[Exposition] Gunkanjima Requiem.

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Du 9 au 27 novembre 2010

Organisation : Espace Japon
Photographe : David Arnaud

Site officiel de l'exposition : www.gunkanjima.com

Vernissage : mardi 9 novembre 2010 à partir de 18h

Soirée Gunkanjima : samedi 20 novembre à partir de 19h, avec le groupe "Tristesse Contemporaine" et la projection de Gunkanjima.

Gunkanjima, est une "île-usine" située au large de Nagasaki . L’accès de cette île dont le profil ressemble à celui d‘un navire de guerre, est aujourd'hui interdit. Le photographe David Arnaud a pu obtenir une autorisation spéciale pour faire un reportage photo inédit au cœur de ce désert industriel.
Au plus fort de son activité, elle possédait la densité de population la plus élevée au monde. Depuis, elle a été abandonnée, livrant ses habitations et ses reliques au vent et à l'écume.

David ARNAUD, né à Clamart le 26 avril 1976, revient de son second voyage au pays du soleil levant, où il a pu visiter l'île de Gunkanjima (Gunkanshima), la ville fantôme de Ikeshima et les ruines du chantier naval d’Imari. Partagé entre la peinture et la photographie, son processus de création s'apparente à celui de la maïeutique. Obsédé par des visions, des images, il a besoin de peindre ou de photographier pour en accoucher et les faire partager. A la souffrance succède l'apaisement.
Il puise sa principale source d'inspiration dans les lueurs de la nuit et les ruines. Chacune d’elles lui raconte une histoire à travers des objets trouvés sur place. Une lettre, un jouet, des chaussures, produits de la société de consommation, par principe éphémères, détournés de leur finalité pour devenir, l'espace d'un instant, conteurs d'une histoire passée. Comme tout explorateur urbain, il s'attache à ne rien casser, ne rien emporter et seulement laisser les traces volatiles de ses pas dans la poussière.

Avec le soutien de : la ville de Nagasaki, CLAIR Paris, NPO the way to world heritage gunkanjima.

Espace Japon : 12 rue de Nancy 75010 Paris France
Métro : République, Jacques Bonsergent, Gare de l’Est, Château d'Eau 

tel : +33 (0)1 47 00 77 47 - fax : +33 (0)1 47 00 44 28 - e-mail : infos@espacejapon.com
Ouvert au public : du mardi au vendredi de 13h à 19h / samedi 13h à 18h
開館日 : 火〜金　13h時〜19時 /土　13時〜18時

Plus d'informations : Gunkanjima - Ruins of a forbidden island et Lense.fr - Hot spot ailleurs Hashima Gunkanjima

[Article] Searching for Zheng: China's Ming-Era Voyager

Monday, Mar. 08, 2010 | Time | By Ishaan Tharoor

One of the more famous paintings of the medieval Ming dynasty, which ruled China for about three centuries, is that of a court attendant holding a rope around a giraffe. An inscription on the side says the animal dwelled near "the corners of the western sea, in the stagnant waters of a great morass." According to legend, the giraffe was found in Africa, along with zebras and ostriches, and brought back with the grand 15th century expeditions of Zheng He, China's greatest mariner.

A worker inspects a statue of Chinese ancient voyager Zheng He (1371-1435) in preparation for a 2005 exhibition in Shanghai about Zheng's voyages (China Photos / Getty Images).

More than half a millennium later, Zheng has become a potent symbol for modern China. In 2005, the country marked the 600th anniversary of the seven voyages from 1405 to 1433 undertaken by Zheng's vast "treasure fleets" with nationwide celebrations; the opening ceremony of the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing dramatized his explorations from Southeast Asia to the Middle East and the shores of Africa. On Feb. 26, China's Ministry of Commerce announced it was funding a three-year project with the assistance of the Kenyan government to search for Ming-era vessels that had supposedly foundered off the East African coast. "Historical records indicate Chinese merchant ships sank in the seas around Kenya," Zhang Wei, a curator for a state museum, told China's official Xinhua news agency. "We hope to find wrecks of the fleet of the legendary Zheng He." (See pictures of China's investments in Africa.)
There is more than historical curiosity behind these new efforts. For centuries after his expeditions, Zheng — a Muslim eunuch — slipped out of public awareness, obscured by the rise and fall of new dynasties. Talk of his exploits was revived briefly at the beginning of the 20th century as the fledgling Chinese republic sought to build a navy in the shadow of imperial Japan. But experts say his place as a patriotic national hero has been truly cemented only in the past two decades, parallel with China's geopolitical rise — and the growth of its significant economic presence in many African nations and countries around the Indian Ocean.
The legacy of Zheng's voyages — involving hundreds of ships, some exponentially larger than the three captained by Christopher Columbus decades later, in 1492 — is being invoked by the Chinese as historical proof of the difference between China's and the West's roles in the world. Though the unprecedented display of maritime power was meant to extend the Ming dynasty's reach over a network of tributary states, Zheng rarely resorted to the type of violent, coercive measures taken for centuries by European colonizers, especially in Africa. "Zheng's a nominal symbol of China's peaceful engagement with the world," says Geoffrey Wade, a historian at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore who has translated Ming records pertaining to the voyages. "With him, it's like the Chinese have an ambassador of friendship — a sign that they aren't going to hurt anybody." (See pictures of the making of modern China.)

In recent years, though, Beijing has come under criticism (...)
Read more: http://www.time.com/time/world/article/...
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Appel à contributions: Journal étudiant "Exploration in Southeast Asian Stuidies" (Univ. d'Hawai'i)

Call for Papers: Explorations in Southeast Asia

The student-run journal for graduate students based at the University of Hawai’i at Manoa is seeking papers for the Spring 2010 issue. Deadline for submissions is November 9, 2009. Download the flyer here.

Explorations showcases student research on Southeast Asia from a diverse range of disciplinary perspectives and welcomes submissions from graduate students currently enrolled in a formal program of study in the US and abroad. We welcome submissions from all disciplines, including history, Asian studies, languages and literature, social sciences and the humanities.