Within a Sky Full of Earth

If you’re lucky enough to get paid to read, then you’re probably unlucky enough to feel that reading is a job. You might well enjoy what you read most of the time, but even so, if it’s part of your work, you can’t help but read it in ways that make the reading anything but the stuff of simple pleasure: you read with a pen or pencil in hand, you ask yourself after every sentence, “Is this good?” “What does it mean?” “How would I teach this?” “Do I even understand this?” You read (or watch) yourself reading, constantly making sure that you’re drawing meaningful conclusions or making suggestive connections, because in one way or another you’re going to be accountable for what you read. Otherwise, why would anyone agree to pay you?

Now as far as making a living goes, one could do much, much worse. But still, if you wind up in a read-for-pay career, it’s likely that a) once upon a time a love of reading played a role in your decision to pursue this career, and/but b) this career of yours has at best complicated this love in ways that on occasion makes the word “regret” not entirely ungermaine to the topic at hand. Sure you avoided selling radio time to advertisers or strip mining in West Virginia, but remember when you just loved reading?

I mention all this in order to present what was for me an exceptional reading experience: José Saramago’s Blindness. I liked, a lot even, this novel from its very first (if memory serves me correctly) long sentence, and my fondness for it only grew as I continued. About 100 pages into it, I reached a happy place I had not visited for some time. I knew I was there when I looked at my watch, saw that it was nearly midnight on a weekday, and said to myself, “Okay, just one more chapter.” I realized that this was a book so good that it silenced all the typically bothersome professional yammering that comes steadily from all the other semi-related-to-reader parts of me (teacher, scholar, writer). I was just reading this book, by which I mean that I was unusually present in the reading experience, by which I mean that I was probably out at some boundary where what I already knew a book could show me meets what I was at that moment learning lies just beyond that.
[TODD HASAK-LOWY IS A WRITER AND LITERARY CRITIC WHO WAS BROUGHT BY MARK SARVAS ON THE ELEGANT VARIATION - A PIECE IN THREE PARTS]

Blindness, by José Saramago • VINTAGE • AVAILABLE AT BLOOM

Cerca de duzentas fotografias premiadas no concurso anual organizado pela Fundação World Press Photo, sediada na Holanda, vão estar em exposição em Macau, no Centro de Actividades Turísticas, por iniciativa da Casa de Portugal, que quis proporciona esta oportunidade de apreciar o que de melhor se produziu no Mundo, em 2007, em termos de fotojornalismo.
Ao júri do concurso, constituído por personalidades de renome dos mais diversos países e reunido em Fevereiro último, durante dez dias, em Amesterdão, foram submetidas exactamente 80.536 fotografias, da autoria de 5.019 fotojornalistas originários de 125 países. Números que impressionam e que dão bem conta do prestígio de que goza mundialmente a iniciativa.
O prémio maior deste concurso é atribuído à fotografia classificada como «Fotografia do Ano», um concurso dividido em dez categorias, onde se incluem, nomeadamente, as de «Notícias Gerais», «Pessoas que são Notícia», «Desporto», «Natureza » e «Artes e Entretenimento».
Neste último concurso, respeitante a obras produzidas e publicadas no ano transacto, o fotojornalista português Miguel Barreira, do jornal «Record», ganhou o terceiro prémio da categoria «Desporto em Acção», com uma fotografia tirada na praia do Norte, na Nazaré, durante uma espectacular prova de «bodyboard».
Todos os anos, após a atribuição dos prémios, a exposição com as fotografias galardoadas é inaugurada em Amesterdão, e onde surgiu, já no longínquo ano de 1955, a primeira exposição internacional de fotojornalismo, então por iniciativa da Associação Holandesa de Fotojornalistas.
Após a apresentação em Amesterdão a exposição é levada a percorrer o Mundo, através da cooperação com entidades ou instituições das mais diversas e importantes cidades, desde Londres a Nova Iorque, passando por São Paulo, Quito, Manila, Seúl, Paris, Milão, etc..

Em Macau, a exposição será inaugurada no CAT-Centro de Actividades Turísticas no próximo dia 18 do corrente, às 18.30 horas, no decorrer de uma recepção, ficando depois patente ao público, com entrada livre, diariamente, das 10 às 19 horas, e até 9 de Outubro próximo.

Queria tomar partido por alguém. Dizer alguma coisa que ninguém consegue dizer. Como por exemplo que a tua galinha é maior do que a minha. Sim, é verdade. Ou que o Conde Barão é que devia ser o presidente. Mas vou esperar. Vou esperar e volto amanhã para um novo ensaio, com o corpo na mesma mas com a mente mais sã, decerto. Prometo!

