THE CONSULATE of Canada is hosting a couple of lectures by two distinguished speakers, within the framework of this year’s Francophone festivities.
The first lecture, which will take place on Tuesday, will be given by Graham Colville, son of Alex Colville, internationally recognised as one of Canada’s best realist artists. Colville’s lecture entitled Alex Colville the Artist will be in English and accompanied by illustrations of his father’s works.
Colville Snr, born in Toronto, first came to prominence as an artist during the Second World War when, at age 24, he was chosen to serve as a member of the elite Canadian War Art Program. When the war ended he was one of three artists sent to observe and record Bergen Belsen concentration camp, an event that had a profound influence on him. After the war he taught art and art history at Mount Allison University before devoting himself full time to his painting and printmaking.
Colville’s work has been exhibited all over the world; in North America, Europe and the Far East. He has received many honours. He was chosen to design a set of coins for Canada’s Centennial in 1967, the same year he was named to the Order of Canada.
His impressive body of work examines the importance of the seemingly ordinary, permeating with surrealism and symbolism. His subjects are derived from the inspiration that surrounds him; his family, animals he kept, and landscapes in his Canadian East Coast upbringing. Rendered with meticulous precision, in a pointillist style, his deceptively simple domestic scenes, hold a sense of unresolved tension and anxiety, imbued with many layers of significance, as evidenced in his twilight image of a black horse running along railway tracks, toward the light of an oncoming train or his depiction of a woman on a boat gazing out through her binoculars into the viewer’s eyes. These curious points of life mark the hyper-realist vision of the artist.
The second lecture will take place on March 23, entitled Federalism and will be presented by Michel Bonnardeaux, Spokesperson of the United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus.
He is on mission from the Public Affairs Section in the Department of Peacekeeping operations (DPKO) at United Nations Headquarters. Prior to this, he worked as Chief Public Information for MINURCAT, the UN mission in Chad and the Central African Republic, where he also served as Special Advisor to the Special Representative of the Secretary General. He was deployed to Haiti immediately following the earthquake in January 2010 to head up public information efforts for MINUSTAH, the UN mission in Haiti.
The lecture will be in English and will also be circulated in written form in French. It is worth noting that since Cyprus is currently engaged in negotiations for a political solution, much is to be gained by understanding concepts such as federalism and multiculturalism within the Canadian federal system which have often been cited in various resolution strategies. The main feature of federalism is the distribution of sovereignty between two levels of government in such a way that neither level is entirely subordinated to the other.
Thus, essentially, the federal system is adopted where it is felt that the preservation of the individuality and separateness of the constituent parts is as important as the preservation of the nation as a whole. Both lectures will take place at the Casteliotissa Hall in old Nicosia and are open to the public.
Alex Colville the Artist
Lecture by Graham Colville, son of Alex Colville, discussing the life and work of one the most renowned living Canadian artist of our times. March 13. Castelliotissa Hall, old Nicosia. 7.30pm. In English. Free. Tel: 22-775508
Federalism
Lecture by Michel Bonnardeaux, Spokesperson of the United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus. March 23. Castelliotissa Hall, old Nicosia. 7.30pm. In English. Free. Tel: 22-775508
