The exhibition “Exodus Deja-Vu” includes 77 photographs focusing on the refugee crisis captured by seven photojournalists who have followed the perilous journeys of people forced to flee their homes.

“The touring exhibition is aimed at raising awareness of the current crisis of refugees around the globe and [we] hope these powerful images will speak louder about this serious humanitarian issue,” curator Patrice Vallette told The Nation.

Supported by the UNHCR, the Embassy of France in Thailand, the Bangkok Art and Culture Centre, Asylum Access Thailand and Amnesty Thailand, the exhibition seeks to create a unified picture of people speaking different languages and leading different lives but sharing the same human rights.

Each photographer brings his and her own knowledge of the events. Vallette introduces the work of two generations of photojournalists: Coskun Aral (Turkey), Suthep Kritsanavarin (Thailand), Issa Touma (Syria), Roland Neveu (France), Sergey Ponomarev (Russia), Rahman Roslan (Malaysia) and Greg Constantine (Canada).

More than 65 million people have been forcibly displaced by conflict and persecution, including more than 21 million refugees, half of whom are children, according to the exhibition.

“The tragedy touching Syria nowadays is reminiscent of refugee crises that have marked the past, as it did in Cambodia in the 1970s or more recently in Myanmar,” Vallette said.

There were 99,956 refugees living in nine refugee camps in Thailand as of December 2017, according to UNHCR Thailand.

Most were from ethnic minority communities from Myanmar, mainly Karen and Karenni, who live in the camps in four provinces along the Thai-Myanmar border. Refugees in Thailand have been fleeing conflicts in Myanmar’s eastern border jungles for the safety of Thailand for more than 30 years.

Running until February 18, the exhibition on the fifth floor also displays the belongings of refugees from Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Somalia and Palestine who immigrated to Thailand.

Today at 11am the exhibition will feature a guided tour led by Vallette, followed by panel discussions with Aral, Neveu, Suthep and Roslan from 5pm to 7pm.

On Friday from 2pm to 4pm, Suthep and Neveu will hold a discussion at Thammasat University’s Tha Phrachan’s campus, moderated by Karntachat Raungratanaamporn, a lecturer in the journalism and mass commination faculty.

Events will also be organised by Amnesty International Thailand at the weekend to allow members of the public to engage with several groups of refugees expressing their situations through drawings or henna.

The touring exhibition started in Kuala Lumpur last October and travelled to Ankara and Istanbul.

Bangkok is its fourth stop before it heads to Berlin, Munich, Paris, Geneva and Toronto.

The exhibition, which continues through February 28, features 10 textile artworks and is the first dedicated show to introduce both internationally regarded African artists to Southeast Asia.

Featuring a chromatic seduction of tactile pieces by the duo, the pieces by Andrianomearisoa, whose works are architectural constructions of meticulously cutout fabrics in gradients of black and white, are displayed alongside those of Konate, whose immersive magical fabric squares bridge the world of spirit and senses. Combined, both artists address global issues through a rich symbolism of African colours, concepts and structure.

Andrianomearisoa engages his viewers through discovery. Rhythmic and compelling, his works are a result of his sensitivity toward material and human emotions, illustrating the pulses of life within a geographical space. The exhibition will feature 6 monochromatic pieces from his “Chanson de ma terre lointaine” series and are part of the artist’s meditation on Madagascar, depicting opposing forces, recording ambivalent movements of affirmation and negation whilst conveying a sense of fragility.

Regarded among the pioneers of modern African Art, Abdoulaye’s large textile pieces adopt appilique techniques to characterise the abstract and figurative. The choice medium of cotton, widely available in Mali, is his desire to express his art through elements closest to him. Abdoulaye’s presentation mimics the movement of capes by using layers of coloured ribbons. He combines the dyeing and colours of indigenous cotton tradition with his signature embroidery to reinterpret strong sociopolitical themes, a display of his commitment to universal harmony, an important concept in the African tradition.

Find out more at http://www.RKFineArt.com.

ONE OF THE most important pieces of news in the dance world last year was Lin Hwai-min’s announcement that he’ll step down as artistic director of Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan, which he founded in 1973, by the end of 2019. Because Master Lin, as most of us call him, is a living legend of contemporary Asian performing arts, the news was so major that I received more than 10 text messages and emails from dance colleagues worldwide commenting on this.