O V. disse que não conhecia nenhuma livraria pequena que vendesse também café. Há aquelas de vários andares, em Nova-Iorque, em Milão, essas têm tudo lá dentro. Achou que era um gajo com coragem. Depois continuámos para ali a falar. Se uma pessoa sonha e não segue aquilo que sonha só sabe que sonhou, mais nada. Mas se o segue e o concretiza ao menos sabe o que é. Sabe o que é lá estar. E da ideia forma uma realidade. E vive-a! Apesar de tudo, eu estou a viver a puta da minha realidade. A treta do meu sonho!

This song could have been our soundtrack. It's called "I'm Jim Morrison, I'm Dead" "The Sun Smells Too Loud" and is on the last album of the Scotish band Mogway, which was titled "The Hawk Is Howling", that will be realeased on the 21st of September. It's a delightful essay on sound and ambience. Mogwai member Barry Burns described the album's songs as being "dreamy ballads about forbidden love gone awry".
Listen to it as you scroll our website down. We've been very busy and we could not update our blog so often, we'll try our best to do it more in the future, as soon we park all our cars.
[MOGWAY ON WIKIPEDIA]

Where does digitisation lead us?
Give your views.

The Frankfurt Book Fair, as the global meeting place for the book world, is a barometer of change in the industry. Last year’s survey showed that digitisation was seen as the greatest challenge for the book sector worldwide.
This year they want to find out your opinion about how digitisation will influence the future of the publishing industry and who will be the driving force behind it.
They would be grateful if you could spend a few minutes giving your responses to the questions. The results of the survey will be published in the Frankfurt Book Fair Newsletter, which we hope will make an interesting reading.Please answer the following questions in brief (it will take you about five minutes) on this link. Thank you.

Fundada em 1993 e agora com sede em Coimbra, a Angelus Novus, Editora publicou até 2005, data em que interrompeu a sua produção, 110 títulos, tendo criado uma imagem de prestígio sobretudo na área do ensaio e da edição de clássicos da literatura portuguesa. A Angelus Novus divulgou uma nova geração de autores portugueses e editou uma série muito seleccionada de autores estrangeiros, quer na poesia – Durs Grünbein, Luis Javier Moreno – quer no ensaio: Antonio Candido, João Cabral de Melo Neto, Jacques Derrida, Theodor W. Adorno, Ortega y Gasset, Bill Readings ou Eve Kosofsky.
A Angelus Novus que regressou ao mercado em Janeiro de 2008 deseja prolongar o essencial desta herança – o rigor e exigência na escolha de títulos e autores – mas é, na verdade, uma nova Angelus, na medida em que surgiu com uma imagem totalmente renovada e com um catálogo mais variado, destinado a públicos muito mais diversos, pondo em prática um novo conceito de editora, do ponto de vista do design gráfico, da comunicação com os leitores ou da visibilidade no mercado.
Não desiste, à partida, de nenhum leitor, dos 7 aos 77 anos, dos mais integrados aos mais alternativos. Nesse sentido, não são nem pretendem ser uma editora marginal mas sim uma editora disponível para acompanhar e estimular os debates que movem os nossos contemporâneos. Como sempre, o novo pode estar mais à frente ou mais atrás, pode passar pela encomenda de textos cuja falta se sente ou pela recuperação de textos «clássicos» ou simplesmente esquecidos. Como pode passar por grafismos arrojados ou por soluções antigas e ainda válidas, porque muito testadas e com sucesso. Não há aliás razões para não se considerar um livro um objecto coleccionável, porque belo. Ou porque, belo ou útil, nele se declina um pedaço da nossa vida.
A Angelus Novus publica obras em todos os géneros, sem preconceitos de ordem moral, política ou religiosa no que toca às posições defendidas pelas autoras ou autores nos seus textos e sejam tais obras polémicas ou não.
A Angelus Novus não publica porém obras que façam propaganda política ou religiosa ou obras que defendam expressamente posições racistas, fascistas ou discriminatórias no que respeita a questões de «género» e identidade sexual.
[SITE OFICIAL]

