Geronimo: Geronimo

SUR LES PAS DE GÉRONIMO

by Corine Sombrun and

Harlyn GERONIMO

Available in bookstores May 20th, 2008

A new book has just come out on the legendary Apache Indian GERONIMO, published by Alban Michel.                                  

  Harlyn Géronimo, his great-grandson, was present in Paris to lauch the edition based on his ancestor Geronimo (1829-1909)

One of the last Indians to lay down his weapons at the end of the wars, after holding out to over a half of the U.S. cavalry, he finally had to surrender with a handful of his bedraggled followers and despite the white army's promises, was never to see his native Arizona again before dying in captivity.

His sepulcre at the military cemetary at Fort-Still in Oklahoma, was profaned by the Skull and Bones Yale fraternity and never returned to his ancestral home. 

In 2008, Harlyn Geronimo, the co-author of this account, decided to hire a top lawyer to sue the US army to regain the remains of his illustrious forebear and bury them according to his original wish on his homelands.

The project was initiated after a Frenchwoman, Corinne Sombrun met Harlyn Geronimo in 2005 in New Mexico.  They retraced the path to the source, at GILA, the place of Geronimo's birth.

Thanks to this fruitful and glorious collaboration, Harlyn Geronimo authorised Corine to record his testimony and publish the book in French. Harlyn also relates his continual life as a warrior but this time in Vietnam and his political commitments, cultural resistence, tutoring the Indian culture to young people and talks about the Indians today,their state and challenges they face.

Being an apache is a lesson in life, goes the old Indian proverb " Be brave, like your ancestors in the face of their enemies, and defend yourself  - Bi da a naka enda. "

THE AUTHORS

Born in 1947, Harlyn Geronimo, the great-grandson of the famous Apache chief and warrior, Geronimo, is himself a medicine man, living on the Apache Reserve in New Mexico and upholds the traditions and rights of his people.

 Corine Sombrun, a trained pianist and composer, is the first Western woman initiated into the Mongol Shaman rite. A world traveller, she reports for magazines, the BBC, and collaborates in Canada with scientists in the study of shamanism and its effects on the human brain.

She lives between Paris, London and Mongolia, where she spends several months a year. 

Albin Michel Press Attachée is Anne-Emmanuelle Robicquet  01 42 79 10 59

"THE SCENT OF OAK" spearheads

1st TRAVELLING CARRIBBEAN FILM SHOWCASE : April 14-18 at UNESCO, Paris

Jorge Perrugoria and Lia Chapman: ROBEL DE OLOR, Rigoberto Lopez This new travelling film showcase from the Caribbean region, chaired by
Cuban filmmaker, Rigoberto LOPEZ, at UNESCO, recently showed a selection of  features  and shorts chosen among 21 participating Caribbean countries.

Under the umbrella of UNESCO to promote creativity, language and cultural diversity, supported by the Cuban Institute of Art and  Cinematographic Industry and Caribbean Community (CARICOM), the  
event first launched from St. Kitts and Nevis.

Object is to promote Caribbean filmmaking and explore that region's 
population, culture and issues.

Spearheading the UNESCO showcase was the Cuban historical romantic saga
SCENT OF OAK / ROBLE DE OLOR
directed by the Itinerant Festival President, Cuban cineaste Rigoberto López.

The flm is inspired by real persons, a mixed couple who in the 1800's in Cuba, set up one of the most important café plantations on the Island - 
Cornelio Souchay, an idealistic German businessman, portrayed by popular actor Jorge Perugorria, and Ursula Lambert (Lia Chapman), a Creole  from the Island of Hispanola, later divided up into Haiti and Dominican Republic, as an independent textile shop merchant.

Their fates cross paths when Souchay spots her around town, finding out where she works and then purchases some cloth in her store. It is clear from first glance, that he is strongly besotted with the pround and elegant Lambert, pursuing her around the colonial city until she succumbs to his genteel courtship and 'old world'charm.

The street-wise Ursula coaches him into staking their (promising) luck on the lucrative coffee trade and establishing a plantation named Angerona, after a pantheistic divinity she believes in (although she frequents the Catholic institutions at hand, as well).

Their premise is to create a sort of utopia farm where black workers and slaves are treated with respect and encouraged to cultivate themselves by forming an classical orchestra proficient in Hayden, Mozart and the great European composers. In the way it is run, the observance of humane principles by Cornelio Souchay and Ursula who physically pitch in with the work at all stages too, the endeavour blossoms into a successful and happy venture for all, where the blacks are given hope for the future.

