Word: terracotta
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...That man is Eko Agus Prawoto, a 49-year-old Yogyakarta architect trained locally and in the Netherlands. He is belatedly winning plaudits for his blend of contemporary design, sensitivity to local conditions and use of materials - bamboo, coconut wood, terracotta - that are sustainable, often recycled and highly suitable for regions liable to geological disturbances and flooding. Immediately after the quake, this self-styled "village architect" used Japanese and Indonesian aid money to build more than 130 shelters. He hoped the design of the rough-and-ready structures would serve as models for local villagers, encouraging them to give...
...same, unfortunately, cannot be said for its theft. Although no complete figures are available, police and cultural officials report a large increase in recent years in the pilfering of Brazil's religious artifacts and objets d'art. The booty includes wood and terracotta sculptures, gold and silver candlesticks, thuribles and communion silver - even rare books, maps and engravings...
...least where the arts community is concerned. While political tensions simmer on other fronts - China's military buildup, Taiwan's ongoing bid for U.N. recognition, the Olympic torch route, to name a few - cultural exchanges have never been healthier. Cloud Gate is just one example. The largest group of terracotta-army artifacts ever to leave China (116 in total) is another: it was on exhibit last month at Taiwan's National Museum of History, before embarking on a world tour that will include London's British Museum and a sweep through the U.S. The exchanges are also taking place with...
...goodwill is being reciprocated in Taiwan, where the suspicion that works from the mainland have ulterior political motives has almost entirely dissipated. When the terracotta army made its first trip to Taiwan in 2000, some in President Chen Shui-bian's independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party interpreted the exhibit as a veiled attempt by Beijing to whip up pro-China sentiment. This time around, no one so much as raised an eyebrow. "People used to ask why bring this or that production over," says Wu Jing-jyi, who formerly chaired the National Chiang Kai-shek Cultural Center...
...hurdles remain, of course. Lines of communication must be handled carefully. To bring the terracotta army over from Xian this year, Taiwan's National Museum of History had to negotiate the deal through a third party (exhibition sponsor United Daily News Group) because high-level government-to-government contacts are forbidden. And no one expects progress on the issue of the National Palace Museum collections in Taiwan. The Chinese government still views the museum's holdings as stolen loot, spirited away by Chiang Kai-shek's army when it retreated to the island in 1949; curators in Taipei...