Latest news with #LUMAArles
Korea Herald
3 days ago
- Business
- Korea Herald
LUMA Arles redefines city with renewed energy
LUMA Arles in southern France broadens the horizon of contemporary art appreciation beyond Paris ARLES, France — Along the drive to Arles, extensive sunflower fields extend into the horizon under golden dazzling sunlight. One may realize right away why Vincent Van Gogh was drawn to paint sunflowers during his time in this southern region of France. Upon arriving at LUMA Arles, its iconic tower, designed by architect Frank Gehry, comes into sight. Made of steel, concrete and glass, the building shimmers, reflecting light and the blue sky. It is instantly reminiscent of Van Gogh's 'The Starry Night.' Van Gogh stayed in Arles for less than two years in 1888 and 1889, but he created more than 400 paintings and drawings here, shaping the artist's iconic painting style that is now widely known, according to Mustapha Bouhayati, CEO of LUMA Arles. 'It is light — the light in Arles — that inspires you along with the elements. 'The Starry Night,' for example. You see the swirls in his painting, and it gives me the impression that he painted the wind itself. While many see Van Gogh as a modern artist, to me, he is a very contemporary artist because he was conceptual in what he wanted to represent. 'There was an urge in him to paint, to draw, to do something here. It is really, really interesting,' Bouhayati told The Korea Herald on Saturday. LUMA Arles is located at the Parc des Ateliers, an industrial site built in the 19th century for the construction and repair of locomotives, which was active just before the Second World War and completely closed in the 1980s as the business wound down. Revitalizing the abandoned space, the cultural complex opened to the public in 2021 with several industrial buildings renovated. The initiative was led by Maja Hoffmann, the founder of the LUMA Foundation and heir to a Swiss pharmaceutical fortune. On the ninth floor of the tower is a terrace where one can enjoy a panoramic view of Arles overlooking the surrounding landscape and a Roman amphitheater and theater. The city, once a Roman colony under Julius Caesar, was designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1981. When the cultural complex was built in the city, not all responses were welcoming among residents who expressed criticism at the beginning, saying it did not fit with the identity of the city. Such reaction, however, has completely evolved over the years, the director said. 'France is very centralized around Paris, and people here felt quite remote and somewhat overlooked,' he said. "So creating something of this level of excellence on an international scale makes a strong statement." LUMA Arles emphasizes supporting artists in creating experimental works, including site-specific installations, and showcases a variety of exhibitions annually, having commissioned and presented the work of more than 100 artists, according to the institute. Among its permanent installations is 'Isometric Slides' by Carsten Holler, comprising two intertwined stainless-steel slides for visitors to experience. Exhibitions with experimental approaches The museum unveiled seven exhibitions simultaneously on Saturday, bringing together diverse artistic themes from Singapore's Ho Tzu Nyen, Egypt's Wael Shawky, Switzerland's Peter Fischli, Belgian landscape architect Bas Smets, American photographer David Armstrong, interdisciplinary studio EBB in collaboration with American artist Tony Oursler and South Korea's own Koo Jeong-a. At Shawky's exhibition 'I Am Hymns of the New Temples,' a film at the center of the installation shows the story of a wandering Gaia from Greek mythology interpreted by the artist. The film expands into the space with glass and bronze sculptures, recreating the feel of the ancient city of Pompeii. 'Most of my work is involved with the history of the Middle East, and that was my first time ever I decided to work with the Greek mythology and study it to make this film,' the artist told the press Friday. The works on view were created within a month while the artist stayed in Arles in a residency, including seven paintings — a new area of exploration for the artist — according to LUMA Arles. As a visual artist and filmmaker, Ho showed the newly commissioned installation 'Phantoms of Endless Day,' drawing materials from 'Endless Day,' a film project that began in 2011 and had remained dormant since. He used a series of artificial intelligence processes to edit and re-create the images and sounds from the original film. Vassilis Oikonomopoulos, artistic director of LUMA Arles, referred to the work as 'the future of creating images and producing stories and many narratives.' 'I don't think that I have necessarily completed the film I started 15 years ago, but it has developed into something new along with these new processes,' Ho said Friday. Koo's exhibition 'Land of Ouss (Kangse)' brings together a major body of new and recent work spanning from 2007 to the present, featuring sculptures, an olfactory installation and a series of paintings as part of her everyday practices. 'It is very strong fluorescent colors which give a completely different experience here. It is really characteristic of the way Koo approaches architecture, but also the reality of seeing,' Oikonomopoulos said, entering the space glowing with pink fluorescence with the drawings on display. An internationally recognized landscape architect, Smets presents a selection of three key projects that demonstrate how landscape architecture can respond to different challenges of the climate crisis, including the ongoing project to redevelop the Notre Dame cathedral in Paris, with a focus on designing environments adapted to climate change. 'What we did here is we looked at all the elements to lower the temperature. We store rainwater, and on hot days, we could have a thin layer of water that will run on the plaza, cooling the air through evaporative cooling. The former parking garage will become a visitor center and will make a park 400 meters long, along the Seine,' he said. The museum runs programs such as artist residencies that invite artists, curators and researchers as well as Atelier LUMA, the design research program dedicated to exploring new ways of using natural and renweable resources in design and architecture on a bioregional scale, according to LUMA Arles.
