Come December, the year-end lists start everywhere and I think they’re great fun. In that spirit, this is the first of a series of posts looking back at the year 2007. First, let me point you to Guardian’s list of 2007’s best films. The list includes Sarah Polley’s poignant drama Away From Her , Clint Eastwood’s war film Letter’s from Iwo Jima and John Curran’s very moving love story The Painted Veil, which is a personal favourite as well. I do have one huge nit to pick though. The list includes Apocalypto, Mel Gibson’s over-the-top period film about the downfall of the Mayan civilisation.

In case, you missed the movie, plot details are here. My beef with Apocalypto was not so much in terms of filmmaking technique. Vivid cinematography, nail-biting action including one exciting chase scene involving Jaguar Paw (the man) and a real jaguar, a hero you care about — it’s all there. And if lots of blood and gore and naked people chanting to the sun or tearing out animal innards is your thing, you probably enjoyed it. Although, the Newsweek review did point out that “the relentless pileup of atrocities becomes self-defeating” and “the harder Apocalypto works to shock and excite you, the less shocked and excited you become”, which I tend to agree with.

But what I was really upset about was the one-dimensional representation of an ancient civilization. By all reports, not all Mayan habits were pleasant but Mel Gibson’s portrayal of them as relentlessly and stupidly savage was off the mark. This article by Traci Arden, a scholar of classic Maya society, pointed out many of the things that were wrong with the film.

The fact that this film was made in Mexico and filmed in the Yucatec Maya language coupled with its visual appeal makes it all the more dangerous. It looks authentic; viewers will be captivated by the crazy, exotic mess of the city and the howler monkeys in the jungle. And who really cares that the Maya were not living in cities when the Spanish arrived?…. The message? The end is near and the savior has come. Gibson’s efforts at authenticity of location and language might, for some viewers, mask his blatantly colonial message that the Maya needed saving because they were rotten at the core. Using the decline of Classic urbanism as his backdrop, Gibson communicates that there was absolutely nothing redeemable about Maya culture, especially elite culture which is depicted as a disgusting feast of blood and excess.

More on this here and here. That they did commit certain brutal acts is not in doubt, but which civilisation including modern ones can escape this accusation? You only need to look at what’s happening in Iraq, Darfur, Burma, Pakistan and some parts of India (and this is just a sampling) to realise that the savage instincts of control and violence are still intact. We’ve just become more sophisticated about the methods. The fact that Gibson chose to showcase the brutality of the Mayans in exaggerated technicolour form without any nuances is problematic.

At the time, many reacted to the accusations saying that they did not see anything overtly racist about the film or that “it was just a film” and people should get off their politically correct high horses. The thing is that a lot of the time, racist messaging is clever, subtle, well-packaged or entertaining. None of this takes away from the long-term impact, unfortunately.

The other issue, of course, is creative freedom. This is a hotly debated topic in many parts of the world today with censorship rules and fatwas zipping around our heads and self-appointed moral guardians brandishing swords at the drop of a pen. I, for one, don’t think that legislation has any place in this arena. Because once you lay down laws about what a person can say, write or show, where do you draw the line? Who decides what is more offensive and what is less? Nor does anyone have the right to burn, beat up or generally act like a savage idiot because they don’t agree with something.

At the same time, it is up to artists to exercise some responsibility while delineating between truth and history, fantasy and fiction, fact and opinion. When these lines blur beyond a point, as they tend to when it comes to genres like historical fiction, it is important to be even more careful. After all, these are the records and documents we are leaving behind for future generations. And over time, the truth may be wiped out altogether and replaced by the imaginations of people like Gibson. It is also important to speak up and voice dissent when someone creates something inauthentic. Just to balance the score or set the record straight.

More on the Mayans here and take a look at this video showing the excavation of an ancient Mayan mural in San Bartolo, Guatemala.

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Over at The Nation, there’s an article on an interesting new book called The Politics of the Veil by historian Joan Wallach Scott, which examines the French obsession with the Muslim’s woman’s headscarf or foulard islamique. Muslim girls in France often face non-admission or expulsion from school when they choose to wear a headscarf. The Politics of the Veil gives us a history of the controversy and Wallach Scott’s research is apparently “broad and exhaustive.The article is a snapshot of what one can expect from the book and gives a brief history of the controversy. It also talks about some of the different factors involved in this debate — secularism, national identity, the idea of a homogeneous European female identity, and sexual liberation. She makes an interesting point about the last.

