“Life and Peace”: A Painting Exhibition by Kenji Yoshida (Japan)

Born in 1924, in Osaka, Japan, Yoshida studied art under the great Hayashi Kiyoshi and Furukido, before being selected for training as a kami-kaze pilot. After the close of hostilities, the memory of the traumatic experience of having walked so near to death spurred Yoshida to throw himself single-mindedly into art. From that point onwards the majority of his work has carried the single title "Sei-Mei" - the Japanese word for "Life". In 1964, Yoshida moved to Paris where he has lived ever since, and where he enjoys an enviable reputation for the intense works of oil on canvas that synthesise traditional Japanese gold and silver-leaf appliqué techniques with his boldly original sense of colour.

A comparative look on dance and martial arts with the Japanese company « O-getsu-ryu » and the Brazilian caopeira masters

• "O-getsu-ryu" , a new style of performance, combining traditional esthetics with elements of modern dance, which does not use an explicit narrative as the drama is simply told through the art of the traditional Japanese sword "Tsurugi". A fusion of traditional and contemporary music, Yamato songs, accompanies this show.
  
• Capoeira, a Brazilian martial art, which finds its roots in the fighting and dancing techniques of the former enslaved African peoples of Brazil, will be presented by twelve dance masters and Brazilian musicians. Capoeira is an illustration of dialogue that emerged from the forced encounters due to the slave trade.

A joint performance of the Japanese and Brazilian artists will also be improvised during the show.

Access by invitation within the limit of available seats
Contact: events.cpd@unesco.org

Symposium to launch the 2008 European Year of Intercultural Dialogue in France

Organized by the French Cité nationale de l'histoire de l'immigration, with the support of the EU Commission, the French Ministry for Culture and Communication and UNESCO, the  symposium "Intercultural Dialogue and Cultural Diversity: a Renewed Debate" aims at presenting the ways in which the notions of « intercultural dialogue » and « cultural diversity » are perceived in France.

Researchers, artists and professionals working in culture will gather during a series of roundtable discussions to share their thoughts and experiences. The five following themes will be discussed:

• Theoretical and practical approaches of interculturalism
• Cultural diversity and territorial policies: what are the links between the recognition of differences and an emerging common culture?
• Cultural diversity and social cohesion: what is the future of the universalist and multiculturalist models?
• Cultural diversity and the European construction: an answer to globalization?

Free entrance, compulsory registration before 3 March 2008 (download the registration form). Registration form to email back at colloque-aedi@histoire-immigration.fr

The symposium is organized by the French Cité nationale de l'histoire de l'immigration with the support of the European Union Commission, the French Ministry for Culture and Communication and UNESCO.
Room XII with retransmission in Room XI (13 March from 9:30 am to 6 pm and 14 March from 9:30 am to 5 pm).

Translation from French into English will be provided throughout the symposium.

Download the programme of the Symposium

Traditional Knowledge Systems and Expressions of Culture in South Pacific

This meeting explores the use of traditional knowledge systems and the expressions of culture for social and sustainable development and related topics.

It focuses primarily on the next generation of indigenous leadership in the Pacific and beyond as well as Digital Museum Studies Facility to cover the South Pacific.

Participants include eminent indigenous persons, museum professionals and art professionals (Council of Arts and Performing Arts Centre) from Australia, Indonesia, New Zealand and the United States of America.

This event is coordinated by the University of Queensland’s Museum Studies Department.