The Hindu
7 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Hindu
Western chamber opera blends Buddhist wisdom and Carnatic improvisation
Published : Jul 06, 2025 08:28 IST - 3 MINS READ 'This is perhaps the first time that Indian classical music, in its improvised, living form, is present in an opera of this scale,' began the noted Carnatic vocalist Aruna Sairam. She was speaking to Frontline from LUMA Arles, a contemporary arts foundation at the Parc des Ateliers in the city of Arles, France, ahead of the world premiere of the chamber opera The Nine Jewelled Deer, in which she plays the dual roles of a clairvoyant queen and a grandmother. Composed by Sivan Eldar, with visual art by Julie Mehretu and libretto contributions from the novelist Lauren Groff, this opera directed by Peter Sellars features the voices of the singer-librettist Ganavya Doraiswamy and Aruna Sairam alongside a cross-cultural ensemble of soloists on the clarinet, saxophone, violin and cello, and for the first time, the mridangam, played by the percussionist Rajna Swaminathan. The Nine Jewelled Deer was born of an unlikely jugalbandi between two women from vastly different artistic worlds. When Ganavya heard Sivan Eldar's opera-in-progress at an artists' residency in Tuscany in 2021, she told her: 'I listened to your music … and I just thought of my grandmother. And I've had this dream of creating a project that is inspired by the story of my grandmother.' By the end of that residency, Sivan Eldar was aboard Ganavya's dream project. They were joined by Ganavya's long-time collaborator and theatre director Peter Sellars from Los Angeles, and Aruna Sairam from Chennai. The conversations continued across continents and time zones over many months. Slowly, steadily, an oratorio on loss, resilience, and renewal came into being. The Nine Jewelled Deer braids together three distinct strands of story: a Jataka tale of the Ruru deer, the first chapter from the early Buddhist text Vimalakirti Sutra, and the life of the jalatarangam artist Seetha Doraiswamy (1926–2013). The parable of the eponymous deer which embodies a love so vast it embraces even betrayal is surely a parallel for the times we live in, perhaps meant to make one reflect on the long arc of both suffering and healing. Aruna Sairam spoke at length about the rehearsal process, the long weeks of immersion, improvisation, listening and learning. She said: 'As a Carnatic musician I'm improvising all the time—no two versions of my singing are the same. Whereas they [the practitioners of Western classical music and opera] are used to written scores. So we've spent weeks learning how to respond, not with certainty, but with curiosity. And over time, your listening becomes sharper, your vision clearer. It's like zen.' For Ganavya, the opera is also a personal tribute to her grandmother. Jalatarangam means 'waves in water', and Seetha Doraiswamy made waves making music using porcelain bowls filled with varying levels of water. Her kitchen was a safe space, a refuge for countless young female students within a stifling patriarchy and cultural orthodoxy. As Sivan Eldar put it memorably in an interview, for Seetha, her 'kitchen orchestra' was equal to playing in Carnegie Hall. In the same interview, Peter Sellars pointed out that hers was 'a music of refugees. A music of feeding people, both with food and with spiritual replenishment, with courage, with love.' The strands of story in The Nine Jewelled Deer seem to suggest that compassion and care, not conquest, may be the more radical act of resistance. As Sellars reminds us, 'We don't need to go find a deer. We don't have to go get a Buddha.' The Buddha is already amongst us, within us. The Nine Jewelled Deer premieres at LUMA Arles on July 6. The performances will continue at LUMA Arles on July 8 and 9, and then move to the Théâtre du Jeu de Paume in Aix-en-Provence from July 13-16.
