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Culture etiketine sahip kayıtlar gösteriliyor. Tüm kayıtları göster
Culture etiketine sahip kayıtlar gösteriliyor. Tüm kayıtları göster

The Bahrain National Museum - A History

The Bahrain National Museum has a long history preceding its current location. Despite it being one of the earliest modern museums in the Gulf (opening in December 1988) and being a lot more humble than their Gulf counterparts, it is not the first 'version' of the museum. To delve more into this topic, we're going to look at what the United Nations' cultural agency UNESCO reported from its 20th century archives.

Building off from our last post on archaeology in Bahrain, it's important to note that there was very little coordinated archaeological excavation of the ancient sites of Bahrain. These sites included the ruins of the old Portuguese fort outside Manama, the thousands of artificial mounds that covered modern-day A'ali, Hamad Town and Saar, and other various pre-historic temples in Barbar & Saar.
Burial mounds of Bahrain, 1918. (QDL)
The first modern archaeological mission was the Danish expedition in 1952 (This is an excellent article reviewing the history of archaeology in Bahrain) began excavating the Bahrain Fort ruins & burial mounds. Fast forward to 1957 and the first public 'museum' per say opened as a temporary exhibition at the Hidaya Khalifa School in Muharraq. This exhibition of artefacts found in the excavations lasted for a few days but succeeded in drawing crowds and interest in the field of archaeology from the Bahraini community.

A UNESCO report by A. Ghosh in 1968 reported that all excavated artefacts were shipped back to Denmark because of the lack of local museums to showcase them in. An agreement was made between the Danes and the Bahraini govt to return at least 50% of  artefacts if a permanent museum was constructed. In the report (page 20), Ghosh recommended the creation of a national museum, an archaeological society, a law protecting historical artefacts. The report also identified potential national heritage sites for conservation such as the medieval agricultural water canals that enabled agriculture in the north of Bahrain, and other architecturally distinct houses in Manama and Muharraq.

In 1970, the first national museum was opened in Government House in Manama. It was temporary until a more permanent museum was built. The photos below show the opening ceremony of the museum. The same year, the country passed the Antiquities law that protected national artefacts and sites.
Government House museum opening in March 1970
(Source: Bahrain News Agency)
Government House museum opening in March 1970
(Source: Bahrain News Agency) 
Government House museum opening in March 1970
(Source: Bahrain News Agency) 
Government House museum opening in March 1970
(Source: Bahrain News Agency)
A grainy scan of the Government House museum, 1972.
A UNESCO follow up mission in 1972 even provided the architectural blueprint for a National Library and Museum right next to each other. The map shows sites considered for construction of the complex. Plans were even considered to relocate the museum to the planned city of Isa Town but it was decided it would be better to place the museum in the capital.
Map of Manama with potential sites for the museum (UNESCO 1972)

Proposed plans for the National Museum and Library (UNESCO 1972)

ADDENDUM: Although the dates are unclear, the museum was relocated from Government House to the officers' mess at the former site of the Royal Air Force base in Muharraq island.

Evidently, none of the above plans took place as the museum was finally shifted to a purpose-built complex on reclaimed land off the Al Fateh highway in Manama, in 1988. Deemed architecturally pleasing, it was shortlisted for the Aga Khan Architecture Award in 1991.

Note: As of 1 November 2019, all of this is also coincidentally covered in a current exhibition at the Bahrain national museum, I recommend a visit.

Napoleon Never Started A War

Hear me out.

A heavily romanticised portrait of Napoleon Bonaparte, painted by Jacques-Louis David (1801)
Contrary to the often dramatised caricature of a mad, power-hungry & incredibly short Frenchman, Napoleon Bonaparte had never started a war during his time as emperor of the French.

In the space of 12 years (1803-1815), France was the target of seven international coalitions of European powers, determined to isolate and dismantle the French state for disrupting the status quo of European politics that had been thrown in disarray after the French revolution. All seven wars were declared upon France, not by it.