Setting the record straight during a post-show discussion after a performance of his latest work “Formosa”, Master Lin stressed that he’s not retiring completely from the dance world and that he’d be happy to come back [as a guest choreographer] if the new artistic director Cheng Tsung-lung asked him to. Sensing that this was indeed a piece of good news, the audience in the National Theatre came together as one for a round of thunderous applause.

Chinese characters move along with the dancers in “Formosa”. Photo/Liu Chenhsiang

If there’s such a term as a text-heavy dance performance, then “Formosa”– the word for “beautiful” that 16th-century Portuguese sailors gave to this island – would certainly fit this category. Master Lin was not only inspired by many poems about Taiwan for this production but also had poet Chiang Hsun, whose “The Song of the Rift Valley” was also heard, recite them throughout the performance as part of the soundscape along with a richly selected score by Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho, Frenchman Gerard Grisey, Cloud Gate’s music director Liang Chun-mei and Sangpuy Katatepan Mavaliyw from an indigenous tribe. Various typefaces of Chinese characters were deftly made into visual projections and these were moved along, and against, the dancers by scenographer and digital artist Chou Tung-yen and Very Mainstream Studio.

Photo/Liu Chenhsiang

For foreign eyes and ears like mine, these, thanks to their keen juxtaposition, became respectively music and moving images that efficiently accompanied the dancers’ movements which, notwithstanding other dominant production elements, remained downstage centre. In the end, despite its potential to become to become busy both aurally and visually, Master Lin made sure that it was instead lyrical and political and could be enjoyed by audiences around the world.

Master Lin, unlike many of his colleagues from his generation, chose to work with much younger artists in various fields with whom he had never collaborated, among them fashion designer Apu Jan whose costumes balanced design with practicality and comfort. Cloud Gate’s young dancers blended in with their veterans on stage and during the post-show talk, many young audience members asked him questions and shared their thoughts. This proves without a doubt that Cloud Gate will continue to progress with or without the artistic directorship of its founder.

Photo/Liu Chenhsiang

My personal history with Cloud Gate dates back to an intercultural performance conference at UCLA in 1997 when I first learned of its works. A year later I met Master Lin in person at another conference in Manila; and again after watching his “Songs of the Wanderers” at Biennale de la danse a Lyon, which remains my favourite Cloud Gate work. I have watched many of his subsequent works in Taipei and Singapore and my most memorable experience was when I was invited to moderate a talk by Master Lin and our Pichet Klunchun, co-organised by the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Thailand (TECOT) and Chulalongkorn University’s Master of Arts programme in cultural management (MACM) back in 2009. This coincided with Cloud Gate’s Thailand debut with “Moon Water” at Bangkok’s 11th International Festival of Dance and Music. The insight and inspiration Pichet has continued to receive from his Taiwanese mentor over the years partly explains what Pichet Klunchun Dance Company is doing now.

With the recent establishment of the cultural division of |TECOT, it’s about time that |Cloud Gate returned to our Bangkok’s International Festival of Dance and Theatre.

The writer wishes to thank the National Performing Arts Centre—National Theatre and Concert Hall’s (NPAC-NTCH) |Tsou Feng-chih for the kind assistance.

TRAVELLING BEAUTY

Cloud Gate will perform its previous work “Rice” in Mexico City next week. “Formosa” then goes on a US tour, with Chicago and Seattle among the stops, from February 25 to March 24, followed by a European tour featuring performances at Sadler’s Wells in London and Theatre de la Ville in Paris, from April to June. Find out more at http://www.CloudGate.org.tw.

NPAC-NTCH’s “Taiwan International Festival of Arts” (TIFA), with dance, music and theatre programmes from around the world, runs from February 23 to April 4. Check out http://www.TIFA.NPAC-NTCH.org or book tickets at http://www.ArtsTicket.com.tw.

Two weeks after Thai contemporary art was vibrantly highlighted at Art Stage Singapore, it’s time again for the creatively inclined to prowl the streets of Bangkok by dark and see what’s causing a fuss.

The fifth edition of Galleries Night takes place this weekend with art venues staying open extra late and fantastic ideas on display in the cinemas and street, aboard a river ferry and even in tuk-tuks.

The Liv_id collective will install TV sets carrying loop feeds of video art in the participating tuk-tuks. Photo courtesy of French Embassy

Inspired by Paris’ dusk-to-dawn Nuits Blanche and held in Bangkok since 2013 – the French Embassy has kept the ball rolling – Galleries Night this year sees more than 60 venues participating, up from 47 in 2017.