But envy and greed arouses in power figures of the local council and neighbours due to the unconvential nature of the project and soon runs afoul with local farmers, Spanish bureaucrats and even members of Souchay's own family - an unsufferably snobbish blonde female cousin visiting from Germany, who turns out to be the worst imaginable pest, all betraying his friendship, hospitality and all out for his and Ursula's hide.

"The film is a metaphor", explains the director. It is not to be taken                 SCENT OF OAK by Rigoberto Lopez at UNESCO
realistically and those who only perceive it as a film against racism, 
miss out o (...)

Աղբ _ Art / akhb_ art/Աղբ- means trash in Armenian

/summary of the project/ Curated by Arman Tadevosyan

Where some people see trash, others see art. And, in some art, some people will only see a pile of meaningless trash. So, what's the difference? Maybe it's just in the eye of the beholder or artist. Maybe it's simply a matter of opening our minds to new and unique ways of doing and seeing things.

Each of us can differentiate rubbish (garbage) from another material. The art has a something magic in itself. It gives us the opportunity to transform the perception of one material into another one. Output of this kind of action, in general, we call Art Work (object, sculpture, installation, etc.), "²Õµ _ Art " project is about that kind of transformation...

Arman

Comments

1. Using the trash and creating an art from that is the way to fix the attention of people to the ecologically bad situation of Gyumri. As well as fixing the attention of politicians at this problem.
2. This project's idea is to change the peoples' attitude towards their environment and take care of the city.

1. Art is finding new and inventive ways for recycling those things you normally throw away.

Made by Hrach Vardanyan

Made by Arman Tadevosyan

Made by Alex & Arman

Eco Art by Arman Tadevosyan: TRASH AS ART 

 

A new short documentary TRANSFORMATION, shot in Kars, Eastern Turkey, is ready to unreel at the upcoming Cannes Film Festival.

Dedicated to the great Armenian lyrical poet Yeghishe Charents, true to its title, the film explores cultural changes imposed on Armenian structures throughout time.

Conceived by a young artist-painter, Arman Tadevosyan, native of Gyumri, Armenia, in collaboration with German Cameraman and filmmaker Thomas Balkenhol, who teaches cinema art at the Ankara University and Helen Dobrensky, during their last November visit to Eastern Turkey's Festival on Wheels in KARS, a debut presentation at the Kars Cultural Centre was warmly welcomed by Turkish students and film pros attending.TRANSFORMATION: A docu about Armenian culture in Turkey Armenian church in Turkey: Armenian church

Yeghishe Charents: Armenian Poet Yeghishe CharentsYeghishe Charents house in Kars: Yeghishe Charents house in KarsOn a quiet pedestrian street in KARS, is the run-down delapitaded house where Yeghishe Charents, (1897 - 1937) one of the greatest Armenian poets was born and lived.Both his primary and secondary schooling took place in KARS

 His patriotic pleas to unite Armenians against  Stalinism ended him in prison, where he died at the age of 40.

 Charent's House in kars, Turkey: Armenian poet's house in delapidated state in Kars today.

His poetry reflects his love and revolt for ARMENIA, in the throes of  a trubulent period under Russian occupation.

Yeghishe Charents was jailed in 1936 in a Stalinist purge, after writing his now famous paen to nationalism "The Message," due to the explicit plea in the second line :

"O Armenian people, your only salvation is in your collective power."

Disappointed with communism in the 1930's, he was a totally disillusioned and bitter man.  .

Charents wrote intensively  until his death and published 6 books of poems  and a novel: LYRICAL POEMS, DANTEAN LEGEND (1916), THE FRENZIED MOBS (1918), POEMS (1923), LAND OF NAYIRI (1923)-- a novel, EPIC DAYBREAK (1930), BOOK FOR THE ROAD (1933).

One of his most impassioned poems mirroring his love for Armenia is the following :

"I love the sun-baked taste of Armenian words,
the lilt of ancient lutes in sweet laments
our blood-red fragrant roses bending
as in Nayiran dances, danced still by our girls.
 
I love the deep night sky, our lakes of light,
the winter winds that howl like dragons fire.
The meanest huts with blackened walls are dear to me-
each of the thousand year old city stones.
 