When confronted with war, Napoleon took to the offensive, that is a given. But how often in contemporary culture do we find ourselves briefly referring to Napoleon as "that crazy French guy who wanted world domination". In Franceshi & Weider's book on The Wars Against Napoleon: Debunking the Myth of the Napoleonic Wars (review), is is argued;
Napoleon had an ‘obsessive attachment to peace’, maintained his ‘intangible principle of avoiding conflicts’, never provoked a war, and never took the initiative in declaring war: even his invasion of Russia in June 1812 was a reluctant response to Tsar Alexander’s ultimatum of April 1812 which ‘in fact if not in law’ had established a state of hostilities between the two empires. - See more at: http://www.historytoday.com/ad-harvey/wars-against-napoleon#sthash.q9rB9qV7.dpuf
Napoleon had an ‘obsessive attachment to peace’, maintained his ‘intangible principle of avoiding conflicts’, never provoked a war, and never took the initiative in declaring war: even his invasion of Russia in June 1812 was a reluctant response to Tsar Alexander’s ultimatum of April 1812 which ‘in fact if not in law’ had established a state of hostilities between the two empires. - See more at: http://www.historytoday.com/ad-harvey/wars-against-napoleon#sthash.q9rB9qV7.dpuf
Napoleon had an ‘obsessive attachment to peace’, maintained his ‘intangible principle of avoiding conflicts’, never provoked a war, and never took the initiative in declaring war: even his invasion of Russia in June 1812 was a reluctant response to Tsar Alexander’s ultimatum of April 1812 which ‘in fact if not in law’ had established a state of hostilities between the two empires. - See more at: http://www.historytoday.com/ad-harvey/wars-against-napoleon#sthash.q9rB9qV7.dpuf
Napoleon had an ‘obsessive attachment to peace’, maintained his ‘intangible principle of avoiding conflicts’, never provoked a war, and never took the initiative in declaring war: even his invasion of Russia in June 1812 was a reluctant response to Tsar Alexander’s ultimatum of April 1812 which ‘in fact if not in law’ had established a state of hostilities between the two empires.
While of course his assembling of the Grande Armée (the largest standing army at the time) certainly doesn't rank well for his peacekeeping reputation nor does his unprecedented invasion of Russia, his motivation was the protection of his homeland. He often was quoted as saying "France before all else".

I'm not saying Napoleon not declaring war makes him a saint, perhaps he was egotistical (he did install himself & his own family upon several European thrones, after all). Hitler himself didn't declare a war until December 1941 (on the United States) two years into WWII. All I wish to say is to think of these casual biases. Somehow someway these biases have ingrained and disseminated themselves in popular culture; perhaps it is the result of clever propaganda, a case of the victors writing history, or simple, lazy misinformation.

Whatever the cause, the takeaway message is to HOW and WHY you think of historical figures in negative and positive views. After all, we're all bound to be biased.
Napoleon had an ‘obsessive attachment to peace’, maintained his ‘intangible principle of avoiding conflicts’, never provoked a war, and never took the initiative in declaring war: even his invasion of Russia in June 1812 was a reluctant response to Tsar Alexander’s ultimatum of April 1812 which ‘in fact if not in law’ had established a state of hostilities between the two empires. - See more at: http://www.historytoday.com/ad-harvey/wars-against-napoleon#sthash.q9rB9qV7.dpuf

Why do we smile in photos?

Ever noticed how no matter when or where a photograph was taken in the 19th century, it was incredibly rare to come across a single smile. Surely they can't have been that gloomy back in the day (must've been all that evil smallpox and what not) , right?

Except for that smiling guy in the other post.

But hey, let's figure out WHY our long-gone 19th century colleagues seem to be so cranky. This is by no means a complete list but rather the logical assumptions.

(Source)

1. Primitive cameras with long exposure times 

Whereas we live in an age where we capture that split fraction of a second in time and send it to our colleagues on Snapchat or Twitter (or God-forbid MySpace), our deceased colleagues weren't as fortunate. Cameras were sturdy things, they had incredibly long exposure times often requiring people to stay rather still for several minutes or else the photograph would blur out. In case you haven't tried it, smiling for several minutes whilst remaining still (like you would if you won a lottery) is incredibly hard to pull off unless you're a masochist and love some serious muscle aches. 
  

2. They were expensive and you don't want to look stupid when applying for that one job

 Who knew our rotting colleagues had so much in common with us?  Getting the opportunity to have your picture taken was serious business. These photographs were basically a permanent profile picture that was carried around their whole life. As a result, it was taken very seriously and people strived to look as passive-aggressive as humanely possible.  
Mark Twain's attitude basically sums it up;
A photograph is a most important document, and there is nothing more damning to go down to posterity than a silly, foolish smile caught and fixed forever. 
It's also worth noting that the influence the art world of portraits had on the early use of photography.  Nicholas Jeeves commented, "Smiling in paintings was only seen in the 17th century in Europe, it was a well-established fact that the only people who smiled broadly, in life and in art, were the poor, the lewd, the drunk, the innocent, and the entertainment."

