The Musics of Stalactites and Spheres by Jim Quilty
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ARTS & CULTURE saturday, march 19, 2016 AGENDA REVIEW LEBANON MUSIC The musics of stalactites and spheres ‘Only Beethoven’ Emile Bustani Auditorium, Beirut The performanaces of March 19, 8:30 p.m. SAF’s 2016 March Pianist Gloria Campaner is Meetings: challenging, accompanied by the State Youth Orchestra of Armenia informative, cool under the baton of Gianluca Marciano in performing By Jim Quilty “Coriolan Overture,” The Daily Star “Emperor” and “Symphony No. 5” by the legendary Ger- HARJAH, United Arab Emi- man composer. The event is rates: In November 1969, Lebanon’s Jeita Grotto was part of the ongoing 2016 Al host to a historic sound event. Bustan Festival. S German composer Karlheinz Stockhausen and a troupe of musi- ‘Grand Finale’ cians descended on the cave com- Emile Bustani Auditorium, plex – renowned for its sheer size and the beauty of its stalactites – to Beirut stage a four-day contemporary March 20, 8:30 p.m. music festival. The final event of the 2016 Feted as one of the most impor- Al Bustan Festival will fea- tant composers of the 20th and ear- ture soprano Anna Kasyan ly-21st centuries, Stockhausen’s sev- and the State Youth Orches- eral interests included spatialization, how music travels in space. He was tra of Armenia under the intrigued by the sonic possibilities of baton of Gianluca Marciano Jeita’s eight-second-long echoes in performing the works of changing the fabric of his music. Tchaikovsky, Bellini, Goun- Stockhausen’s triste with Jeita od and Verdi. was the subject of “Time Tuning,” Raed Yassin’s lecture performance in Sharjah earlier this week. The PHOTOGRAPHY Lebanese visual and sound artist introduced the composer’s work ‘Colorful Centimeters 1800’ and shared some fascinating footage 392Rmeil393, Gouraud shot during the 1969 event. He then performed an excerpt Photos courtesy of SAF Street, Gemmayzeh from his own remix of Stockhausen’s Taro Shinoda and Uriel Barthelemi’s “Lunar Reflection Transmission Technique” at March Meetings. March 22 to April 10 “Stimmung” (Tuning), which The Johnny Semaan and Kaed Cologne Vocal Ensemble performed the person of Chin Peng himself. Haydar document everyday in Jeita in 1969. Yassin plans to revis- Perhaps the most transcendent per- life in Syria that occurs it this work in 2019, the 50th formance to be held during the 2016 despite five years of civil war. anniversary of their seminal per- March Meetings, however, wasn’t formance, when he intends to restage part of “The Time is Out of Joint.” Stockhausen’s festival within Jeita. That distinction goes to “Lunar ‘A Closer Look at the Yassin took some pains to empha- Reflection Transmission Tech- Ordinary’ size that his plans to restage Stock- nique,” another new SAF commis- Tanit Gallery, East Village hausen isn’t an exercise in nostalgia. sion, a 45-minute collaboration of Building, Mar Mikhael “To move forward in your work,” he video artist Taro Shinoda and per- told his Sharjah audience, “you need cussionist Uriel Barthelemi. Through March 31 an unquestioning sense of hope ... Shinoda’s work is preoccupied 01-562-812 and an interest in the future. It some- with capturing the movement of the Serge Najjar’s striking new times feels as though we’ve lost this moon, using a telescope he hobbled series of architectural photos unquestioning sense of hope. We together, mostly from corrugated blend reality and fantasy. live in the perpetual present.” cardboard scraps, and a video cam- Yassin’s presentation was staged era. With this low-tech gear he’s at the Sharjah Art Foundation’s recorded the moon’s passage across ART March Meetings, an annual the nighttime sky from various ter- assembly of global art professionals restrial vantage points – including ‘To Be a Woman’ and institutions working in the pro- Tokyo, Istanbul, Limerick, Boston ARTLAB, Gouraud St., duction and dissemination of art. and Sharjah. Held in the gap year between Held on the evening of March 11 Gemmayzeh, first right after SAF’s art biennial, March Meetings in a natural depression in Sharjah’s St. Nicolas stairs have been staged since 2008 with Mleiha desert, “Lunar Reflection Through March 26 the aim of creating a forum where Transmission Technique” saw Shin- 03-244-577 professionals can connect, share oda’s black-and-white footage of These works by Iranian artists ideas and expertise, network and the moon’s nightly passages over explore the lives of women collaborate in future projects. various urban centers projected on a The talks are complemented by a 9 x 12-meter screen. For this per- around the Middle East. series of SAF-sponsored exhibitions formance, Shinoda erected an and performances. Composer Karlheinz Stockhausen in Jeita Grotto in November 1969. improvised-looking watchtower- ‘L’Attrait du Paysage “Time Tuning” was among a like wooden structure, which Libanais’ handful of works