Sharjah Art Biennial(在线收听) |
Amber: Hello, I'm Amber and you're listening to bbclearningenglish.com. In Entertainment today, we visit the largest art event in the Arab world - the Sharjah Art Biennial in the United Arab Emirates. (A biennial is an event that happens every 2 years.) Artists from all over the world have come to the Emirates to create new work especially for this event, and the theme this year is a big, important issue - the environment. The Sharjah Art Biennial is focussing on how art can create a better understanding of our relationship with nature and on the challenges the world is facing due to excessive urban development and pollution. Now the United Arab Emirates is one of the most rapidly developing man-made environments on the planet – think of the gleaming rows of newly-built hotels and skyscrapers in the city of Dubai, for example. So how does an art event with an ecological theme fit in? BBC reporter Tim Marlow went to investigate. He describes a piece of work which certainly makes you think about the pollution from car exhausts! As you listen, try to image what the art work looks like. Tim Marlow 'It sounds, I'm sure, as if I'm standing in a car park! But, in fact, this is an art work. It's by the German-born, London-based artist, Gustav Metzger, and it was a proposal called 'Stockholm, June 1972' and it was never realised until now. And it involves 120 cars, each with their exhaust pipes hosed up into a central construction which is right in front of me - which is covered in polythene - and all the pollution, all the exhaust fumes are mingling inside. I can see a certain amount of condensation, I can see a certain amount of darkness, and this, I suppose, is the emblematic piece for the 8 Sharjah Biennial, whose themes, you'll be amazed to discover, are ecology and the politics of change.' Amber: Can you picture the piece in your mind? There are 120 cars, each with their exhaust pipes 'hosed up', joined together by hoses or pipes, into 'a central construction', and all the pollution, all the exhaust fumes, are 'mingling' (or mixing) as they collect inside. Tim calls it 'the emblematic' piece for the exhibition – it's symbolic, it suggests the themes of the whole exhibition. Listen again and try to catch the two compound words Tim uses to describe the artist who created the piece. Tim Marlow 'It sounds, I'm sure, as if I'm standing in a car park! But, in fact, this is an art work. It's by the German-born, London-based artist, Gustav Metzger, and it was a proposal called 'Stockholm, June 1972' and it was never realised until now. And it involves 120 cars, each with their exhaust pipes hosed up into a central construction which is right in front of me - which is covered in polythene - and all the pollution, all the exhaust fumes are mingling inside. I can see a certain amount of condensation, I can see a certain amount of darkness, and this, I suppose, is the emblematic piece for the 8 Sharjah Biennial, whose themes, you'll be amazed to discover, are ecology and the politics of change.' Amber: Tim describes Gustav Metzger as a 'German-born, London-based' artist. Next, Tim met the director of the Sharjah Biennial and asked him why he thinks artists are willing to create work on themes like the environment and the politics of change. As you listen, try to catch the adjective we hear to describe the crucially important 'issues' facing societies and 'the world in general'. Director of Sharjah Biennial 'Artists are intellectuals and they have their role in society. Their role is to be at the forefront of the pressing issues of the societies that they live in, or the world in general. And they have to kind of participate, or in this situation, initiate the discussion.' Amber: Did you catch it? We heard that the role or work of artists is to be at the forefront (the very front) of the 'pressing' issues of the societies in which they live. They should 'initiate' (begin) discussion. Now here's a list of the language we focussed on in the programme today. biennial, the Sharjah Art Biennial hosed up mingling emblematic German-born London-based pressing issues
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原文地址:http://www.tingroom.com/lesson/entertainment/69932.html |