3. People had terrible dental hygiene

This really doesn't need any further elaboration. 

But why do we smile?

We're silly creatures, who knows why? 

A History of Contemporary Theatre in Bahrain

Below I'm reposting the Wikipedia article I've written:

The history of the theatre in Bahrain is one example of the modernisation that swept Bahrain in the 20th century, as a result of the British-backed reforms.  Contemporary Bahraini theatre, in its present form, originated in the early 20th century, resulting from the introduction of formal education in the country.
Traditionally, shadow plays and puppet shows were widespread forms of entertainment in Bahrain. The European-style drama plays were first introduced in schools and plays written by Arab dramatists would be later included in the school curriculum.

As civil society became more interested in theatre and influenced by the likes of Tawfiq al-Hakim and Saadallah Wannous, Bahrain experienced a golden age by the 1970s of playwrights such as Ali Al Shargawi, Ebrahim Al-Arrayedh, Aqil Sawar and Yousef al-Hamdan. The country hosts three notable theatre companies; Awal Theatre, Al-Jazira Theatre and the Al-Sawari Theatre companies

History 

Archaeological excavation of sites dating back to the Dilmun civilisation of the Bronze Age in Bahrain have revealed the existence of a ritualistic polytheistic religion that was believed to contain elements of theatre. However, limited information is known about it. In the 7th century AD, Bahrain converted to Islam. Islam did not encourage human representation or drama; however, the events of Ashura inspired a form of dramatic expression called Ta'zieh (Arabic: تعزية‎). These dramatic re-enactments occur during the Islamic month of Muharram and commemorates the Battle of Karbala where the grandson of the Prophet Muhammed, Imam Hussain, and his companions were killed. Furthermore, there exists two related forms of drama in the Islamic world; Maqama and shadow plays.

Aside from this, other forms of performance art in Bahrain included puppet theatres and shadow plays, which were popular between the Middle Ages up to the 18th century. European drama plays were first brought to the Arab world as a result of the Napoleonic invasion of Egypt in 1798, eventually reaching the island nation of Bahrain.

20th Century

Drama in the Arab States of the Persian Gulf was pioneered by Kuwait and Bahrain in the early 20th century.[4] The first recorded theatre production was A Judge from God's Will (Arabic: القاضي بأمر الله‎) which was performed in 1925 at the Hidaya Al-Khalifa Boys School in Muharraq.[5] As a result of the formal education system in place in Bahrain, plays written by European playwrights, Arab and eventually Bahraini dramatists were staged by students and teachers in school. Religious, moralist and historical plays were primarily written by Syrian and Egyptian writers and performed at school. The earliest credited pioneers of Bahraini theatre were the two poets Ebrahim Al-Arrayedh and Abdulrahman Almoawda, whose plays in the 1950s were primarily based on historic figures and events in Islamic Arab history.[2] Influenced by the likes of Egyptian playwright Ahmed Shawqi, both writers authored a combined ten plays, with Almoawda basing his plays on historical characters in Arab history such as Al-Ala'a Al-Hadrami.

In the 1940s, literary societies began expressing interest in amateur theatre, eventually culminating in the establishment of multiple theatre companies and a generation of Bahraini playwrights by the 1970s. Most plays were translated from English such as Shakespeare, with the later introduction of Arabic plays from Egypt and Syria. Eventually, a home-grown dramatic movement was born in the 1970s. Notable writers from this time include:
  • Ali Al Shargawi (born 1948), who primarily produced children's plays,.
  • Aqil Sawar (born 1946), who was a realistic author and playwright of Al-Nawkhidha (1985) and Al Baraha (1990),
  • Yousef al-Hamdan (born 1956) was an experimental dramatist and respected academic critic, who published his memoirs Al-Jathoum in 1990.
  • Amin Salah (born 1949) was a novelist and later-turned dramatist who gained recognition after rewriting Romeo and Juliet, titled Romeo al-Fareeg in 1988. Other works were satire of current events such as Al-Jutah on capitalism.
Censorship was a common obstacle for playwrights; any content deemed politically motivated was subject to censorship by the Bahraini government, making it difficult to highlight seemingly apolitical social problems in plays.