In reality, both Islamic Sharia and strict French laïcité produced gender systems that essentially deprived women of the right to dispose of their bodies as they wished. Indeed, in Islamic tradition, women are urged to be modest and to steer clear of tabarruj. This Arabic noun has its roots in the verb baraja, which means “to display” or “to show off,” and the noun can be translated as something like “affectation.” In A Season in Mecca, his narrative book about the pilgrimage, Moroccan anthropologist Abdellah Hammoudi uses the term “ostentation” to translate tabarruj, “the invariable term for a bearing that is deemed immodest or conspicuous, a hieratic stance.” Similarly, the French law born out of strict definitions of laïcité warned schoolgirls about displaying “conspicuous” signs of religious affiliation. In short, the battle between the two modes of thinking was played out in women’s bodies.

As usual, individual freedom is forgotten in the bid to fit people into strict ideological moulds. It is disturbing how even ideologies that originally start on the premise of “freeing” a certain group of people end up being restrictive and determining, and therefore ultimately oppressive, in their own way.

The headscarf issue is complex because it is rooted in several questions. How does one negotiate the path between religious freedom and secularism? What does secularism mean? The absence of religion or the freedom to practice whatever you want. If it is the latter, where do you draw the line when it comes to regulated institutions like schools? The Sikh turban, the Muslim hijab, the sacred thread worn by Hindu Brahmins, the Christian crucifix pendant — all of these are religious symbols. Banning one while allowing others is unfair but the more ‘visible’ ones tend to come under more fire than others.

Also, how realistic is it in this age of global migration to hold on to ‘national idenity’ with steely fingers. As people move around more and there are more migrants in every place, there is bound to be upheaval and redefinition of national identity. Whole masses of people cannot be expected to drop all the habits, customs and affiliations that they have been practicing for centuries. They probably would not be able to even if they tried.

In another incident just last month, British MP Jack Straw sparked off an argument around the niqab because he said it was a “visible statement of separation and of difference” and asked women visiting his surgery to consider removing it. The niqab, unlike the hijab which covers only the head, is a veil that covers most of the face, leaving the space around the eyes open. From the BBC report.

Mr Straw was putting women “into a very awkward position by compromising the faith they believe in and that is ill-placed”, Council of Lancashire Mosques chairman Hamid Kureshi told BBC Radio Five Live.

And a political rival - Liberal Democrat constitutional affairs spokesman Simon Hughes - questioned whether it was Mr Straw’s place to question the way that members of the public dressed.

“I don’t think it’s the job for somebody who represents the whole community to say to somebody who comes through the door, ‘Do you mind if you dress differently in order to talk to me?’,” Mr Hughes said.

With time, European countries will need to loosen their construct of national identity and give up on conventional notions of people looking and behaving tidily similar. Diversity does breed some amount of chaos. And chaos is not always bad. We cannot pay lip service to concepts like racial equality and diversity without making space for what that means in real terms. All people come with baggage. People from different races, religions and sexes come with different kinds of baggage. Asking them to leave that baggage at the door is hardly in keeping with the larger goals of unity and tolerance.

Next time you walk down the street, take a closer look at the trash cans. You never know what you may find! This woman found a genuine masterpiece by Mexican artist Rufino Tamayo. The painting, which had been stolen in 1987, turned up in the trash on a Manhattan street four years ago. Instinctively knowing that there was something magnificent about the painting, Elizabeth Gibson took it home and started a search to find out the real story behind the painting.

I think it’s fabulous that she was observant enough to notice the painting, gutsy enough to pick it out of a trash can and take it home and then persevering enough to hunt out the truth. From the report:

Something about the painting pulled her in, Gibson said, and she took it home and put it on a wall.

“It is huge and it’s very brilliant coloured, very abstract, but you can make out three figures and it’s just very powerful, it’s overwhelming,” she said.

The 1970 painting is titled Tres Personajes and other works by its painter, Tamayo, have soared in value in recent years.

Tamayo’s paintings do have a very strong, almost overwhelming presence. You can view some of them here. The painting will now fetch $ 1 million at an auction.

This also reminds me of the two Edvard Munch paintings that were found last year: The Scream and Madonna. The Scream is considered one of Norwegian artists Munch’s most important works. The motives for the theft aroused much speculation that time around, primarily because the painting had clearly suffered a great deal of neglect. From a Guardian article:

Looking at The Scream now, it is shockingly clear that the damage was caused by carelessness and neglect. A huge watery stain, like a watermark on a tea bag, seeps over its bottom left-hand corner, on the walkway and even on the lower part of the figure. Pigment has dissolved or been washed away.

