Showing 71 - 80 of 208
Art and coup: Four years and counting
Life, Ariane Kupferman-Sutthavong, Published on 23/05/2018
» Tuesday marked the fourth anniversary of the May 2014 coup d'etat. While it continues to underpin the political landscape, the coup also sparked an unprecedented rise in Thai artworks with political messages. A new political art exhibition took place almost every month since May 2014.
Evocation of borrowed memories
Life, Published on 19/04/2018
» Taiki Sakpisit's haunting evocation of memory and time fills the top floor of Subhashok The Arts Centre this month. "Until The Morning Comes" comprises the Thai artist's video works made in collaboration with Japanese sound designer Yasuhiro Morinaga, and plunges viewers into the heart of rituals and defined spaces seemingly removed from normal existence.
In a world of their own
Life, Kanin Srimaneekulroj, Published on 01/02/2018
» The little pleasures are always the best ones. Running your hand over a smooth stone or metal surface, seeing a lid sit perfectly flush with the lip of a pot, these seemingly simple manifestations of perfection, of symmetry, are what help us make sense of the confusion that is life.
Choosing sides
Life, Bernard Trink, Published on 08/12/2017
» Not long ago a historian calculated that throughout human history there has been a total of fewer than 25 years of peace. There were wars somewhere on the planet the rest of the time. The clear meaning is that homo sapiens are a violent, bloodthirsty lot.
The violinist whose bow is a sabre
Life, Harry Rolnick, Published on 23/11/2017
» Attention Insurance Companies: Boris Belkin is coming to Bangkok on Nov 28, and nothing anywhere in the path of his knife-sharp bow is safe. Not the Bangkok Concert Hall, not Michael Tilkin, the conductor of the Royal Bangkok Symphony Orchestra or any buildings in the area are liable to shake, rattle and roll.
Entertaining a dark soul
Life, Ariane Kupferman-Sutthavong, Published on 15/11/2017
» Writer Franz Kafka's sombre, absurd, yet resolutely modern universe has long been a source of inspiration for filmmakers; his novels and short stories having provided the basis for several film adaptations, from Orson Welles' critically-acclaimed The Trial to lesser-known movies such as Michael Haneke's The Castle. As part of "Unfolding Kafka Festival 2017", an expert explains how Kafka's works continue to fascinate readers and audiences, in large part due to the Czech writer's sharp intuition and "prophetic" perception of modern-day woes.
The inciting incident
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 06/10/2017
» On Sept 24, 1976, two electricians were beaten and hanged to death from the top of a gate somewhere in Nakhon Pathom, victims of an escalating right-wing terror in Thai politics of that heady decade. Two weeks later, as protests against the return to the Kingdom of former dictator Gen Thanom Kittikajorn gathered steam, students at Thammasat University staged a play about the hanging of the two men. Soon the photographs of the play were used by nationalists to whip up anger and fear of communism, which led to the massacre on the morning of Oct 6 as police and militias laid siege to the university, killing, maiming and brutalising scores of people in one of the worst incidents of bloodshed in modern Thai history.
La Vie Moderne (Modern Life) at Alliance Francaise de Bangkok
Life, Published on 04/10/2017
» In case you haven't been there in a while, the Alliance Francaise on Witthayu Road for some time has boasted a new cinema, plush red seats and a year-round programme of French titles -- as well as Thai and other films. Yes, the construction in the area may require that you brave past some disorder (the quarters on the corner of Witthayu and Rama IV will emerge as a new hot spot in a year or so), but AF Cinema has stepped up from being a cultural institution with a weekly screening to an active, semi-commercial screening house specialising in art films.
Thai couple awarded Grand Fukuoka Prize
Arusa Pisuthipan, Published on 22/09/2017
» FUKUOKA: Thai economist Pasuk Phongpaichit and her husband British historian Chris Baker on Thursday received the Grand Prize of the 2017 Fukuoka Prize, an award established by the City of Fukuoka to foster and increase awareness regarding the value of Asian cultures.
Close your eyes
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 13/09/2017
» In June 13, 1981, Issei Sagawa, 32, was arrested after he was seen dumping two suspicious suitcases in the Seine. A student of comparative literature at Sorbonne, the Japanese man two days earlier had killed his Dutch classmate, raped her corpse, stored her body in his fridge and ate morsels after morsels of her flesh to stimulate his sexual desire. Only when the smell became unbearable did he pack what remained in the suitcases and threw them into the river. The French court declared Sagawa legally insane and released him. He returned to Japan, wrote a comic book about his world-famous case, became a food critic (no kidding), and starred in pornographic films. Today Sagawa, old and paralytic, still lives in a suburb of Tokyo.