Companies

Traditionally, there have been three notable non-profit theatre companies operating in Bahrain. They receive subsidies from the Bahraini government.

 Awal Theatre

Established in 1970, it is the oldest theatre company in the country and the first to be formed independent of any civil society or club. Headquartered in the city of Muharraq, its performances were mainly carried out in the nearby capital city, Manama. Relying on government subsidies, the Awal Theatre company promoted local playwright talents and actors. Its first play was Kursi Ateeq in 1970, an original play written by Mohammed Awad. Since then, the company had performed regional Arab as well as international plays

Al Jazira Theatre

Established in 1971 as an extension of the Al Jazira club and included former Awal Theatre members, its members were semi-professionals and frequently trained in the higher institutes of dramatic arts in Kuwait. Both Awal and Al Jazira theatre companies performed seasonally in Bahrain and toured in drama festivals across the Arab World.

 Al Sawari Theatre

Founded by Abdullah al Sawari in 1991, the company primarily focuses on experimental theatre, adapting Asian elements of theatre such as Kathakali from India and Kabuki from Japan.

Reference:

History in Focus: Taiwan in the early 20th Century

Taiwan is an island state situated in East Asia and for the much of the early half of the 20th century, the island was controlled by Japan. Following the end of World War II, the island eventually came into the control of China (though officially, the details are murky, with Japan still exercising sovereignty over the island until 1952. See here). As a result of the Communist takeover of mainland China, the previous government relocated to Taipei in Taiwan and continue to stay there since.

During the latter half of the 20th century, Taiwan has experienced rapid economic growth and industrialization and is now an advanced industrial economy.

 In the 1980s and early 1990s, Taiwan evolved into a multi-party democracy with universal suffrage. Taiwan is one of the Four Asian Tigers and a member of the WTO and APEC. The 19th-largest economy in the world,its advanced technology industry plays a key role in the global economy.

 Taiwan is ranked highly in terms of freedom of the press, health care, public education, economic freedom, and human development.

Here are some photos from TaiPics.com, which is an archive of over 7000 historical Taiwan pictures collected and organized by taipeimarc, an American expat in Taiwan. All images are believed to be in the public domain. I recommend you visit the website!

Overview of Taipei, Taiwan's capital, in the early 20th century
School session in Japanese-held Taiwan, prior to 1945
The Governor General's house and East Gate , circa 1920s.
School gathering
Farmers working
1945 bombing of Taipei
Taipai in the early 20th century
Taiwanese farmers on the field. Date unknown
Girls' school in Taiwan
Aborigines of Taiwan (historically called Formosa). Date unknown
Missionary school, date unknown.
Rice planting. Workers often worked till sunset. Date unknown
Opium den in Taiwan
Sugar manufacturing factory and plantation. The site is now a museum.
Sugarcane farming. Date unknown
Sugar bags from the 1940s.
Sun Moon Lake.
Aborigines canoeing in the Sun Moon Lake.
Unknown building in Taipai

Remembering an Artist: Jean-Paul Laurens

Jean-Paul Lauren' self-portrait in 1876
Jean-Paul Laurens (28 March 1838 – 23 March 1921), was a French painter and sculptor, and one of the last major exponents of the French Academic style.

Born in Fourquevaux, he was a pupil of Léon Cogniet and Alexandre Bida. Strongly anti-clerical and republican, his work was often on historical and religious themes, through which he sought to convey a message of opposition to monarchical and clerical oppression. His erudition and technical mastery were much admired in his time, but in later years his highly realistic technique, coupled to a theatrical mise-en-scène, came to be regarded by some art-historians as overly didactic. More recently, however, his work has been re-evaluated as an important and original renewal of history painting, a genre of painting that was in decline during Laurens' lifetime. 

Laurens was commissioned to paint numerous public works by the French Third Republic, including the steel vault of the Paris City Hall, the monumental series on the life of Saint Genevieve in the apse of the Panthéon, the decorated ceiling of the Odéon Theater, and the hall of distinguished citizens at the Toulouse capitol. He also provided illustrations for Augustin Thierry's Récits des temps mérovingiens ("Accounts of Merovingian Times").

Jean-Paul Laurens in 1914
Laurens was a professor at the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris, where he taught André Dunoyer de Segonzac and George Barbier. Two of his sons, Paul Albert Laurens (1870–1934) and Jean-Pierre Laurens (1875–1932), became painters and teachers at the Académie Julian. He died in Paris in 1921.