Why would anyone let that happen? It had to be because the painting didn’t interest them at all. Neither in the drag racer’s bus nor wherever it went after that did anyone even bother to look at The Scream. It was wrapped in a damp blanket and forgotten about.

In this case also, the thief was obviously careless enough to let the painting end up in a trash can. It’s heartbreaking, really.

Art theft is a major category of international crime. Selling a masterpiece in the open market is difficult but it can be used to extort rewards or ransom or as currency in the underworld. There can be other more twisted reasons. Such as the desire to steal cultural property or sheer bravado. This article explores the different motives in detail.

Here is a chronicle of the world’s most wanted art. At the top of the list is a Johannes Vermeer masterpiece taken during the notorious Gardner museum heist of 1990. Some of the biggest heists are still unsolved which means there’s a lot of stolen art floating around out there. One can only hope that in time the lost paintings will find their way back to where they belong. In the meantime, keep your eyes peeled.

Marcel Marceau, the maestro of mime died last week. He was 84. The IHT has a report here and here is the NY Times report. Salon has an extensive article about Marceau — the man and the mine — in their Brilliant Careers section.

Best known for creating the character Bip with his white face, striped shirt and carnation-topped hat, Marceau conveyed more through his silences than others could hope to in words. Traveling the world to spread his L’art du Silence (The Art of Silence), Marceau drew on human experiences and emotions and his shows relied on universal notions rather than regional particularities. According to IHT:

Marceau, who could be quite chatty in interviews, once said of his pantomime: “Mostly I think of human situations for my work, not local mannerisms. There is no French way of laughing and no American way of crying. My subjects try to reveal the fundamental essences of humanity.”

In this he had much in common with his greatest inspiration, Charlie Chaplin. A holocaust survivor whose father died in Auschwitz, Marceau’s silences were informed with all that the human heart can hold, suffer and bear. From the Times obituary:

Like the characters of Chaplin and Dickens, Bip was a small figure in an enormous world that was simultaneously wonderful and terrifying. Made by society to feel inferior, Bip is driven to rebellion. He reflects the radical views of his creator, as well as his ultimate optimism. “We know that the fighting spirit of man is everlasting,” Marceau explained. “Death is absurd, but humanity has to be eternal.”

Marceau is largely credited with reviving the mime form. He was appointed a Chevalier de la Légion d’honneur, Officer of the Ordre Nationale du Mérite, and a Commander of Arts and Letters of the French Republic. He won the Deburau Prize for Death Before Dawn, and two Emmy Awards for his television productions.

But he leaves behind an uncertain legacy. As he himself once pointed out: if the man and the art form were one, when the man died, the art form would die with him. One can only hope that this will not be the case.

Mime has long been a lesser cousin of the arts world in western culture, probably because there are so many cheap hucksters looking to make a quick buck with plastered faces and exaggerated gestures. True mime involves restraint and creativity — a fact that many are not aware of. In Asian cultures, mime enjoys more respect and prominence with Kathakali in India and Noh in Japan heavily depending on mime (in combination with music or dance) to convey elaborate stories or messages. In western societies, there are some who are trying to infuse fresh life into the form but popular perceptions often range from skepticism to ridicule. This slightly older article in New Statesman talks about where mime stands today and here is a brief history of mime as an art form in western cultures.

Slow down my beating heart
Man dreams one day to fly
A man takes a rocket ship into the skies
He lives on a star that’s dying in the night
And follows in the trail
The scatter of light

~ In a Little While, U2

The latest New Yorker cover story is about a truly “global musician”– Manu Chao. Chao’s latest album “La Radiolina” has 22 tracks in five different languages. Including English which he gleaned from music and crime novels while growing up. For those familiar with his style, this is nothing surprising. Considered the pioneer of Latin alternative music, Chao sings in French, Spanish, Arabic, Galician, Portuguese, English and the Senegalian language Wolof. Here is the New York Times review of La Radiolina and you can listen to samples here.

Elaborating on Chao’s multiculturalism, The New Yorker article informs us that:

Chao maintains apartments in Paris and Barcelona, and spends part of each year in Fortaleza, a town in northern Brazil, where his eight-year-old son lives. He is completing an album of songs in Portañol (a hybrid of Spanish and Portuguese) and collaborating on another, with patients in a psychiatric hospital in Buenos Aires.

Fascinating. I haven’t heard Chao yet but I will run out and get myself the CD soon.

This does make me wonder about something else though. Foreign travel has always been something of a privilege, a badge to be worn proudly. With words like “global citizenship” and “multiculturalism” becoming common parlance, it’s become almost a mark of something more — superior sensibilities and an evolved sense of humanity.