Growing interest over the past six years reflects the blossoming of Bangkok’s remarkably cross-disciplinary arts scene.

“The galleries and other partners formed a sharing foundation in Bangkok and Chiang Mai,” says French Ambassador Gilles Garachon, who sees Bangkok as being much like Paris with its “many artists and active galleries”.

Cultural Attache Vanessa Silvy notes that the 2018 roster features 25 “special events” and 15 exhibition openings. She expects attendance to soar past last year’s 8,000 visitors.

The weekend kicks off on Friday at 5pm at 32 galleries along the Silom and Sathorn Skytrain lines and the riverside. Many of the venues have waited for this date to open new shows, while others are hosting one-night special events.

Along Sathorn Road, Bangkok CityCity Gallery, YenakArt Villa, Sathorn 11 Art Space and Space @ Woof Pack Bangkok are involved. On Silom, it’s the Bangkok Screening Room, an alternative cinema charging no admission that night, and the Kathmandu Gallery.

N22 on Narathiwat Rachanakharin Road Soi 22, which has eight galleries and studios, will be bustling with activity.

 Sophirat Muangkum’s “The Secret of Skin” opens on Friday night at Most Gallery. Photo courtesy of French Embassy

The “Ferry Gallery” will leave Sathorn, Sri Phraya, or The Oriental piers for a ride across the Chao Phraya River, during which video art will be displayed. On the Thonburi side, the “Creative District” strings together several more venues, such as the Jam Factory, Most Gallery and New Territory.

Saturday night will have 23 galleries along the BTS Sukumvit line in the mix.

The Bangkok Art and Culture Centre will on its own have dozens of exhibitions to choose among. There, at 1pm, French photographer Roland Neveu will talk about his career since the 1970s.

The Jim Thomson Art Centre will have guided tours of its exhibition “POLA – Patterns of Meaning”, led by Arham Rahman, a Yokjakarta-based researcher.

Nearby and newly opened is Yeo House, which will present music, video art and live performances starting at 5.30pm. These include “Photosynthesis” by Fullfat Theatre, directed by Nophand Boonyai.

Alliance France will host the photography exhibition “Family Portrait” by Frenchman Bruno Tanquerel and screen short films about the family. Photos courtesy of French Embassy

Alliance France will screen short films about perceptions of the family, free from 7 to 9pm.

The Subhashok Arts Centre opens three different exhibitions on Saturday night, and Thong Lor Art Space, Case Space and Gallery 23 will have live performances.

The grand tour ends at the WTF Gallery with live music, “happening art” and lots of beer.

The embassy has chartered 30 tuk-tuks to shuttle folks along the designated routes. Vans were used two years ago, but Silvy reckons the humble tuk-tuk is more representative of the city and “fits in perfectly with Galleries Nights’ conviviality”.

“This year it won’t be just a way to move around, but another opportunity to discover art. Every tuk-tuk will be transformed into a mobile art space.”

The Liv_id collective will install TV sets carrying loop feeds of video art in the participating tuktuks. Photo courtesy of French Embassy

What people will watch on TV screens while riding the tuk-tuks is “Keepsake” – “a mobile video art experience” by the Liv_id Collective. They’ll see short video-art pieces made by five Thai and five foreign artists, looping every 35 minutes.

If you can’t catch one of the tuk-tuks, you can still download the Galleries’ Night phone app developed for the embassy by Pim Click (Apple Store or Google Play). The phone application is more interactive than ever, with games to play for prizes, maps and recommended itineraries.

The participating galleries will have guides waiting to conduct tours of the shows, an idea that proved a big success when it was introduced last year. More volunteers have been recruited for the task this year.

“Last year we had about 60 volunteers – all art students or lovers of art – ready to share their knowledge,” says gallery co-ordinator Mary Pansanga. “This year we have more than 90. Interestingly, after the event last time, some of them got jobs at the galleries.”

The French Embassy plans to keep the event going and possibly incorporate other art events here.

The video installation “aniMale farm_robotic debt” will appear for one night only – on Friday – at New Territory. Photo courtesy of French Embass

“Having pioneered this kind of unifying event in Bangkok, the embassy wishes to strengthen public interest in contemporary art,” says Silvy. “Galleries Night is part of a long-term vision. We wish with the artists and the galleries to raise the local art market to the international level.

