Archive for January, 2006

Khmer Architecture Tours: invitation: houses and university tours

Monday, January 23rd, 2006
khmer architecture tours

Dear friends and colleagues,
please see below for information on upcoming tours, Sunday 29 Jan 06 and Sunday 26 Feb 06. Email details for booking places are below.
Also, if you have any interest in a weekend trip to Kampong Som which would include looking at some great buildings, please let us know.

sunday 29 january 06
1960s houses in Toul Kork, Phnom Penh
Our next tour will return to three very different house-types: modest ‘social-housing’ on a Khmer model; a middle-income family house on an adapted European model; and a spatially-indulgent house ideal for high-society parties.
1) The well-known ’100 Houses’ development was designed by Vann Molyvann and commissioned in the 1965 by the National Bank of Cambodia for its staff; these originally identical houses were a reinterpretation of the traditional Khmer house and only a few remain unchanged. 
2) The designer of the family house is unknown, but the house works delightfully through its a rich blend of materials, form, light and air. 
3) The doctor’s house, designed we are told by Vann Molyvann, is dominated by its exuberant, three-storey high entrance hall and is wonderfully sculptural on the outside.

sunday 26 february 06
university buildings in Phnom Penh
We will again visit three remarkable, 1960s education campuses on the Russian Boulevard (the airport road) and be able to compare and contrast each:

1) The Institute of Technology of Cambodia, by Soviet designers (elegant, functional, abstract).
2) The Institute of Foreign Languages by Vann Molyvann (expressive, dynamic, metaphorical).
3) The Royal University of Phnom Penh by Leroy and Mondet (courageous, derivative, flawed). 
………………………………………………………………

There will be morning and afternoon tours on both days, guided by architecture students Suon Ratana and Sim Sitho.
Morning tours: Start at 8.30am, return by around 11.45pm
Afternoon tours: Start at 2.30pm, return by around 5.45pm

Transport by private bus. The tours are available in English and Khmer.
English speaking: $8. Khmer speaking: $1.
As usual, booking is essential. Children over 12 are welcome.
Please reply via email with your request for places; please don’t forget to include names and mobile telephone numbers and which tour you would like, otherwise we can’t accept the booking. We will email you back with joining details and contact numbers for the guides.

Hope to see you soon.
………………………………………………………………
geoffrey pyle and jane martin
coordinators
khmer architecture tours
tours of modern architecture in cambodia


Conférence "Léopold Sédar Senghor" par M. Louis Arsac

Friday, January 20th, 2006

« Léopold Sédar Senghor : itinéraire poétique et politique »
par M. Louis Arsac

Salle de cinéma du C.C.F
Jeudi 19 janvier – 18h30 – Gratuit

En contrepoint de la conférence organisée par le Centre culturel français en décembre dernier donnée par Philippe Dufour sur le thème de « l’Orientalisme dans la littérature française de XIXème siècle », Louis Arsac nous propose d’inverser notre regard avec l’évocation de « l’occidentalisme » qui imprègne la littérature francophone – au travers notamment de la figure emblématique de Léopold Sédar Senghor.

Si l’orientalisme dans la littérature française du XIXème (mais aussi pour une large part encore dans celle du XXème siècle) trouva de grands illustrateurs mêlant fascination pour l’inconnu, fantasmes de toutes natures et véritable curiosité intellectuelle, on pourrait avancer l’idée d’un « occidentalisme » de la littérature francophone, asiatique, africaine… Mais il ne ressortit pas d’une simple représentation en miroir inversé tant l’occident est connu, repéré. Il s’agit au contraire d’entreprendre une démythification sans reniement. Sans doute, Senghor est-il l’un des premiers à introniser cette dimension via une poétique qui n’est pas le refuge d’une pensée politique, mais son expression même.

En 1945, Léopold Sédar Senghor est député du Sénégal à l’Assemblée Nationale française avant que de devenir Président de la République du Sénégal, à compter de l’indépendance, jusqu’en 1981. Curieusement, l’essentiel est peut-être ailleurs. Agrégé de grammaire, membre de l’Académie Française, Senghor est surtout un défenseur impénitent de la francophonie et de la langue française. En témoigne, à maints égards son Œuvre Poétique.

Ce « griot » gigantesque, ce « sac à paroles » est aussi un homme d’écriture qui transcende l’idée quelque peu ethnocentriste d’une littérature africaine exotique et pour tout dire, coloniale car, avec Aimé Césaire et Léon-Gontran Damas, il va placer cette littérature noire sous le postulat bifide du poétique et du politique. Ainsi est coulé, dans le bronze de l’histoire littéraire, le concept de Négritude défini par Césaire, inventeur du mot, comme la « simple reconnaissance du fait d’être noir, et l’acceptation de ce fait, de notre destin de noir, de notre histoire et de notre culture ».