Desato-lhe os cordões das botas. Tiro-lhe as meias. Estão transpiradas. Pego-lhe nos pés. São já do tamanho dos meus. Cheiro-lhos. Como se ele fosse um cristo ignoto e eu uma virgem mãe. Beijo-lhe o sinal que tem no dedo mais pequenino do pé esquerdo. Digo Gosto tanto do cheiro dos teus pés. Ele não responde. Limita-se a sorrir, mostrando os dentes novos, definitivos, enormes, que lhe estão a crescer na boca. Pergunto Achas que sou maluquinha por gostar do cheiro dos teus pés? Ele volta a sorrir. Atira-se para trás. Suspira. Depois responde. Um pouco. Acho que és uma mãe um pouco louca. São estas as exactas palavras que lhe saem da boca. Volto a pegar-lhe nos pés. Esfrego-os no meu rosto. Às vezes, muitas vezes, tenho a sensação de o sufocar com os meus gestos. Não sou capaz de não lhe tocar. Tantas vezes que desejo ter um ventre enorme elástico onde ele novamente se aninhe e sossegue. Tenho por ele, mais do que por ela, um amor táctil, quase obsceno. Chegará um dia em que ele não me deixará cheirar-lhe os pés, nem me contará os sonhos, nem me pedirá ajuda para colar cromos na caderneta. Estranhará a minha nudez, esconder-me-á a sua. Abrirá assim fissuras irreparáveis na nossa intimidade. Deixarei de me reconhecer no seu corpo, nos olhos, na boca, nas mãos, na sua pele de maltês e andarilho, escura como a de um cigano. O seu corpo deixará de ser o meu corpo.
(acho sempre que não me sobra amor para outro filho.)
[Barão Trepador por Ana de Amesterdam • 23 JUN 2008]

Beyond Zhang Yimou's Generation: Nostalgia, Humanism and Survival of the Silent Majority in Chinese Cinema since 1997, by Mao Sihui
The Macau Ricci Institute (MRI) is glad to invite you to its September "MRI Forum", a monthly seminar on Greater China related topics.
The forum will be chaired by 徐浩均 Choi Hou Kuan, Chris, Executive Assistant of the Macau Ricci Institute. It will be followed by a small cocktail party during which participants will have the opportunity to meet the speaker.

Under this topic, the speaker will be using film clips of his own choice such as scenes from Jia Zhangke's "Xiaowu" (1997), "Platform" (2000), "Still Life" (2006), Wang Xiaoshuai's "Beijing Bicycle" (2001) and "Shanghai Dreams" (2005), Li Yang's "Blind Shaft" (2003), Yang Yazhou's "Loach is Fish too" (2004), Qi Jian's "The Forest Ranger" (2006) and Zhang Yang's "Going Home" (2007). These films represent the real truth-seeking spirit of these "younger" directors which is extremely valuable in contemporary China and can be a very good channel to explore the deep social, psychological and cultural implications of a fast rising China in the age of "glocalisation" (the dual process of globalisation and localisation).

Mao Sihui is Professor of English and Comparative Cultural Studies, Chairman of English Language Teaching and Research Committee, Director of MPI-Bell Centre of English, Macao Polytechnic Institute and Vice President of Sino-American Cultural Studies Association of China. He is also Honorary Professor of Comparative Literature of Hong Kong University and PhD supervisor for Guangdong University of Foreign Studies. He received his M.A. from Department of English, University of Lancaster, and his PhD (Comparative Literature – Film Culture) from the University of Hong Kong. He taught for many years at Guangdong University of Foreign Studies and then at Lingnan University, Hong Kong. His publications include Technologising the Male Body: British Cinema 1957-1987 (1999), New Perspectives: Contemporary Literary and Cultural Studies (2000), Decoding Contemporary Britain (2003), and Literature, Culture and Postmodern Transformations: 8 Case Studies from William Shakespeare to James Bond (forthcoming) and also over 50 journal papers/ book chapters in language and translation studies, literary and cultural studies. He is editor-in-chief of New Topics in Contemporary Cultural Studies Series (6 books) published by Sun Yat-sen University Press (2007-2008) He is currently working on the project Representations of Macao in Contemporary Cinema.

Due to limited space, interested persons should reserve their seat on a "first come, first serve" basis. Your contact details, especially e-mail address, will allow us to keep you informed of forthcoming MRI Forums and other MRI activities. At the occasion, a selection of the Institute’s publications will be offered at a discount price (please, see below).
To reserve your seat, please click on the following this link or send an E-mail to forums@riccimac.org or call (853) 2853 2536.

