APICHATPONG WEERASETHAKUL foi censurado na Tailândia e apresenta primeira exposição individual nos Estados Unidos
WEERASETHAKUL FILM CENSORED IN THAILAND
Apichatpong Weerasethakul's latest film has been censored in the director's native Thailand. As the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung's Michael Althen reports, Sang Satawat (Syndromes and a Century)—which premiered at last fall's Venice Film Festival—did not please Thai censors, who requested four cuts to the film before its commercial release in the country. Instead of complying, Weerasethakul decided to cancel the release and raise questions about Thai film policies via an online petition. The censor board offered its own form of resistance by refusing to return its viewing copy to the director.
In an open letter to the National Legislative Assembly and the Thai government, Weerasethakul writes, "I, a filmmaker, treat my works as my own sons or my daughters. When I conceived them, they have their own lives to live. I don't mind if people are fond of them, or despise them, as long as I created them with my best intentions and efforts. If these offspring of mine cannot live in their own country for whatever reasons, let them be free. Since there are other places that warmly welcome them as who they are, there is no reason to mutilate them from the fear of the system, or from greed. Otherwise there is no reason for one to continue making art." (Jennifer Allen in Artforum)
Apichatpong Weerasethakul's latest film has been censored in the director's native Thailand. As the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung's Michael Althen reports, Sang Satawat (Syndromes and a Century)—which premiered at last fall's Venice Film Festival—did not please Thai censors, who requested four cuts to the film before its commercial release in the country. Instead of complying, Weerasethakul decided to cancel the release and raise questions about Thai film policies via an online petition. The censor board offered its own form of resistance by refusing to return its viewing copy to the director.
In an open letter to the National Legislative Assembly and the Thai government, Weerasethakul writes, "I, a filmmaker, treat my works as my own sons or my daughters. When I conceived them, they have their own lives to live. I don't mind if people are fond of them, or despise them, as long as I created them with my best intentions and efforts. If these offspring of mine cannot live in their own country for whatever reasons, let them be free. Since there are other places that warmly welcome them as who they are, there is no reason to mutilate them from the fear of the system, or from greed. Otherwise there is no reason for one to continue making art." (Jennifer Allen in Artforum)
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Unknown Forces: Apichatpong Weerasethakul
Internationally recognized for his work in experimental and narrative cinema such as Mysterious Object at Noon (2000), Blissfully Yours (2002), Tropical Malady (2004) and Syndromes and A Century (2006), Apichatpong Weerasethakul presents his first solo exhibition in the United States. Weerasethakul’s films explore perception, impermanence and the imaginary, cultivating fanciful potential within the mundane. His abstract interchanges interrogate conventions of cinematic narrative while exploring desire, reality and a kind of melancholy perhaps peculiar to our times.
Weerasethakul’s exhibition at REDCAT features a newly commissioned video installation that expands upon characters developed in his previous feature films, shorts and video installations through comedy. Born in Bangkok in 1970, Weerasethakul holds a degree in architecture from Khon Kaen University and an MFA in filmmaking from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He has worked outside the Thai studio system for a decade and, since 1999, has actively promoted and distributed experimental and independent films through his company Kick the Machine.
“The Thai filmmaker and installation artist Apichatpong Weerasethakul uses indeterminacy and incoherence as his aces in the hole. He frequently consults a fortune-teller for suggestions for key elements of his movies; he conceived a whole feature (Mysterious Object at Noon [2000]) around the Surrealists’ Exquisite Corpse game of chain writing; and even his more deliberately authored works are organized around puzzling narratives that offer few clues to their decryption. In a movie theater, Weerasethakul’s passing of the work of interpretation on to the audience can be maddening or paralyzing, but in an installation context it can have the giddy feel of a free-for-all. His leviathan UNKNOWN FORCES, 2007, boxes the viewer between four giant video screens that open out onto urban Thai landscapes shimmering with pleasure and freedom. On one side of the room, a young man and an elegant, sixty-ish woman—she looks like a Thai Charlotte Rampling—sit on the back of a pickup truck, the wind tousling their hair as they recount anecdotes we can’t remotely hear (but which seem, from the look of the speakers, sweetly nostalgic). On another, a shaggy-haired guy does a pop-'n'-lock number on the back of the same truck, mostly keeping his face from view. On a third, a giant, mysterious object is swaddled in fabric and lit with cheesy carnival lights while cheesier Thai techno pop, evocative of a small-town carnival ca. 1986, blasts this cryptic but oddly good-natured site. In interviews, Weerasethakul claims UNKNOWN FORCES is an allegory of the situation after last year’s political upheaval in Thailand. To Los Angeles viewers deprived of the author’s private Da Vinci Code, it feels like something even better: A quintessentially Weerasethakul space of obscene bliss.” (Matthew Wilder in Arforum)
In anticipation of the Los Angeles Film Festival premiere of Syndromes and a Century, REDCAT will present a selection of Weerasethakul’s films. Screenings include Mysterious Object at Noon, Blissfully Yours, Tropical Malady, and Worldly Desires and other shorts selected by the artist.