Louis Arsac

____________________________________ 
 Centre Culturel Français du Cambodge
218 rue Kéo Chea (184) – Phnom Penh
00 (855) 23 213 124 / 125

e-mail :
info@ccf-cambodge.org   audiovisuel@ccf-cambodge.org

LEMKIN’S HOUSE

Wednesday, January 18th, 2006
78th Street Theatre Lab presents the US premiere of Catherine Filloux’s

LEMKIN’S HOUSE
Directed by Jean Randich; performances begin February 3

Post-performance Talkback participants to include Former Manhattan Borough President Ruth Messinger, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Samantha Power and others.
 
“A tremendously adult piece of theatre” ? The Scotsman

LEMKIN’S HOUSE ? a thought-provoking drama about the horrors of genocide ? written by Catherine Filloux (EYES OF THE HEART) will be given its US premiere at the 78th Street Theatre Lab (236 West 78th Street) from February 3 to February 26, 2006.  
 
LEMKIN’S HOUSE is set in the afterlife of Raphael Lemkin, the Polish-American lawyer whose family died in the Holocaust and who invented the word “genocide.”?He dedicated his life to fighting to have genocide declared an?international crime.?Lemkin is bombarded by people bursting into his home with complaints of more recent genocides in Rwanda and Bosnia.?Lemkin must recognize that even his law is not enough to change the world. He weighs his ethical accomplishments against his guilt for deserting his own doomed family?ultimately seeking not only justice but also forgiveness. In LEMKIN’S HOUSE, it’s the dead who are haunted by the living.
 
Directed by Jean Randich ? LEMKIN’S HOUSE features a cast that includes: John Daggett, Christopher McHale, Christopher Edwards, Constance Winston, and Laura Flanagan; and a design team as follows: Sue Rees (Set Design); Matthew Adelson (Lighting Design); Robert Murphy (Sound Design); Camille Assaf (Costume Design).
 
Catherine Filloux’s recent plays include: THE BEAUTY INSIDE; EYES OF THE HEART (NAATCO); SILENCE OF GOD; MARY AND MYRA; ARTHUR?S WAR; PHOTOGRAPHS FROM S-21; ESCUELA DEL MUNDO. Filloux’s other plays have been produced in New York and around the U.S. Opera libretto: THE FLOATING BOX: A Story in Chinatown; (Composer Jason Kao Hwang; selected as a Critics Choice by Opera News, 2005; CD New World Records); Commission from Cambodian Living Arts for opera libretto WHERE ELEPHANTS WEEP with Cambodian composer Him Sophy (2006).? Awards: The Kennedy Center Fund for New American Plays’ Roger L. Stevens award, Eric Kocher Playwrights Award (National Playwrights Conference, O’Neill Theater Center); Callaway Award (New Dramatists), Fulbright Senior Specialist (Cambodia & Morocco).
 
Jean Randich has been directing new work and re-imagining the classics for the past fifteen years. Some of her recent productions include: THE UNKNOWN (NY Festival of Music Theatre, 2005); COMMEDIA DELL SMARTASS (New Georges); ANTIGONE (NAATCO); SILENCE OF GOD (CATF); SERIOUS MONEY (Yale Rep); THE FLOATING BOX (Asia Society); DRAWN TO DEATH (St. Ann’s); GIRL UNDER GRAIN (Winner: Best Production Drama, NY International Fringe Festival, 2000); and others.
 
78th Street Theatre Lab was established in 1978 to provide artists with a supportive workplace to create and develop unique, thought-provoking theatre. Under Artistic Director Eric Nightengale and General Manager Ruth Nightengale, previous works of the 78th Street Theatre Lab include the highly successful THE CHINESE ART OF PLACEMENT, INSIDE A BIGGER BOX, THIN WALLS, and the acclaimed Dawn Powell festival PERMANENT VISITOR. Last year’s season included Trish Harnetiaux’s acclaimed STRAIGHT ON ?TIL MORNING and Paul Allman’s KENNETH ? WHAT IS THE FREQUENCY?
 
Scheduled February 3 through February 26, performances of LEMKIN’S HOUSE run at 78th Street Theatre Lab (236 West 78th Street), Thursdays-Saturdays at 8:00pm and Sundays at 3:00pm, with an added performance on Wednesday, February 22 at 8:00pm. Tickets are $15 and can be reserved by calling Smarttix at 212-868-4444 or online at www.smarttix.com <http://www.smarttix.com> <http://www.smarttix.com>  

Fw: Marine Ky’s Presentation

Wednesday, January 18th, 2006
 
—– Original Message —–
From: Dana
To: Dana
Sent: Wednesday, January 18, 2006 9:06 AM
Subject: Marine Ky’s Presentation
 
HAPPY ART HOME
Marine KY
Thursday, 7pm
Java Café & Gallery
 
If you missed Marine Ky’s special presentation of HAPPY ART HOME, there will be another opportunity Thursday 7pm at Java Café.  Meet with Marine, explore the hands-on exhibition and listen to the presentation about her unique Peace Project.

Advanced Study of Khmer Summer Program

Tuesday, January 17th, 2006

Advanced Study of Khmer (ASK),  will take place in Phnom Penh, Cambodia (June 19 to July 28, 2006) .
A Fulbright scholarship is available for 9  applicants.
More information at:
http://www.hawaii.edu/cseas/academic/khmer_2005.html