Date & Time: Wednesday, September 17th 2008, at 6:30PM
Venue: Macau Ricci Institute, Av. Cons. Ferreira de Almeida, No. 95-E • MAP
Language: English

Cheguei demasiado cedo a Londres. Não dormi na viagem. Não me lembro de nada. São sete e tal da manhã e é preciso descansar, agora que todos começam a acordar. Tenho tudo vivo dentro de mim. Agora de longe penso que não lutei. Que desisti. Que fiz tudo trocado. Podia ter sido outra coisa e agora aguento-me com novos modos de vida. Novas consciências. A pensar que nada perdura. Mas o futuro está aí. E Londres é a cidade certa para começar.
[BA1245 • JUN 2004]

Eu juro. Todos os poetas estão do nosso lado. Eu juro. E juro que, um dia, todos os políticos se transformarão em estrelas rock e que todas as fardas se confundirão com luzes de néon em cidades sem nome. E juro que, um dia, Marc Bolan ressuscitará por detrás de um écran gigante de vídeo. E que em todas as ruas se dançará ao som de Lou Reed. Take a walk on the wild side. E se, um dia, os fascistas no poder se transformarem em balas perdidas na multidão, nós saíremos à rua, nós seremos mais fortes, nada nos calará, nada nos derrubará. Eu juro.
João Peste, em "Juramento Sem Bandeira" (1987)

enact |enˈakt|
verb [ trans. ]
1 put into practice (a belief, idea, or suggestion).
2 act out (a role or play) on stage.
3 to strive to make a story come true.

Future shock is the shattering stress and disorientation that we induce in individuals by subjecting them to too much change in too short a time.
ALVIN TOFFLER

Ishmael is a half ton silverback gorilla. He is a student of ecology, life, freedom, and the human condition. He is also a teacher. He teaches that which all humans need to learn - must learn - if our species, and the rest of life on Earth as we know it, is to survive.

In 1989 Ted Turner created a fellowship to be awarded to a work of fiction offering positive solutions to global problems. The winner, chosen from 2500 entries worldwide, was a work of startling clarity and depth: Daniel Quinn's Ishmael, a Socratic journey that explores the most challenging problem humankind has ever faced: How to save the world from ourselves.
The book opens with a deceptively ordinary personals ad: "Teacher seeks pupil. Must have an earnest desire to save the world." Seeking a direction for his life, a young man answers the ad and is startled to find that the teacher is a lowland gorilla named Ishmael, a creature uniquely placed to vision anew the human story.
Ishmael's paradigm of history is startlingly different from the one wired into our cultural consciousness. For Ishmael, our agricultural revolution was not a technological event but a moral one, a rebellion against an ethical structure inherent in the community of life since its foundation four billion years ago. Having escaped the restraints of this ethical structure, humankind made itself a global tyrant, wielding deadly force over all other species while lacking the wisdom to make its tyranny a beneficial one or even a sustainable one.
That tyranny is now hurtling us toward a planetary disaster of pollution and overpopulation. If we want to avoid that catastrophe, we need to work our way back to some fundamental truths: that we weren't born a menace to the world and that no irresistible fate compels us to go on being a menace to the world.
Since Bantam first published Daniel Quinn's utterly unique novel Ishmael in 1992, the novel has grown into a bestseller. Ishmael has garnered rave reviews and has been adopted for classroom use in schools coast-to-coast, including Dartmouth, the Naval Academy and Stanford University. Along the way, Ishmael gathered a devoted following as thousands upon thousands of readers have written to Quinn to express how the book has changed their lives.
Quinn's first version of the award-winning novel was written in 1977 and was followed by seven more complete and distinct versions. The character Ishmael appeared only in the eighth, and final, version. This is also the only version written as a novel. "I was ready to admit defeat when Ted Turner announced his plans for the Turner Tomorrow Fellowship. I felt, if I read him right, he was looking for exactly the sort of book I was struggling to write, and this encouraged me to give it one more try. I'm certainly glad I did."
Quinn says Ishmael is a story about hope. "I think we have a much finer and more exciting destiny than conquering and ruling the world," he says. "This book shows that we can learn about what that destiny is from the life around us -- and in Ishmael it just happens that life speaks with the voice of a lowland gorilla."
SOURCE: ISHMAEL.ORG • MORE ON WIKIPEDIA • SOON AT BLOOM

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

Did you ever saw any of these videos about making pop-corn with a mobile phone? Well, they seem to be true. Do you believe them? Try it yourself and you'll see what happens.
Growing concerns about the use of these devices, relayed on recent scientific studies, are disturbing all users around the world. Does your cell phone affects your brain, putting your health in danger? Probably yes. You can read it on the fresh issue of Best Life magazine. They put the finger on all the keys flowing down through these matters.
Did you ever heard about Specific Absorption Rate, commonly known as SAR number? It's another SAR different from the one you are used to, nothing to do with special regions. This is the rate that measures the absorbed radiation by the human body. And some phones are more danger than others, iPhones, for instance, are on the middle range on this. Maybe you believe that for the hours you've already spend on a cell phone probably you wouldn't be here reading this and you don't care much. Perhaps this is not truly scientific confirmed yet but for your own sake you should take a look about it. First rule: don't let your kids use it! Second rule: always use a wired headset (even the Bluetooth devices can be harmful with long time use).

