The country’s biggest arts festival rumbles on into July after collecting big crowds for daring dance and classical music treats.

On the surface, La Fête looks like a contemporary arts festival, but dig a bit deeper and you’ll find a bulging programme that has something for everyone. Two recent stage performances prove the point.

Thinking inside the box

On Tuesday, June 23, a few minutes after taking their seats in near darkness, the audience at Aksra Theatre watched as a tall, sinewy figure appeared faintly before us, perching still on a frame of a chair. The lights grew stronger, signalling the start of the one and only contemporary dance solo in this year’s La Fête “Press” by Pierre Rigal who sprang briskly to his feet.

For the next 58 minutes, the action was confined to a small cube raised a few metres off the stage and hovering against the black main curtain. Rigal, dressed in a crisp black suit, excelled at executing both jerky steps and fluid moves.

A menacing robotic arm swung out and suddenly Rigal had to defend his space against the invasion. At times the French artist seemed to have succumbed, moving his own arms robotically as if being manipulated by mechanical forces.

To the beat of Nihil Bordures’ pulsating electro soundscape, the ceiling periodically descended, threatening to squish Rigal and forcing him to continually writhe and twist for space. The struggle splashed the walls of his cell with foreboding shadows. He moved with the sounds as one, as if the melodies were being produced from his body movements. Perhaps, this extraordinary performer’s 400-metre hurdle history and background in Mathematical economics were what had shaped him to be commendably precise.

The metaphor of man’s private struggle for space against the overwhelming forces of a mechanical world was beautifully and intensely conveyed. Though technological advancements are supposed to have freed us into comfort, Rigal’s poetic performance underlined the sense of restriction, restraint and repression of modern life.

The following day I took a holiday from performing arts and found myself sitting in a “designated” taxi in the middle of a Bangkok jam.

After being wedged in traffic outside the Police General Hospital for almost an hour, I decided to make a phone call to a traffic radio channel. I learned that one kilometre in front of me was a crash between a bus and a car. I was told, too, that somewhere behind me, a bus broke down.

Even worse, I needed to answer a call of nature. Luckily enough, I was able to release myself from the seatbelt—and then from my bodily urge after successfully locating the “smallest room” in the hospital. I still cannot imagine what would have happened if I had had to stay put with my own car.

Sipping iced tea bought from a street vendor, I slipped back into my still stationary vehicle and turned to check if my “cabby” was still sane.

Voilà!

The sequences from “Press” came flooding back into my brain, superimposed on my poor chauffeur who looked ready to commit murder out of envy for the brief escape I’d just enjoyed.

Classical delights

On Friday, June 26, at Thailand Cultural Centre’s Main Hall, HRH Princess Sirivannavari Nariratana graciously presided over the concert by Bangkok Symphony Orchestra (BSO), conducted by Alain Paris, and featuring soprano Karen Vourc’h.

The programme, major works by Berlioz, Grieg, Dvorak, Faure, Mozart, Gounod, and Bizet, tested the talents of the local orchestra and the guest soprano.

The BSO sounded and looked rather tense in Berlioz’s overture to “Béatrice et Bénédict” before running into another obstacle in the form of the hall’s acoustics. For Grieg’s “Ich Liebe Dich, Op. 5, No. 3”, the challenge for the French conductor was finding the right balance between the orchestra and soprano.

The quick-witted maestro made the adjustments in time for “Ein Schwan in F Major, Op. 25, No. 2”, and “Ein Traum in Db Major, Op. 48, No. 6”. Meanwhile, Vourc’h was pulling off a balancing act of her own, singing while interpreting the words in beautifully expressive actions.

She seemed to take the lead in loosening up the musicians, contributing to one of the evening’s high points—the aria “Song to the Moon” from the opera “Rusalka”.

It was a delightful evening for classical music fans of BSO and those, myself included, who are enjoying the diversity of La Fête’s programmes. And considering that BSO recently performed with Sarah Chang and will soon welcome Lea Salonga, this concert was another memorable collaboration, no matter how brief, between local and guest artists, that brought BSO to our attention again.

And the fun continues...

“La Fête: French-Thai Cultural Festival 2009” is ongoing until October 16. While performing arts and film have been highlights in June, visual arts take centre stage for the next three and a half months.

Two exhibitions are further evidences that La Fête is not simply a feast of French art and culture, but rather artistic and cultural relationships of Thailand and France, and that’s part of the reason why many artists and audiences are calling this year’s La Fête the best ever.

Running until August 10 at Bangkok Art and Culture Centre is “Nice to Meet You”, a collaborative exhibition of photographs by Pascal Blondeau and Michael Shaowanasai.

Then, from August 14 to October 9 at the National Museum, we get the chance to view masterpieces from a major period in our history in “Dvaravati: To the Origins of Buddhism in Thailand”.

The exhibition has been curated by Guimet Museum’s Pierre Baptiste and Thierry Zéphir.

For the full programme, visit www.lafete-bangkok.com.

written by Jasmine Baker and Pawit Mahasarinand

published in THE NATION on Tuesday, July 14, 2009

photos courtesy of the Embassy of France