“There are other events that build enthusiasm for contemporary art with similar concepts, like the Hotel Art Fair and Gallery Hopping,” she notes.

“Next year’s Galleries Night will be even more special,” adds Garachon, “because we’ll be fitting in with the inaugural Bangkok Art Biennale, which Prof Apinan Poshyananda will open in October and which continues though February.

“It’s the right time to give Thai art international recognition, because it’s so diverse and creative. Thailand is perfectly placed to become the art hub of the whole region.”

A map will show where everything is, what’s happening and at what time. Photo courtesy of French Embassy

BE HOME BY DAWN

– More than 60 venues are participating in Galleries Night this Friday and Saturday.

– Grab a printed map at your first stop.

– TV-equipped tuk-tuks parked near BTS Taksin Station will on Friday be giving patrons free rides among the venues on Silom, Sathorn and the riverside. On Saturday tuk-tuks parked in front of BACC will offer rides on Sukhumvit Road.

– Find out more on the “galleriesnight” Facebook page. The official hashtag for sharing pictures or videos online is #GN18.

At Jam Factory, you can create your own prints and put them on the wall. Photo courtesy of French Embassy

Supported by the UNHCR, the Embassy of France in Thailand, the Bangkok Art & Culture Centre, Asylum Access Thailand, and Amnesty Thailand, the exhibition documents the wars and the people fleeing and builds a consensus by interconnecting people speaking different languages, living different lives but sharing the same human rights.

Each photographer brings his and her own knowledge of the events. Visioncy introduces the work of two generations of reporters, united under the theme of refugees: Coskun Aral (Turkey), Suthep Kritsanavarin (Thailand), Issa Touma (Syria), Roland Neveu (France), Sergey Ponomarev (Russia), Rahman Roslan (Malaysia), and Greg Constantine (Canada).

The exhibition also features a guided visit with the curator and Visioncy director Patrice Vallette plus panel discussions with Aral, Neveu, Suthep and Roslan. Activities with refugees will also be organized by Amnesty International Thailand allowing the public to encounter and engage with several groups of refugees expressing their situation and sufferings through drawings or henna during the duration of the exhibition.

Find out more at www.Bacc.or.th.

The exhibition “Pago Pago: Latiff Mohidin (1960-1969) ’’will be Centre Pompidou’s first exhibition about Southeast Asian art and take place its In-Focus Gallery. Opening on February 28 and continuing until May 28, this collaboration marks an extension of the ground-breaking project “Reframing Modernism: Painting from Southeast Asia, Europe and Beyond” held at National Gallery Singapore in 2016, as part of the gallery’s ongoing commitment to promote Southeast Asian art globally.

“Working with National Gallery Singapore for ‘Reframing Modernism’ was truly a major event for us, and offered fresh perspectives about modern art from Southeast Asia, Europe and beyond. Similarly, this new collaboration provides an invaluable opportunity for our audience to view major works from one of the most important Southeast Asian artists in today’s world, alongside the masters in our permanent galleries,” said Serge Lasvignes, president of the Centre Pompidou.

Image courtesy of National Gallery Singapore

“The exhibition showcases Mohidin’s art during the 1960s, which was a decade that marked significant shifts both in Southeast Asia and Europe. Mohidin is not only one of Southeast Asia’s leading artists, it could be said that he is one of the first artists of the region to imagine ‘Southeast Asia’ as a distinct aesthetic realm. Curatorially, the gallery continues to be driven by its mission in enabling a greater understanding of Southeast Asian art internationally,” adds Dr Eugene Tan, director of National Gallery Singapore.

The exhibition is conceived by curators Catherine David of Centre Pompidou and Shabbir Hussain Mustafa of National Gallery Singapore as a micro-history that situates one of Southeast Asia’s leading modernists in dialogue with his Western peers. Held in a space adjacent to the permanent galleries of the Pompidou, the exhibition is set in the 1960s when Mohidin embarked upon his formal study of art at the Hochschule fur Bildende Kunste in West Berlin from 1961 to 1964. Ranging from the emotional states of German Expressionism that Mohidin encountered during his formative years in Berlin to the ancestral imaginary of his rural upbringing in British Malaya, “Pago Pago” became a way of thinking manifested in a constellation of paintings, sculptures, prints poetry and writings.