The truth about the cell-phone–cancer link and what it means for you and your kids

When Vini Khurana, PhD, an Australian (and Mayo Clinic–trained) neurosurgeon, announced that the link between cell-phone use and cancer was irrefutable—the result of his analysis of more than 100 studies—it set off alarm bells around the world. Use a cell phone, he said, and you increase your risk of developing a malignant brain tumor by two to four times. Until recently, the majority of research indicated little or no link between cell phones and cancer (the World Health Organization and the American Cancer Society maintain that cell phones pose no threat), but several new long-term studies have cast doubt about their safety. Given that cell phones and PDAs serve as lifelines for so many people—24 percent of 10- and 11-year-olds carry them—it raises urgent questions. To find out what precautions you should take when using your cell phone, we dialed the nation's leading experts.

Do cell phones cause cancer?
Maybe…with extended use. Mobile-phone users are twice as likely to develop malignant, difficult-to-treat brain tumors called gilomas, according to a first-of-its-kind study that analyzed the effects of cell-phone use over 10 years or more and was published last year in the journal Occupational Environmental Medicine. The Bioinitiative Working Group, an international coalition of scientists and public-health experts, recently published a hefty report detailing the link between the nonionizing radiation caused by a cell phone's electromagnetic fields (EMFs) and cancer, DNA damage, Alzheimer's, and other diseases. "The cells in the body react to EMFs in cell phones just like they do to other environmental toxins, including heavy metals and chemicals," says Martin Blank, PhD, a professor in bioelectromagnetics at Columbia University and one of the report's authors. The study found that risk from cell-phone use starts at 260 lifetime hours.

Do cell phones emit radiation only when you are talking?
No. "Cell phones give off radiation any time they're turned on so that they can communicate with base stations," says Lou Bloomfield, PhD, professor of physics at the University of Virginia and author of How Everything Works: Making Physics Out of the Ordinary. "The radiation emitted, however, is stronger and more frequent when you're talking or messaging." Also, the greater distance you are from a base station, the more radiation your phone must emit in order to get a signal, which is why your phone feels hot when you have low reception. That heat you feel is radiation. The Bioinitiative study found that adverse effects to DNA can also occur before the phone heats up. To reduce your exposure, make calls only when you have strong reception, hang up before your phone heats up, and store your phone away from your body when it's not in use.

What is the range of the radiation?
Exposure to radiation from your cell phone drops off slowly for the first three to four inches from your body, and then it falls dramatically, says Bloomfield. To reduce your exposure, invest in a hands-free headset and limit the amount of time you spend talking on the phone. Khurana recommends using the speaker mode and holding the phone about eight inches away from you. Also, limit your use of Bluetooth devices. While it's true that they emit the least amount of radiation (one study found they can operate as low as 0.001 watts per kilogram), even that can add up fast.

Is it risky to carry a cell phone in your pants pocket?
Maybe. One 2006 study found no link to testicular cancer, but other researchers suspect a link to male infertility. Ashok Agarwal, PhD, director of the Center for Reproductive Medicine at the Cleveland Clinic, recently completed a study in which cell phones were set down for one hour in talk mode, next to sperm samples in test tubes. He found that the sperm's motility and viability were significantly reduced, and levels of harmful free radicals increased after exposure. Agarwal suggests storing the phone in your jacket pocket to reduce exposure to cell-phone radiation. Pregnant women need to take precautions too, because a recent study found that cell-phone use while pregnant is linked to behavioral problems in children.
[Julie A. Evans on BEST LIFE MAGAZINE • SEPTEMBER ISSUE • FOLLOW IT HERE OR BUY IT AT BLOOM YELLOW TODAY OR TOMORROW]

