Posted on 07/17/2008 9:54:40 PM PDT by Free ThinkerNY
It is known as the Veil and is described by its architects as a giant glass Muslim headscarf in the heart of Paris. The former French president Jacques Chirac saw it as one way to avert a clash of civilisations in the run-up to the Iraq war. President Nicolas Sarkozy calls it the symbol of France's friendship with the Arab world.
The Louvre's bold new Islamic art wing had its first stone laid by Sarkozy yesterday , launching the museum's most daring project since IM Pei created the giant glass pyramid 20 years ago. The world's most visited museum will have Europe's biggest purpose-built exhibition space for an Islamic art collection, which France hopes will reconcile the secular republic with the world of Islamic heritage.
The €86m (£68m) project will open in 2010, creating 3,000 square metres of gallery space in one of the museum's neo-classical courtyards. Rather than cover the courtyard, a glass "luminous veil" will "float" above the ground, covering two floors. The Italian architect Mario Bellini yesterday described the undulating roof as "a headscarf blown in by the wind".
It was a pertinent image, coming soon after French citizenship was denied to a resident Moroccan woman who wears a veil. France has outlawed the headscarf and other religious symbols in public schools and yesterday Fadela Amara, a Muslim and feminist junior minister, criticised all form of veils.
The project's other architect, Rudy Ricciotti, said: "It is important for France, with a Muslim population of 5 million, to create something that speaks directly to the presence of Muslims in this country. This is a political museum in...
(Excerpt) Read more at arts.guardian.co.uk ...
I’m not sure why they need this. Paris already has an Islamic art museum.
I use art here very loosely, as anyone who has ever seen Islamic “art” will very quickly pick up on the fact that it’s fairly inferior stuff outside of architecture.
The prohibition against pictoral representations pretty much limits it to patterened rugs, tiles, and script.
When you beging comparing it to Christian, Buddhist, or Hindu traditions, it’s blatantly weak.
When was the second time? Once was to the Nazis in 1940. They also surrendered to the Prussians in the Franco-Prussian war, but that was more than 100 years ago. They didn't surrender in WW I.
Where is Charles Martel when the French need him?
He’s on Tours. His flight left at 7:32. :)
He’s on Tours. His flight left at 7:32. :)
The art created in the Islamic world (or the art branches that were allowed to continue, since the Arab Islamic hordes imposed their new set of rules) was foremostly the work of the enslaved nations or inferior Arab copies. The most beautiful pieces of architecture and art are always bound to be of non-Islamic origin.
Why the Hell are we doing this? We weren't attacked because we "didn't understand Islam". We were attacked because we aren't Islamic.
No cultural exchange until they permit US to showcase OUR culture (and not just Hollywood trash) in THEIR countries. Including religious texts.
This is nonsense. Utter propaganda. No good cause is served by this. It isn't even merit based. It is fear that causes them to host such works. And I've seen Islamic art on display in my city every year since 9-11.
You forget that the post-moderns are all over "conceptual" art like a room with a light switch going on and off all day long, or 12 canvases all painted black. Or 25 chalk boards with scribbles. Or a crucifix submerged in a glass of urine...
One could make a case for the French having surrendered French-Indo China.
Dien Bien Phu, Viet Nam - 1954
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Dien_Bien_Phu
A better example would be Algeria because some considered to be part of France rather than a colony. The Algerian War even resulted in the end of the Fourth Republic in France.
When the term "France has surrendered twice" was used, I was expecting a second case of victorious armies marching through the streets of Paris, not a colony rebelling.
I certainly would.
cultural jihad bump
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