especially commis- took place in the past or will take After days devoted to absorbing visual media – including nicely mud- loomed over the screen and Aida Cherfan Fine Art sioned for “The Time is Out of Joint,” place in the future.” hours of scintillating artist and insti- died landscapes shot on 8mm- and audience members splayed on the an exhibition assembled by Cairo- “The Time is Out of Joint” also tutional talks and exhibitions of 16mm film and a video montage of square of rugs and pillows laid out Gallery, Hussein al-Ahdab born curator Tarek Abou El Fetouh re-enacts two exhibitions staged at often intellectually engaging con- soft-porn boob shots – the work min- at the foot of the screen. Atop this Street, Downtown Beirut and hosted at the SAF’s new spaces. key transitional moments – the First temporary art, the performances gles historical-fictive Palestine auto- tower sat Barthelemi, working a Through March 24 The show builds upon the exhibi- Arab Arts Biennale in Baghdad in staged for “The Time is Out of biography and mild audience- rock ’n’ roll percussion battery aug- 04-444-111 tion program Abou El Fetouh erect- 1974 and the China/Avant-Garde Joint” were notably challenging. confrontation tactics to interrogate mented by a kettle drum and gong. This show of work by ed in Beirut for Home Works 6 in exhibition in Beijing in 1989. It also Basma Alsharif’s “Doppel- matters of place and time. The desert location – complete 2013. Among the several historical seeks to “pre-enact” a future event, ganger” set the artist on the stage of Held on March 13-14, Mark with a smiling sliver of moon, smirk- abstract artist Pierre sources the curator has cited as the Equator Conference, scheduled the Sharjah Institute for Theatrical Teh’s self-reflexive “Baling” ing down at the several versions of Mouhanna is comprised of inspirations is Andalusian philoso- for Yogyakarta in 2022. Arts to perform a piece that would restages the 1955 Baling Talks, dur- itself rolling across the screen – con- paintings of Lebanon’s mod- pher Ibn al-Arabi, specifically his “The Time is Out of Joint” exhi- likely have been more at home in a ing which the nominally independ- spired with Shinoda’s monochrome ernist architecture. notion of time as a fluid place and bition includes videos, installations, less-formal setting. ent leaders of Singapore and Malaya light studies and Barthelemi’s often place as frozen time. photography and performances by a Dressed in an outfit adorned with (nowadays Malaysia) confronted muscular percussive stylings to cre- Abou El Fetouh’s project “chal- wide range of international artists reflective strips, Alsharif was lit by Malayan communist and guerrilla ate a unique, occasionally hypnotic ‘Regimes of the Personal’ lenges the constraints of time and including Zeinab Al Hashemi, Bas- strobe lights so furiously insistent leader Chin Peng, who’d long sort of atmosphere. Artspace Hamra, 6th Floor, place by suggesting leaps across ma Alsharif, Ali Cherri, Maha that ushers had to warn prospective fought foreign occupation of the It would be cliché to call it zen, Costa Cafe Bldg, Hamra temporal and geographic bound- Maamoun, Basim Magdy, Khalil audience members to beware attend- peninsula. Profoundly critical of but it sure was cool. Through April 2 aries, deliberately confusing times, Rabah, Wael Shawky and Jalal ing if they’re prone to seizures. mediated depictions, the work scru- 01-736-516 places, cities and artistic events that Toufic, as well as Yassin. Working with a variety of audio- tinizes the matter of nationalism and For more, see www.sharjahart.org. Thirteen works by Ghada Zoughby discuss the private and public spheres of our lives, asking what our personal belongings say Painterly The Assassin tops winners at Asian Film Awards about us. READING thank my wife and son at home for By Angela Chen all the love and support through ‘International Storytelling Associated Press good times and bad,” the South and Monodrama Festival’ Korean actor said. MACAU: Hou Hsiao-hsien’s In addition to his work in Asia, Lee La Crypte, St. Joseph painterly martial arts masterpiece has enjoyed success in Hollywood, Church, Ashrafieh, next to “The Assassin” claimed eight wins having appeared in “G.I Joe: Retalia- Theatre Monnot at the Asian Film Awards, including tion” and “Terminator Genisys.” Through March 20, 7:30 p.m. best film and best director. Lee was invited to last month’s 01-978-829 The cinematic historical drama Oscars as the only Asian presenter. The House of Storytelling was also honored for cinematogra- After criticism over the lack of phy and its lead and supporting ethnic diversity among the nomi- and Monodrama in collabo- actresses at the ceremony Thursday nees, the Academy of Motion Pic- ration with Theatre Monnot night in Macau. tures Arts and Sciences added three present five nights and five Best-actress winner Shu Qi joking- new governors to its 51-member storytellers.