RELATED LINKS: WIKIPEDIA • TRUTHOUT • THE NEW YORK TIMES

If you come to BLOOM YELLOW today the first thing you notice is that the magazines are epidemic and are crawling through every space available. As we got many different titles they spread around and we're running out of place for all of them, which in a way is good because we have a good offer.
One of the last arrivals is Foreign Affairs, the preeminent journal of foreign policy and international affairs, who provides to government and business leaders, students, and the general public with insightful, thought-provoking analysis on world events for over 80 years. Before it becomes policy, it's all there, in Foreign Affairs.
Founded in 1921, the Council on Foreign Relations is a non-profit and nonpartisan membership organization dedicated to improving the understanding of U.S. foreign policy and international affairs through the free exchange of ideas. Its 3,400 members include nearly all past and present Presidents, Secretaries of State, Defense and Treasury, other senior U.S. government officials, renowned scholars, and major leaders of business, media, human rights, and other non-governmental groups. Each year the Council sponsors several hundred meetings including televised debates and other media events, and publishes Foreign Affairs, the preeminent journal in the field, as well as dozens of other reports and books by noted experts.
Since 1922, the Council has published Foreign Affairs, America's most influential publication on international affairs and foreign policy. It is more than a magazine — it is the international forum of choice for the most important new ideas, analysis, and debate on the most significant issues in the world. Inevitably, articles published in Foreign Affairs shape the political dialogue for months and years to come.
On this issue [September/October 2008, Vol 87, Number 5] you can read about the Dauting Agenda of the next U. S. President, who will inherit a more difficult set of international challenges than any predecessor since World War II, an essay by Richard Holbrooke. Along you can follow the Bush Era in perspective. Read also articles by Christopher Hitchens and Antonio Guterres, former Prime-minister of Portugal and UN High Comissioner for Refugees. Look for A Strategic Economic Engagement, the right way to engage China, an essay by Henry Paulson, the US Treasury Secretary.
Plenty of readings to start your weekend and to boost the coming month.
[FOREIGN AFFAIRS WEBSITE]

And yes, we are back in town!

José Tavares, vice-presidente do Instituto de Desporto de Macau, entrevistado pela Tribuna de Macau, responde assim à seguinte questão:

-Em termos económicos, que benefícios é que Macau teve?
-Ficámos a ganhar, porque hoje em dia, para fazer as mesmas infra-estruturas, era o dobro ou o triplo do preço. Antecipou-se a construção dessas instalações, que devia ter acontecido em 15 ou 20 anos, e o Governo poupou muito dinheiro, porque as matérias primas e a mão-de-obra eram mais baratas.

Mas e se tivessem acontecido há 15 ou 20 anos não teriam poupado muito mais? Logo o Governo perdeu rios de dinheiro. Mas por esta lógica estamos todos contentes. O Governo por ter feito a ponte Nobre de Carvalho em 1974 e não agora. O Stanley Ho por ter terminado a Torre de Macau em 1999 e o David Chow também deve estar contentíssimo por ter feito a Doca dos Pescadores há uns anos e não em 2008. Estão todos com os cofres cheios por causa disso. Imaginem se o Homem se punha a inventar o Fogo agora, o dinheirão que isso não custaria.

Mensagem para as novas gerações?
Puta que os pariu!
[ENTREVISTA DE JOÃO PAULO COTRIM A LUIZ PACHECO, REVISTA LER, 1995, COMPILADAS NO LIVRO 'O CROCODILO QUE VOA' - EDIÇÃO TINTA DA CHINA]

From the Southeast Asia bay to the heart of Europe it takes half a day if you ride a jet plane. Imagine what it would be if you get any other means of transport. Would take a hell of a ride. The distance is about 9600 kilometers. We departed at night and as we flew away towards the West the speed of daylight was chasing us from the start and by the time we arrived the bloom of dawn was just touching our tail. Long time waiting in a cabin of a plane nowhere in the world it's like being mad without knowing. A limbo of endless short memories that we recall under sleepless periods or on the short breath of a dream. Human beings that commute with each other, breathing the same air, side by side, just to get to another life that waits on a new promising land. Returning home or be faraway from it are the predicts of this tedious road on the sky. But as people say, "the sky has no limits". No end. And when you arrive your whole senses are opened to any new discovery waiting for the marvelous of the uncommon chance. The unknown future taking place on the other side of the planet. Yourself but in a way different.

In the small place of Odemira, Alentejo, Portugal, 20 minutes from the Atlantic Coast, stands a new holiday destination, where Bloom is planting a little seed. Visit Quinta do Chocalhinho.

Bloom Red and Bloom Yellow are open. Part of the team is on holidays and will return soon to the moonbase. Keep enjoying all the books you can have.