In 1964, Mohidin returned to Southeast Asia from Europe with the hope of reengaging with a region that had been relegated to his subconscious. Amidst perceived communist expansionism in Vietnam and insurgencies that raged internally in Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines and Thailand, he remained committed to initiating his own sense of the region. If the Berlin years were about the ability to translate between cultures, the years that followed presented a different proposition: to think of all matter as eternal cycles.

The poetry of the “Pago Pago” years is in free verse form, while the paintings compositionally rely on thick outlines, controlled brush strokes, jagged and curvilinear edges. The exhibition will feature more than 70 artworks and archival materials drawn from leading public and private collections in Singapore and Malaysia.

“This exhibition traces a formative period in the artist’s practice in the 1960s as he journeyed across Europe and Southeast Asia.  Mohidin evokes the consciousness that emerged through these travels with a phrase: ‘Pago Pago’, a manner of thinking and working that complicated Western modernism through the initiation of dialogues with other avant-garde thinkers in Southeast Asia. These included the Indonesian writer Goenawan Mohammad, whom Mohidin first met in 1967. This exhibition will explore all sorts of interlocking connections in highlighting what constitutes a contribution to 20th century modernism,” says Shabbir Hussain Mustafa, senior curator at National Gallery Singapore.

Catherine David of Centre Pompidou and co-curator of the exhibition adds “This In-Focus exhibition is designed to unravel the complexities of key works that Mohidin produced in the 1960s, a decade which could be characterised as the moment when Southeast Asia established itself as a locus within the major redraft of modernism. The exhibition concludes with the 1969 moment of ‘Neo Pago Pago’, a critical year in the artist’s practice as he transitioned from the ‘Pago Pago’ series into a prolific output of literary prose and poetry, yet another understudied aspect of his practice that this exhibition will seek to tease out.”

Alongside the exhibition, a publication featuring critical writings related to ‘Pago Pago’ is being edited by the exhibition’s curators. A special public programme that surveys his literary activities in the 1960s and 1970s featuring the writers Goenawan Mohammad, Idanna Pucci and Terence Ward will be held on February 28.

Hailing from Orvieto in Italy, Caroli opened her studio in New York and it wasn’t long before her work was noticed by Gene Moore, the artistic director at Tiffany & Co. He asked her to produce some paintings for the store and art became her main career.

“I believe that communication is done textually and visually. Artistic communication can be accessible. It is not necessarily sophisticated or hard to see. Abstract art itself is open to interpretation. Right now, I am in the process of producing an artistic book with the unison of pictures and words to create a multidimensional communication about my own artistic journey,” Caroli says.

“As for flowers, I feel that they are miraculous in that they can communicate with everyone. Just open your mind and embrace their beauty and they will be ingrained in the depth of your heart. Flowers can connect you with the spiritual world and bring a great healing power to your soul.”

Caroli has presented her works and projects globally over the years, spending time to become acquainted with the unique elegance of each country she’s visited across Europe, the United States and in Southeast Asia. The artist is particularly fond of Thailand, which she visits regularly. Several pieces of her work were inspired by this country, and a sizeable number of Thai people are familiar with her work like the ‘Flora Miracle’ project for the 60th anniversary event for Central in 2007.

More than 30 pieces of work are being presented in the “Arianna Caroli: Artist in Residence” on Level G of Central Embassy. Caroli will be present in the Artist’s Loft daily from 4 to 8pm working her magic on canvas. Six outfits have been designed with her art to be on show, in addition to other exhibits. Commenting on this, she reveals, “I am interested to know how it would be if people can wear the beauty of art. That is why I had certain paintings printed on fabrics for cutting into dresses. I call it walking art.”

Shoppers will be able to buy her special edition shawls and tote bags for Bt990 and a chiffon shawl Bt1,990.

Each is limited to 2,000 pieces and available at the exhibition as well as at the Gift Exchange Counter on the second floor of Central Chidlom. A part of all proceeds will be donated to a charitable cause. The artist will lead workshops on book covers, acrylic painting and outfits for teddy bears on February 11, 17 and 18 at 11am and 2pm. Participation is limited to 20 people per session.

For reservation, contact the Concierge on Level G of Central Embassy or call (02) 119 7777, extensions 2001-3.

“Beautiful Futures” takes over both the main gallery and project room in an ambitious installation that continues his interests in the spatial possibilities of painting, from bulbous surfaces to canvases that hang or scroll free of support. Here an experimental use of lighting allows for the exploration of newer physical and perceptual relationships to the artworks.