But being “global” doesn’t always come cheap. Maintaining apartments in multiple countries comes at a price. As does jetting around the world — even on cheaper flights. Vast numbers of people, especially in developing countries, may not be able to invest so much in developing a multicultural identity. Or their money may be better spent elsewhere.

But world travel has become more than a practical or even recreational need. It has become something of a coveted title. To some people, the stamped passport is probably as important as a doctoral degree. What does this mean for those who can’t or don’t “achieve international exposure” for whatever reason? Will they increasingly become something of a lower caste in this new kind of elitism? Or will they find other ways to engage with the world? There are other issues involved as well. Immigration has wider economic, social and cultural impact. Air travel is increasingly being looked at as an environmental hazard.

Not for one moment am I espousing that we should chain ourselves to our chairs. That we shouldn’t stand awe-struck before the Pyramids or gape at the Niagara. Taste the desert thirst in deepest Sahara. Sit at a Parisian cafe, moon over Italian sculptures, gaze into the waters at Venice. Drink Turkish coffee or cavort with kangaroos down under. All I’m saying is that as we move forward — and around — at dizzying speed, we shouldn’t forget some of the larger issues. Even if they slow us down just a little bit.

Meanwhile, here are some tips on greener travel.

There’s cause to rejoice for liberal forces in a conservative nation. After many postponements and delays, Pakistan’s National Art Gallery opened to the public this week with an exhibit of 600 works. The idea of having a national art gallery was first mooted 25 years ago and its taken half a century of persistence for it to see the light of day. Even more significantly, the Ministry of Culture has promised there will be no censorship.

Sprawling over 1800 square yards, the National Art Gallery is located in Islamabad. The massive project includes 14 galleries with adjacent display areas, lecture halls, workshops and storage facilities, a laboratory, a library, a cafeteria and an auditorium. According to this report:

The interior space is white with warm accents such as a brick-paved ramp leading to the mezzanine, and a few areas with wood detailing on the ceiling. An auditorium and a rooftop courtyard are surrounded by delicate arches.

The exterior is made almost entirely of brick — a rare choice in an era of new museums around the world constructed with large concrete or stone slabs.

Some of the art on display reflects classic concerns of Pakistani society. A miniature painting by Waseem Ahmed entitled ‘Burqa’ has the reclining Venus in a gauzy, transparent burqa, gazing into a mirror that reflects apples, clearly making references to the position of women in Pakistani society and concepts like narcissism and temptation. From this website:

The Burqa symbol is used to explore the validity of the veil in a patriarchal society, especially with reference to gender bias and the prevalent East West disparity in thought and action regarding feminist issues.

A sculpture by Khalil Chishtee, constructed entirely of white plastic bags, depicts a woman walking a tightrope, with a man below with his head turned up toward her, “apparently held in position by a thread tugging his nose skyward”. Interestingly, it’s called ‘Your Success, My Failure’ and provokes questions about gender disparity and its implications. You can take a look at it here.

Art plays a crucial role in examining society and in challenging or subverting accepted norms. But to do this, it needs freedom. The opening of the gallery is huge step in the right direction. Whether or not conservative forces will stay out of the workings of the gallery and artists will continue to enjoy this level of new-found freedom is something that we will have to wait and watch.

Live Earth, the much-publicized 24-hour rock concert, happened yesterday. The New York Times’ Arts Beat blog has the updates and Telegraph pans it as a huge yawn. Earlier, George Marshall at The Guardian talked about why rock won’t save the planet and readers gave their opinions here. Marshall pointed out:

This could be a revolution if it were a mass rally with clear political objectives. Imagine millions of people taking to the streets around the world with a coherent agenda for slashing greenhouse gas emissions. But it is not. It is a rock concert with climate infomercials spliced between bands singing about the people they fancy. The music will contain virtually no mention of climate change and will lack the anger, fear and aggression needed to galvanise change.

Apparently, the concert reached 10 million people online at MSN. What remains to be seen is whether these people will now cut down on car use, switch off lights more often, buy ‘greener’ products or do anything else remotely aimed at saving the planet.

It’s difficult for people to invest in issues that they can’t really ’see’ the ill effects of. For most people, global warming is a scary but rather distant reality. The very largeness of the issue makes it hard to grasp. And awareness building programs are inevitably a mix of doomsday prophecies and admonitions to ‘do your little bit’. Possibly, what is needed is smaller, more focused suggestions that take into account that people also need to live their lives today while trying to preserve the world for the future.

What do you think?