Não sei se me faço entender, embora entenda com tanta facilidade o que acabei de escrever.

Telefonaram-me para casa e perguntaram-me se estava em casa.
Foi então que deram pelo facto de que realmente eu tinha morrido havia já dezassete dias.
Por vezes as perguntas estúpidas são de extrema utilidade.
Adaptação local de Contos de Gin-Tónico, de Mário Henrique Leiria

Qualquer coisa?

No fundo fazíamo-nos companhia, mesmo quando passavam dias em que não dizíamos palavra.
Um corpo precisa de ver outro para saber o que é.
Amor Portátil, de Pedro Paixão
[DISPONÍVEL NA BLOOM]

sei.
claro que sei.
seria desonesta se dissesse que não sabia.

mas sim, sei.
e hoje fizeste questão de fazer com que soubesse.
e soube o que já sabia.

que sei.
claro que sei.
serei honesta ao dizer que sei.
[* Pelo teu amor]

dos meus sonhos,
sonhos, que me esqueci
e me permiti "reinventar", mantenho em brasa a meia metade percorrida da
outra metade de um sonho
por sonhar,
os meus sonhos,
alimentados de palavras meio adormecidas, que hoje valem por
si.

Provoco,
na imediata constatação,
o meu reencontro contra a luz,
despindo da alma
o próprio peso do corpo.

Desse processo,
onde as horas passam - por mim -
Transformadas em vírgulas, no interior da cessação de movimento, ganham vida e circulam palavras,
como forma de inocente salvação expiada.

More and more people are moving into towns and cities to live and work, which is altering the urban/rural balance of countries worldwide. For the first time in the history of humanity, more than half of the earth’s population is living in urban areas. THE ENDLESS CITY is an unparalleled study of the growth of six of the world's international cities (New York, Shanghai, London, Mexico City, Johannesburg, and Berlin), exploring key structural, social, and economic factors. This book was overseen by the London School of Economics, and features extensive research and coherent texts by world-renowned professionals in the field of urban planning and development. The information is presented in a comprehensive and visually compelling sequence, enabling quick and efficient reference as well as offering material that is exciting to study. Each city is examined individually in its own chapter as well as being analyzed comparatively in an observational chapter. THE ENDLESS CITY is authoritatively edited by Ricky Burdett and Deyan Sudjic in collaboration with the London School of Economics and the Urban Age Project - an international organization seeking a new urban agenda for global cities. Extensive research and coherent text are presented in a comprehensive and visually compelling sequence, making this an essential reference tool for anyone interested in urbanism and development.
[CHECK THE FEATURED WEBSITE HERE and ORDER IT FROM US]

The Endless City, by Ricky Burdett (Editor), Deyan Sudjic (Editor)
PHAIDON PRESS • HARDCOVER • 512 PAGES • MARCH 2008

      The only nation
                                       I ever gave
allegiance to
          was
                     hibernation.
[BY MARTIN C. - The best writer of Macau]

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!

O grande mistério não é termos sido lançados aqui ao acaso, entre a profusão da matéria e das estrelas: é que, da nossa própria prisão, de dentro de nós mesmos, conseguimos extrair imagens suficientemente poderosas para negar a nossa insignificância.
André Malraux, in A Condição Humana, 1933

[...] 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]

You can occupy my every sigh,
You can rent a space inside my mind
At least untill the price becomes too high.