Weerasethakul has exhibited and screened his films widely and has been presented numerous awards for his art projects and feature films including the Prix Un Certain Regard, Cannes Film Festival, 2002; the Prix du Jury, Cannes Film Festival, 2004; Age d’or Prize, Cine de’couvertes, 2004; and Grand Prize, Tokyo Filmex, 2004. In 2005, he received the Silpatorn Award from Thailand Ministry of Culture’s Office of Contemporary Arts.
Weerasethakul’s exhibition at REDCAT features a newly commissioned video installation that expands upon characters developed in his previous feature films, shorts and video installations through comedy. Born in Bangkok in 1970, Weerasethakul holds a degree in architecture from Khon Kaen University and an MFA in filmmaking from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He has worked outside the Thai studio system for a decade and, since 1999, has actively promoted and distributed experimental and independent films through his company Kick the Machine.
“The Thai filmmaker and installation artist Apichatpong Weerasethakul uses indeterminacy and incoherence as his aces in the hole. He frequently consults a fortune-teller for suggestions for key elements of his movies; he conceived a whole feature (Mysterious Object at Noon [2000]) around the Surrealists’ Exquisite Corpse game of chain writing; and even his more deliberately authored works are organized around puzzling narratives that offer few clues to their decryption. In a movie theater, Weerasethakul’s passing of the work of interpretation on to the audience can be maddening or paralyzing, but in an installation context it can have the giddy feel of a free-for-all. His leviathan UNKNOWN FORCES, 2007, boxes the viewer between four giant video screens that open out onto urban Thai landscapes shimmering with pleasure and freedom. On one side of the room, a young man and an elegant, sixty-ish woman—she looks like a Thai Charlotte Rampling—sit on the back of a pickup truck, the wind tousling their hair as they recount anecdotes we can’t remotely hear (but which seem, from the look of the speakers, sweetly nostalgic). On another, a shaggy-haired guy does a pop-'n'-lock number on the back of the same truck, mostly keeping his face from view. On a third, a giant, mysterious object is swaddled in fabric and lit with cheesy carnival lights while cheesier Thai techno pop, evocative of a small-town carnival ca. 1986, blasts this cryptic but oddly good-natured site. In interviews, Weerasethakul claims UNKNOWN FORCES is an allegory of the situation after last year’s political upheaval in Thailand. To Los Angeles viewers deprived of the author’s private Da Vinci Code, it feels like something even better: A quintessentially Weerasethakul space of obscene bliss.” (Matthew Wilder in Arforum)
In anticipation of the Los Angeles Film Festival premiere of Syndromes and a Century, REDCAT will present a selection of Weerasethakul’s films. Screenings include Mysterious Object at Noon, Blissfully Yours, Tropical Malady, and Worldly Desires and other shorts selected by the artist.
Weerasethakul has exhibited and screened his films widely and has been presented numerous awards for his art projects and feature films including the Prix Un Certain Regard, Cannes Film Festival, 2002; the Prix du Jury, Cannes Film Festival, 2004; Age d’or Prize, Cine de’couvertes, 2004; and Grand Prize, Tokyo Filmex, 2004. In 2005, he received the Silpatorn Award from Thailand Ministry of Culture’s Office of Contemporary Arts.
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CalArts Theater / REDCAT GALLERY
CalArts Theater / REDCAT GALLERY
April 18 _ June 17, 2007 Los Angeles US
