1 pce.: Animation

Tales of the Night , Michel Ocelot (Kirikou and the Sorceress, Azur & Asmar)'s film extends the earlier shadow puppet style of Ocelot’s Princes and Princesses, with black silhouetted characters set off against exquisitely detailed Day-Glo backgrounds bursting with color and kaleidoscopic patterns.

The film weaves together six exotic fables each unfolding in a unique locale, from Tibet, to medieval Europe, an Aztec kingdom, the African plains, and even the Land of the Dead.

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'The Snowy Day and the Art of Ezra Jack Keats'

The Snowy Day and the Art of Ezra Jack Keats, at The Jewish Museum, is the first major exhibition in this country to pay tribute to award-winning author and illustrator Ezra Jack Keats (1916–1983), whose beloved children’s books include Whistle for Willie, Peter’s Chair, and The Snowy Day—the first modern full-color picture book to feature an African-American protagonist.Published in 1962, at the height of the civil rights movement in America, the book went on to become an inspiration for generations of readers, transforming children’s literature forever.

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“Now you understand the Oriental passion for tea,"

said Japhy.

"Remember that book I told you about the first sip is joy,

the second is gladness,

the third is serenity,

the fourth is madness,

the fifth is ecstasy.”

~ Jack Kerouac

link

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Google's Art Project Website

Google aims to bring the world's great art galleries into the home with a new website that offers virtual tours using Street View technology, the ability to build private collections and ultra-high resolution images.

While most big galleries have been busy making their works accessible online for years, experts told a launch at London's Tate Britain gallery on Tuesday that Google's site was looking to take the online art experience to a new level.

"It could be the game changer," said Julian Raby of the Freer Gallery of Art, part of the Smithsonian in Washington DC, which is one of 17 galleries taking part in the project.

Nelson Mattos, VP Engineering at Google, said the Art Project site would allow children from Latin America, India and Africa, who were unlikely to see the originals, to come close to the experience on the internet.

"This really represents a major step forward in the way people are going to interact with these beautiful treasures of art around the world," he said, adding that Google planned to expand the site over the coming years.

Mattos and art curators at the launch said they were confident that no matter how advanced the technology, the new site would never replace visiting the museums.

"We obviously don't believe this technology is going to prevent people from coming to the museums," he added. "We hope that the opposite will happen."

"False Friends" at Jeu De Paume

The works brought together in the exhibition “False Friends / An Ephemeral Video Library” present micro-narratives articulated around personal experiences, anecdotes or testimony. Situated on the margins of mainstream history and reportage, they show historical reality in a different light and offer readings that are complementary, singular, marginal and inventive.

This project echoes the advent of alternative modes of access to information – digital platforms, blogs, new communications networks — Whether documentaries, fictions, chronicles, tales or true-fiction, the 24 videos by artists from all around the world forming this selection of “False Friends” do not attempt to offer a standard or conventional description of reality, nor do they set out to mediate or simplify it so as to make it easier to grasp. Rather, they tend to present a fragmented, subtle vision through stories about secondary figures.

Alternatively humorous, nostalgic or tense, they help to shake up convictions and preconceived ideas. Imperfect translations of events in which we can still hear echoes of reality, these “false friends” nevertheless have undeniable authenticity.

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