The exhibition brings a darker, sombre tone to his oeuvre. Many contemporary Thai artists are currently grappling with the impact of a continuing military government since the coup d’etat of 2014 and the passing of the revered King Bhumibol in 2016. Mit reflects the conflicts and ambiguities about how experience is to be assimilated. Facing unpredictable futures, recognition of the problems of the present and the forces of the past becomes paramount. “Beautiful Futures” immerses visitors in metaphoric questions of direction and guidance and also explores the seductions and illusions of surface as we pursue significance and insight.

H Gallery Bangkok is located at 201 Sathorn Soi 12 and is open daily except Tuesday from 10am to 6pm Call (085) 021 5508.

Running until Sunday (February 4), it’s divided into six categories.

Creative District Project

The pilot project of the creative district for improvement of signage, green and public space, play and art activities in Charoen Krung district is aimed at bettering the quality of life and boosting tourism.

Showcase & Exhibition

Showcase & Exhibition allows students from the fields of design and innovation, young designers, creative industry entrepreneurs, and domestic and foreign studios to exhibit their meticulously crafted creative products in the form of showcases and exhibitions, such as Experimental Design, Crossover and Co-Creation. This activity aims to collectively reflect all aspects of the design process and design situation, and provide a useful guideline to further develop tangible ideas into meaningful products.

Symposium & Talk

As a think-tank activity, where famous thinkers and designers worldwide are invited to deliver a lecture on a topic within their area of expertise, Symposium & Talk is held with an aim to provoke inspiration and help further develop creative ideas, which Thai thinkers, designers, and entrepreneurs stumble upon, through business case studies, and to create positive impacts on business and society at the international level.

Creative Programme

Creative Programme offers a platform for visitors to exchange knowledge and experience beneficial for creative entrepreneurship through interactive participation in a variety of fun-fuelled activities covering all Thailand’s creative industry sectors, such as film screening, musical performances, district tours, bringing a joyful and vigorous vibe to the design week.

Business Programme

Business networking activities provide opportunities for all. Activities include Business Pitching, Business Matching and Consult service for business growth and sufficiency.

Creative Market

The market features 100 booths of Charoen Krung specialities, design goods and products from latest collections of Thai designer. It’s being held in parallel with the U Creative Market by various Thai design studios.

Find out more at angkokDesignWeek.com www.BangkokDesignWeek.com and Facebook/bangkokdesignweek

It’s a bird. It’s a plane. It’s Superman. No, it’s a film. It’s video installation. It’s theatre. It’s performance art. It’s son et lumiere. It’s Las Vegas. It’s 4DX without the seat movement and water splashes.

This difficulty in categorising works has become increasingly common now in the world of contemporary arts in which artists and audiences enjoy crossing genre borders and begs the question whether we need to categorise some of these works at all.

Internationally acclaimed Thai filmmaker Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s “Fever Room”, which premiered as part of the opening festival of Asian Culture Centre in Gwangju, South Korea two years ago and has since been touring to cities around the world, finally arrived in our region last week, and was a highlight of Singapore’s “Art Stage”, which ended last night.

Billed as “a spellbinding multi-sensory projection-performance”, “Fever Room”, or in a different and better Thai title “Mueng saeng mot” – literally “A town where light runs out” – was part of the inaugural Curators Academy by TheatreWorks (Singapore) and Goethe Institut, the brainchild of globally renowned theatre director and former director of the Singapore International Festival of Arts (SIFA) Ong Keng Sen.

Walking into the Victoria Theatre for the premiere late last Thursday evening, spectators were surprised when they were led to the stage area with dim lights, not the usual audience seats with house lights. While most audience members happily sat on the stage floor, a few dozen others who needed back support, myself included, favoured the chairs upstage. And if I’m using a technical theatre term, instead of a film one here, that’s because when I took out my cough lozenges from the box, a flashlight was suddenly on me, and an usher rushed in, saying, “No eating in the theatre!”

Shot in Apichatpong’s hometown Khon Kaen as well as Chaiyaphum and Nakhon Phanom, “Fever Room” began with a collage of images – for example, the statue of a dinosaur, that of former prime minister Field Marshal Sarit Thanarat, a few dogs, an old tree and an aerobics ground near Kaen Nakhon lake. The first time all the images appeared on the screen with voice over, the second time only the first few. We were then reintroduced to the two protagonists from Apichatpong’s last film “Cemetery of Splendour” and continued on with their dreams from afternoon to night. Later, a second screen slid down in front, then a third on the left and a fourth on the right, forcing us to make a choice, rather as if we were watching a stage performance with multiple simultaneous actions, of where to focus our attention.

