The Casa de Velázquez
The Casa de Velázquez is a French public institution devoted to creative activities and research on the arts, languages and literature of the Iberian countries, Latin America and North Africa. This institution also welcomes artists, researchers, teachers and participates in artistic and academic exchanges between France and the aforementioned regions. Being at the same time a centre for research and artistic projects gives to the Casa de Velázquez a unique status among the five Écoles françaises à l'étranger. Since it was founded in 1928 by the Ministry of Higher Education and Research, this School has welcomed both artists -in a manner similar to La Villa Médicis in Rome - and researchers from the School for Higher Hispanic and Iberian Studies (EHEHI).
Suganya Anandakichenin (PI), Giovanni Ciotti (University of Hamburg) and S. A. S. Sarma (EFEO, Pondicherry) lead this ten-month project (August 2021-May 2022) aims to clean, digitize, and catalogue a portion of about 180 manuscripts belonging to two collections (called "Kalliṭaikuṟicci" and Villiampākkam).
These manuscripts, many of which date from the mid-19th century, contain texts of various genres, in Tamil, Sanskrit and Manipravalam, written in Tamil and Grantha. Previously neglected, these relics of the past will give us a clear idea of the reading and study choices of a Tamil and Vishnu Brahmin scholarly family from the 19th century onwards. Work on the project is currently underway at the EFEO Center in Pondicherry.
The winner of the 2021 French-Language Book Prize is "La réforme politique en Birmanie pendant le premier moment colonial (1819-1878)" by Aurore Candier, published by the EFEO !
The collection of periodicals in the Leroi-Gourhan collection includes 30 titles, the most complete of which are 民俗藝術 Minzoku geijutsu and 工藝 Kōgei, a publication co-edited by Yanagi Muneyoshi, the specialist in folk arts and "mingei studies". This monthly journal, with a print run of only 1000 copies, devoted to craftsmanship, materials and tools used in the making of objects, is rare and precious.