Wherever I go, I take our mournful music,
our steel forged letters turned to prayers.
However sharp my wounds or drained of blood,
or orphaned- my yearning heart turns there with love.
 
There is no brow, no mind, like Narek's Koutch.

No mountain peak like Ararat's,
Search the world, there is no crest as white, so holy.
So like an unreached road to glory - Massis mountain that I love".

TÜRKIYE : A 2-WORLD BALANCE ACT

Twilight in North-East Turkey: Photo by Mustafa Küpeli It is hard not to notice a certain dichotomy in Turkish society which has exacerbated with the recent elections held in that country.

Although democracy has definitely expanded throughout the land, the cherished secularism of Mustafa Kemal ATATÜRK, founder of the modern nation, is now being challenged by the ruling AKP party.

This Justice and Development Party (AKP), after its July 2007 reelection, has gained a larger share of the popular vote, meaning that now almost half of Turkish citizen voters have rallied to it and to what it represents.

The AKP, although currently moderate, condones the Muslim heritage social and religious conservatism so dear to rural populations and has struck a big note with small-town populations as well as the up and coming middle -classes of the Anatolian cities, like in Kars. Modern in many of its ideas, it embraces free markets and endorses the twin Ottoman-Muslim heritage over the Kemalist ideological notions of secularism, republicanism and Western values.

Recep ERDOGAN, the present party leader as well as Prime Minister of Turkey, embodies this power which raises concern about motivation for continuing political and social reforms to permit the country to enter the European Community. Important issues pending, include the Kurdish problem and abolishment of certain articles in the Penal Code that limit freedom of expression, notably criticism of 'Turkishness' which lead to prosecution.

Examples are Armenian-Turk Hrant Dink, murdered by a young fanatic and Orhan Pamuk (Nobel Prize winner in 2006).

Although Turkish voters now seem to rule the country, the malaise caused by such competing ideologies, both vying for power, exercises pressure and strain on the Kemalist -thinking nationalists. There is little grounds to predict how the AKP will govern immediate and upcoming social and political issues that have to be dealt with. This overwhelming face-à-face may hopefully be defied and overcome to steer the country away from a hard-line populist, Asian-value nation towards an energetic and democratic society as a potential member of the European Community..

Here are some ambiance parting views of the magnificent scenery near the Festival of Kars headquarters moving on towards Lake Cildir. Courtesy of 

Mustafa Küpeli (Istanbul).

Sultry Farewell with tree: ON the way to Lake Cildir, Eastern Turkey.Twixt Lake and Land -: ON the way to Lake Cildir, Eastern Turkey

 Listen  and SEE  Erkan Ogur - Bulbulum Altin Kafeste :    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21FHBHPQE94  

 and

Hear ZEYNEP here :  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKAOTzzb6nk

One of the biggest highlights at the Kars stop of the Festival on Wheels in Turkey in November 2007 was the last night performance of Erkan Oğur and İsmail H.Demircioğlu Erkan Ogur and İsmail H.Demircioğl: Traditional Turkish musicians perform at Karsin the bustling Bolero Club in KARS, Turkey. Genial, warm and unassuming, performing his traditional folk repertoire before mesmerized Festival Guests , the number one artist is held in great esteem in his country.Erkan OGUR: Top Turkish traditional musician  
1954 Born in Ankara Turkey. Raised in Elazig in eastern Turkey. Age 5 began to play violin. Various "saz" instruments and cumbus performing traditional folk music of East Turkey.

1970 Began university studies at Ankara Science Faculty, transferring later to Munich University.

1971 Introduced to guitar, absorbing both classical and electric guitar techniques, utilizing them to blend with Turkish makams and forms.

1976 Developed fretless guitar, constructed different guitars and experimented with the E-bow, (a magnetic bowing device that can produce a variety of sounds reminiscent of Turkish music.) Without frets, the guitar became capable of producing the complex untempered scales of his beloved folk melodies.

1980 Returned to Istanbul and began studies at the State Conservatory graduating in 1984.

1987 Worked as instructor for the State Conservatory.

1989 Spent one year in America playing in New York, Chicago, Houston, lowa and Wisconsin.

1990 Returned the Turkey With newly developed 8 string fretless guitar.

1991 Began to focus energy on kopuz or "dede baglama", a special member of the saz family.

2000 Since 1991, touring Europe, Asia and the United States, recording his own work, writing and producing film scores, providing studio and live support for Turkish and international musicians in their concerts and recordings.