Later we were led into a cave and everything went black as slowly the stage curtain rose and our dream – or was it stage reality? – continued. Next came the performance part about which audiences around the world have been raving – the interaction between light, smoke, sound and, later on again, moving images and our perception of them. The one powerful light from the top of the balcony looked like a projector projecting a film onto us. It was also the part in which the visuals would change from one performance to another—the smoke, like human actors themselves, never exactly the same.

And while the design and technical team obviously make great efforts to make the projection and the performance fit the venue where this work is being presented, I wish they would also consider the elements of “surprise” and “accident” that would make each showing unique in itself, instead of trying to perfect it. That said, kudos to visual director Rueangrit Suntisuk and lighting designer Pornpan Arayaveerasid who helped create a dreamlike state in which we were allowed, and encouraged, to look at the theatre in a way we hadn’t before and think of Apichatpong’s work also in a way we hadn’t before. Sound designers Akritchalerm Kalayanamitr and Koichi Shimizu equally deserve credit for accompanying the visuals with their soundscape that never showed off their prowess but was always effective.

The fact that “Fever Room” ends with a film projected on one screen, the small proportion of the son et lumiere and the lack of human presence wouldn’t make me call this “theatre”, the way Kunstenfestivaldesarts did last year.

After the lights came back on, I walked over to the usher and showed her that my cough drops were not food and I took them out just so that the sound wouldn’t disturb others during the performance, I mean, the screening; my frequent coughing did, though. I wouldn’t have to do this were I in a cinema watching Apichatpong’s previous works, would I?

It should also be noted that the studio version of “Fever Room” was presented at Bangkok CityCity Gallery last year. The fact that the work is designed for only about 100 audience members who can be seated comfortably on the stage of a medium-to-large proscenium playhouse, which otherwise seats several hundred, makes it difficult for this work to be staged in Apichatpong’s home country, at least financially speaking, as the cost can never balance the ticket sales. Looking at our arts calendar this year, the only possibility for us to experience this in Thailand is probably at Bangkok Art Biennale, although that programme has already been finalised.

The experience of watching, or experiencing, “Fever Room” also reminded me of the fact that my film criticism students now have no problem watching any films I assign and they, unlike their professor who’s clearly from another generation, no longer need to go to cinemas or borrow my DVDs.

The phrase “Only in cinemas” that I often see on movie posters now, also comes to mind. With more movies shot in IMAX, 3D and 4DX formats than ever before to ensure that the movie-going experience can never be replicated, this presence in a dark room where dreams are shared and the fever is caught, could also not take place anywhere else.

While some well-established artists continue to work in their comfort zones, others are gradually venturing out and taking risks by collaborating with people they’ve never worked with before. As a result, their works manage not only to attract new audiences but also ask their old aficionados to think about the ever-expanding possibilities of the contemporary arts by going to places and spaces they’ve otherwise never been.

It’s noteworthy that Apichatpong himself couldn’t attend this Southeast Asia premiere of “Fever Room” as his new work, “Sleepcinemahotel”, was premiering at the Rotterdam Film Festival. It’s an actual hotel where you can sleep and enjoy what’s described as his “preferred plane of existence: one where sleep and film, ghosts and imagination, the past and the present collide”. Evidently, no drugs can cure his performance “fever” now, and that’s good news for us.

France’s Ministry of Culture and Communications fittingly honoured Apichartpong with the “Commandeur dans l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres” medal, the highest in this field, a few weeks ago at Alliance Francaise Bangkok, and now we know that’s not only for his film works.

The writer’s trip was fully supported by TheatreWorks. Special thanks to Ong Keng Sen, Tay Tong and Mervyn Quek.

CATCH THE ‘FEVER’

•   “Fever Room” can next be experienced at National Taichung Theatre, Taiwan on April 28-29. Thailand dates, unfortunately, have not yet been confirmed
•  “Sleepcinemahotel” is on until tonight at the Rotterdam Film Festival. Find out more at http://www.SleepCinemaHotel.com.
•  For updates on Apichatpong’s works, go to http://www.KickTheMachine.com
•  To read about the Curators Academy, visit CuratorsAcademy2018.wordpress.com.