Among Laurens' many students are:

Artistic Works:
Le pape et l'inquisiteur (1882)

Pope Formosus and Stephen VII" - The "Cadaver Synod" (1870)

L'Excommunication de Robert le Pieux - 1875
Hostages. Held by the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Lyon (1896)
The Agitator of Languedoc (1887). Held by the Musée des Augustins, Toulouse.
The last moments of Maximilian, Emperor of Mexico (1882). Held by the Hermitage, St. Petersburg.
Porträtt av en kvinna (1874).
The Western Roman Emperor Honorius (1880)
La Délivrance des emmurés de Carcassonne (1879)
Faust
Intérieur du Capitole de Toulouse, painted by Laurens.
The execution of the Duke of Enghien (1873)
Salle des illustres au Capitole de Toulouse, ville de Toulouse, région Midi-Pyrénées (France) : Le Lauraguais Campagne Toulousaine
Toulouse strengthens its walls to resist Simon de Montfort in 1218 

Honouring a Legend: Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky

It's Art and Culture month once again on the blog (in case you missed last year), a time when we appreciate the visual and musical wonders of art that our ancestors and contemporaries have given us. 

Now recently, I've developed a thing for classical music and seeing as it was absent last year (unfairly!), it deserves to start at #1 here. Though I'm sure most of you are familiar with the likes of Beethoven and Bach, quite a handful (aside from well-versed classical music enthusiasts) would recall the likes of Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky, the great Russian composer. If you haven't heard of him, I don't blame you. If you haven't heard his works before, you should sit in a corner and think about what you've done.

Short Biography:
(From Wikipedia)

Tchaikovsky
Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky (7 May 1840 – 6 November 1893) was a Russian composer whose works included symphonies, concertos, operas, ballets, chamber music, and a choral setting of The Russian Orthodox Divine Liturgy. Some of these are among the most popular theatrical music in the classical repertoire. He was the first Russian composer whose music made a lasting impression internationally, which he bolstered with appearances as a guest conductor later in his career in Europe and the United States. One of these appearances was at the inaugural concert of Carnegie Hall in New York City in 1891. Tchaikovsky was honored in 1884 by Emperor Alexander III, and awarded a lifetime pension in the late 1880s.

Although musically precocious, Tchaikovsky was educated for a career as a civil servant. There was scant opportunity for a musical career in Russia at that time, and no system of public music education. When an opportunity for such an education arose, he entered the nascent Saint Petersburg Conservatory, from where he graduated in 1865. The formal Western-oriented teaching he received there set him apart from composers of the contemporary nationalist movement embodied by the Russian composers of The Five, with whom his professional relationship was mixed. Tchaikovsky's training set him on a path to reconcile what he had learned with the native musical practices to which he had been exposed from childhood. From this reconciliation, he forged a personal but unmistakably Russian style—a task that did not prove easy. The principles that governed melody, harmony and other fundamentals of Russian music ran completely counter to those that governed Western European music; this seemed to defeat the potential for using Russian music in large-scale Western composition or from forming a composite style, and it caused personal antipathies that dented Tchaikovsky's self-confidence. Russian culture exhibited a split personality, with its native and adopted elements having drifted apart increasingly since the time of Peter the Great, and this resulted in uncertainty among the intelligentsia of the country's national identity.

Despite his many popular successes, Tchaikovsky's life was punctuated by personal crises and depression. Contributory factors included his leaving his mother for boarding school, his mother's early death and the collapse of the one enduring relationship of his adult life, his 13-year association with the wealthy widow Nadezhda von Meck. His homosexuality, which he kept private, has traditionally also been considered a major factor, but musicologists now play down its importance. His sudden death at the age of 53 is generally ascribed to cholera; there is an ongoing debate as to whether it was accidental or self-inflicted.

While his music has remained popular among audiences, critical opinions were initially mixed. Some Russians did not feel it sufficiently representative of native musical values and were suspicious that Europeans accepted it for its Western elements. In apparent reinforcement of the latter claim, some Europeans lauded Tchaikovsky for offering music more substantive than base exoticism, and thus transcending stereotypes of Russian classical music. Tchaikovsky's music was dismissed as "lacking in elevated thought," according to longtime New York Times music critic Harold C. Schonberg, and its formal workings were derided as deficient for not following Western principles stringently.

Works:
Swan Lake: Scene


Romeo and Juliet: Fantasy Overture


Nutcracker Trepak (Russian dance):