Pistas para a sua identificação

- O cinéfilo tem sempre tempo para ir ao cinema.
- É muito chato e refere repetidamente aos amigos, e outras vítimas, cenas preferidas, actores, filmes, bandas sonoras e alguma trivia.
- Sabe a data de nascimento da Asta Nielsen.
- Não viu, inexplicavelmente, alguns filmes que toda a gente viu, como Música no Coração ou Os Canhões de Navarone.
- Viu filmes que mais ninguém viu, como La Petite Fée de Solbaken, e é especialista em géneros obscuros, como Bergfilms germânicos.
- Sabe nomes de directores de fotografia e as características gerais do seu trabalho.
- Desvaloriza Sundance em favor do Festival de Cinema de Telluride.
- Sorri, iluminado, quando alguém sai do cinema a dizer que o filme tem uma grande fotografia.
- Sabe de cor bocados de filmes obscuros, como O Coronel Wolodyjowski, e encontra meios de incluir nas conversas, mesmo a despropósito, referências a esses filmes.
- Vai ao cinema sozinho.
- Consegue lançar numa conversa, com uma certeza imune ao mais leve pestanejar, nomes difíceis, como Adoor Gopalakrishnan, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, ou mesmo, prova máxima, nomes de realizadores coreanos.
- Sabe que o último filme do Wong Kar Wai é uma merda.
- Usou gabardina e, a dada altura, cachecol à nouvelle vague.
- Vai às sessões das 14:00 e recorda que a certa altura havia sessões às 11 da manhã.
- Lembra, saudoso, ciclos de cinema a que assistiu há mais de 20 anos, e onde, invariavelmente, se passaram episódios inesquecíveis.
- Tem opiniões firmes sobre o cinema mudo dinamarquês.
- Sabe de cor títulos de filmes na língua original, preferindo dizer Neokonchenaya Piesa dlya Mekhanicheskogo Pianino a Peça Inacabada para Piano Mecânico.
- Também sabe títulos de filmes em bengali, ladaque, azeri, além de japonês ou russo.
- Por vezes finge não saber a tradução de títulos de alguns filmes.
- Teve/tem paixões fortes por actores ou actrizes. Uma vez jantou num restaurante em Carcassone onde estava, a 18 mesas de distância, a Catherine Deneuve.
- Odeia militantemente alguns géneros (como o musical – exemplo : Les Parapluies de Cherburg), alguns actores (Anthony Quinn), ou alguns filmes (Il Postino).
- Detestava, até à altura em que passou apenas a responder com um sorriso trocista, que alguém que não considera um “gajo do cinema“ lhe sugerisse ver este ou aquele filme, vivendo no terror de ouvir a frase : “ó pá, se és meu amigo tens de ir ver isto”.
- Passou horas em bichas para comprar bilhetes para ciclos, onde fez amizades para a vida. Conclui lembrando que: “ainda tenho lá em casa os bilhetes de...”.
- Abusa de frases superlativas começadas por Nunca, como: “nunca a Garbo esteve tão sublime como em...”, que faz acompanhar de um gesto de mão, abrangente e nostálgico.
- Vê filmes sem legendas em línguas que não domina.
- Insiste que os filmes do Syberberg: “até se vêem bem, é uma questão de entrar neles“.
- Só em casos excepcionais vê filmes dobrados, quando não há outra cópia de um filme dificílimo de encontrar, e envolvendo uma língua que não entende, como por exemplo um filme em dinamarquês dobrado para italiano.
[POR BOI LUXO em Luz de Inverno, no Hoje Macau da passada Terça-feira]

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.

Liu Heung Shing (B. 1951.)
Editor of China, Portrait of a Country, a large format book of photography to be launched worldwide in 28 of July,2008, in six languages by the legendary german publisher TASCHEN.
Currently Liu serves as a senior advisor to CAA. (Creative Artists Agency ,Los Angeles, USA) Advisor to Shanghai Special Olympic 2007, and Shanghai World Expo 2010.
Liu joined News Corporation (China ) in Sep. 2000 to 2005 as Executive Vice President, Corporate Communications. In this capacity, Mr. Liu was responsible for government and press relations and marketing for News Corporation in China.
Liu serves as Director of Business Development for Time Warner in China from Oct.1997 to Aug.2000. During this period, he had coordinated the organization of the Fortune Global Forum in Shanghai, in 1999. The forum is the largest gathering of business executives of Fortune 500 companies.
Between 1993 and 1997, Mr. Liu work as editor-in-chief and launched a regional Chinese language Life/Style monthly magazine entitled The Chinese, 中月刊, which was widely distributed in Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Taiwan, Hong Kong and China.
Prior to this, Mr. Liu serves as foreign correspondent/photo journalist for TIME Magazine and later 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). Noted Sinologist Simon Leys (Pierre Rickman) commented China After Mao, ”Liu Heung Shing’s Photographs are shortcuts to reach a complex and elusive truth.”
He shares the 1992 Pulitzer Prize for Spot News Photography, on the coverage of the Soviet Union. He was awarded by Overseas Press Club in 1991 for his best coverage of the Soviet Union. In 1989, Liu won Picture of the Year awarded by University of Missouri for the coverage of Tiananmen Incident; and in the same year, he was named Best Photographer by Associated Press Managing Editors.
Liu is a graduate Cum Laude of Hunter College, New York City University. He speaks fluent English, Mandarin, Cantonese, Fijian dialect and some French. He was born in 1951 in Hong Kong. Recent exhibitions include Dialogue with Civilization, Forbidden City, Beijing, China, October 1- November 1, 2004. Paris Photo magazine in 2005 named Liu Heung Shing one of the 100 most influential figures in contemporary photography.

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