoted to participating in the Destroy Four Pests campaign aimed at ridding the country of enemies of the food chain. Initially, the four pests were defined as being rats, sparrows, mosquitoes and flies. Later, it was realized that sparrows ate worms and, therefore, were not a pest. As a consequence, the sparrow was replaced by the flea. The People's Daily reported that on April 19th, 1958, three million Beijing residents had spent the entire day catching 83,249 sparrows. At the time of this national folly, it was suggested that four sparrows would consume sixteen ounces of grain, which was equal to one person's daily food ration. This was a major part of my primary school education. I regularly turned in my homework - matchboxes brimming with mosquitoes and flies that I killed with vigorous diligence, though I only caught a couple of sparrows - but no matter how much effort I expended, the grade I was awarded for "political behavior"was rarely higher than "C". The Destroy Four Pests campaign turned out to be a disguise to turn people's attention away from severe food shortages.

In 1960, as the situation grew worse in the wake of the miserable failure of the Great Leap Forward, my father arranged for me to return to Hong Kong. China was in the throes of a three-year famine (1960-1962) in which 30 million people reportedly died of hunger.

Back in Hong Kong, I studied English and learned local Cantonese dialect and during the summer breaks,my father taught me how to translate Associated Press (AP) and Reuters English wire stories into Chinese. As the foreign editor of international news of Ta Kung Pao, a Beijing supported daily newspaper, he would come home venting his frustrations, such as when Beijing censored the story that the American astronauts had landed on the moon!
Liu Heung Shing • Excerpt from the book 'China. Portrait of a Country'
[FOLLOW READING HERE]

Liu Heung Shing will be in Macau at Bloom Yellow on this coming Sunday.

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

THE BOX is Kung Chi Shing and Peter Suart. The duet was formed in 1987. Both found the project as a means to escape. It doesn't matter if they go by the same door, but together they make a 'bomb'. THE BOX is a theatrical music ensemble who 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 played Bluebeard at the Kwai Tsing Theatre in HK.
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, lyrical and beautiful.
Words in English.

THE BOX at Bloom Yellow
Sunday, the 27th of July
ALBERGUE • ST. LAZARUS DISTRICT
Just follow the plenitude and you get there.
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July 26 - Saturday
The City as a Subject for Literary Expression
Talk + Creative Writing Session by Hong Kong writer Xu Xi

In collaboration with the Department of English of the University of Macau the writer from Hong Kong, Xu Xi, is coming to Macau. The program is a 2 in 1. A session on Creative Writing and a Talk focused on her work and experience as a writer on an urban tissue. You are welcome to attend the two events, the admission is free. We believe that it will a great and unforgettable experience from the "pioneer writer from Asia in English", that were the words used by The New York Times to stage Xu Xi. It will happen this coming Saturday once more at Bloom Yellow. The Creative Writing will start at 3 pm and the Talk at 6 pm. Don't miss them!

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.
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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. Awards include an O. Henry prize story, shortlisted 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
[SPECIAL THANKS to ANDREW MOODY, GLENN TIMMERMANS and XU XI who made this event possible.]