Tag: Belem

Melaka Gateway Debacle

~ The Koboi Project
1 Malaca Malaca https://koboibalikkampung.wixsite.com/nuntengporta

The Melaka Gateway Project is cancelled again! According to the Edge Markets, the Melaka state government terminated their RM43 billion contract with KAJ Development Sdn Bhd. The Edge notes that this mega project had been cancelled before. In 2018, KAJ Development’ had their licence to operate the port and terminal revoked by the Federal Ministry of Transport, to be reinstated in 2019, following court proceedings. Curiouser than Alice’s Wonderland, FMT reports that Melaka Chief Minister Sulaiman Md Ali has, even after this second cancellation, pledged to continue the project, thereby providing the circumstances under which the project might be canceled yet again!

The Melaka Chief Minister is reported to have indicated that the project now falls under the state’s new economic corridor called the Melaka Waterfront Economic Zone. Sulaiman is supposed to have said, “The development will continue, but we have some technical issues that we need to fix,” which might be read as a criticism of KAJ Development. The Melaka Waterfront Economic Zone or M-WEZ which was announced on the 10th of October 2020 refers to a 15,000-acre sea reclamation area running from Umbai to Tanjung Bruas. This 22km stretch includes the area covered by the Melaka Gateway land reclamation.

Related Posts –

Melaka Gateway Update
Silting-up the Settlement 3
Silting-up the Settlement 2
Silting Up the Settlement 1
Kristang Protest
Portugues Antigo
Portuguese/ Malay Fusion
Jingkli Nona

The above image from the Kaza Nunteng Porta series was shot in the Portuguese Settlement, Melaka. I made my way out onto a rickety fishing jetty to raise my Rajinikanth flag with the Melaka Gateway development behind me, obscuring the horizon as well as the fishermen’s access to the sea. The rest of the series was shot in Belem, Lisbon at the sites of two monuments, one of which includes the depiction of the fall of Melaka to Alfonso de Albuquerque.

https://www.theedgemarkets.com/article/frankly-speaking-melaka-gateway-project-axed-again

https://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/nation/2020/11/28/rm43-billion-melaka-gateway-project-will-go-on-says-chief-minister/

https://www.theedgemarkets.com/article/melaka-develop-new-economic-corridor-will-be-game-changer

The Discoveries!

~ The Koboi Project

“To celebrate the men who achieved great deeds for the nation, it is also necessary to celebrate the mothers who carried in their arms the children killed by the men who achieved great deeds for the nation.” This photo performance at the site of the Monument to the Discoveries in Belem, Lisboa presents the award winning show Aurora Negra which will run between September 3 and 14, at the Teatro Nacional D. Maria II, Lisboa.

The Koboi Project intervened at this same site in 2018 as part of a set of photo-performative street actions, which resulted in the series Kaza Nunteng Porta (House Without a Door).

https://www.facebook.com/MidiaNINJA/photos/a.164308700393950/1968374329987369

Kaza Nunteng Porta

~ The Koboi Project

After my Dari Pusat Tasek performance in Lumut, Perak, I went to meet Sara Frederica Santa Maria in the Kampung Portuguese Settlement, Melaka. We are planning to work together as a part of my Kaza Nunteng Porta performance series which links the Settlement with Lisbon, Portugal. We are planning to create an engagement on the street and perhaps on stage in Lisbon, bringin the Kristang language, music, dance and food home to Belem, the harbour district from which the Portuguese mariners set sail on their adventures of discovery and conquest.

‘Kaza Nunteng Porta’ is Kristang (Melaka Portuguese) for ‘House Without a Door’. It is the title of the 9th series of Koboi Project which addresses notions imperialism, globalization, migration, miscegenation and tourism as a part of the wider Koboi Narrative. The project is ongoing and thus far impromptu photo-performances have been held at the Alfonso De Albuquerque Monument and the Discoveries Monument in Belem, in 2018 and 2019.

