Black Air

An interactive installation with a clear political theme, made by a collective of Thai film makers, artists, designers and musicians. The leading international film maker/artist Apichatpong Weerasethakul was the initiator and adviser and the installations were conceived and carried out by Pimpaka Towira (also present in the programme with her film The Truth Be Told), Akritchalerm Kalayanamitr, Koichi Shimizu and Jakrawal Nilthamrong.
The installation is divided over two spaces. The first comprises an audio artwork. It is a light space in which the visitors can change the sounds of the countryside and jungle of Thailand with buttons. While the first space evokes a general picture of Thailand, the second space is dark and focuses on the image, looking at a specific recent event. Here too, the visitor can intervene using hundreds of illuminated buttons, but now he changes the picture. The pictures are borrowed from clandestine recordings of the so-called Takbai incident. A dramatic incident from the recent history of Thailand in which many demonstrators in the rebellious south died when they were transported piled up in military trucks. The event took place on 25 October 2004, but the images are still subject to censorship. (GjZ)