The Discoveries 6

~ The Koboi Project

This is a view of the Afonso de Albuquerque park a from the Presidential Palace, no less! This image is from a book on the Belem Palace by Jose Antonio Saraiva that was presented to me by … well the Palace! … Oh all right! by a kind lady at the Palace bookshop with whom I had had a great conversation about the Koboi Project. It really made my day, and more than made up for being turfed out of the Park and banned from performing there by the Palace guards! In fact, this perspective shows how much the park is an integral part of landscape architecture of the palace grounds. And also how much my flag and megaphone would have been in the awareness of the security personnel, the staff and maybe even the occupants of the palace over the last year. I got away with performing right there by the monument a few times in July 1998 and in June this year before I was told that I had to seek official permission through my embassy as I was within the security perimeter of the palace.

Image: from Belem Palace by Jose Antonio Saraiva

The Discoveries 3

~ The Koboi Project

Please visit Koboi Project series – Kaza Nunteng Porta.
https://koboibalikkampung.wixsite.com/nuntengporta

A terrific discovery for the Koboi Project – a photograph from the 3rd October, 1902 inauguration of the monument to Afonso de Albuquerque, the second governor of Portuguese India, in the D. Fernando Square, Belem. (renamed for Afonso de Albuquerque following the republican revolution of 1910) This square is located in front of 18th-century Belém Royal Palace. The delight of this image of the preparations for the arrival of King D. Carlos and the Royal Family for the ceremony is that it is shot from the same point of view as the images of the Kaza Nunteng Porta series highlighting the ‘The fall of Malacca’ relief. The other 3 three reliefs represent the ‘The Delivery of the keys of Goa,’ ‘The Reception of the Ambassador of the King of Narcinga’ and ‘The defeat of the army of the king of Hormuz.’

Image : Bellem | Belem: Reguendo da Cidade

https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pra%C3%A7a_Afonso_de_Albuquerque

https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=pt&u=https://paixaoporlisboa.blogs.sapo.pt/o-monumento-a-afonso-de-albuquerque-86368&prev=search

The Discoveries

~ The Koboi Project

Please visit Koboi Project series – Kaza Nunteng Porta.
https://koboibalikkampung.wixsite.com/nuntengporta

A rare view of Afonso de Albuquerque and Saint Francis Xavier in a photograph taken around 1960, during the of construction of the Monument to the Discoveries. From the perspective of a Malaysian schoolboy of the 1970’s, being in Belem is like looking down the other end of the telescope of a buku Sejarah (History book)!

Image: The Portuguese World Exhibition: Explaining Belem exhibition catalogue.

Last Action, Last Hour

~ The Koboi Project

20190630_202116862004934-e1562041190381.jpgPlease visit Koboi Project series  – Kaza Nunteng Porta.
https://koboibalikkampung.wixsite.com/nuntengporta

We completed the last street intervention of Koboi Project in Belem at the Monument to the Discoveries on Sunday 30th June at 9pm. It was a glorious evening as the sun went down on Prince Henry the Navigator and his discoverers, on SUPERSTAR Rajinikanth and on the Koboi Project! Special thanks to Jane Frankish and Pedro Silva.

Lisbon Cowboy

~ The Koboi Project

DSC_0233SMALLMore Details at: https://koboibalikkampung.wixsite.com/nuntengporta

Lisbon Cowboy Pedro Silva is working with the Koboi Project at the Monument to the Discoveries in Belem till 30th June. We will now be performing the remaining impromptu street interventions in Belem  around the Monument to the Discoveries between 25th  to 30th June  2019.

Vamos agora realizar as intervenções de rua improvisadas remanescentes em Belém, em torno do Monumento aos Descobrimentos, entre os dias 25 e 30 de junho de 2019.

 

Koboi in Belem

~ The Koboi Project

MORE DETAILS : https://koboibalikkampung.wixsite.com/nuntengporta/ 

Estarei realizando uma série de intervenções de rua improvisadas em Belém. Fique atento para o Koboi no e Jardim da Praça Afonso de Albuquerque e ao redor do Monumento aos Descobrimentos entre 22 e 30 de junho de 2019.

 I will be performing a series of impromptu street interventions in Belem. Watch out for the Koboi at the e Jardim da Praça Afonso de Albuquerque and around the Monument to the Discoveries between 22nd and 30th June 2019.