A sound journey into the poetic worlds of Thai artist Korakrit Arunanondchai
In Songs for Living, spirits literally take shape and merge with the world of the living in Thailand and beyond, guided by the narration of musician Zsela in a unique symphony. The celebration of the collective—bodies gathered in communion—also pervades Songs for Dying, a second short film featuring the artist’s personal archives. It unfolds a narrative exploring death and Thailand’s history, through its religious, technological and political dimensions.
Songs for Living
Spirits finding bodies and re-entering the world. Thunderous drumming, screeching feedback, and a mystical narration by musician Zsela bring warmth to distant human bodies from Thailand to New York, in rituals that rejoice in collective existence.
Songs for Dying
Korakrit Arunanondchai’s Songs for Dying, composed of tropes and ideas from his “living archive,” combines the personal experience of accepting death and the perception of history with religious, technological, and political narratives.
Presented as part of artist Ho Tzu Nyen’s carte blanche at MUDAM, these two short films by Korakrit Arunanondchai explore different visual registers, where Thai societal movements and mythologies engage in a dynamic dialogue, guided by a captivating sense of rhythm.
Official Competition, International Film Festival Rotterdam, 2024, nl
Korakrit ARUNANONDCHAI
Korakrit Arunanondchai left Bangkok to attend the Rhode Island School of Design (2009) and Columbia University (2012). After having partaken in numerous group exhibitions (Sculpture Center, New York; ICA, London), Korakrit Arunanondchai conceived his own personal exhibitions notably at MoMA PS1 (New York, 2014) and The Mistake Room (Los Angeles, 2014). He is represented by Clearing (New York, Brussels) and Carlos/Ishikawa (London).
Korakrit Arunanondchai looks to the Buddhist and Animist framework of Thailand, as well as to popular culture, geopolitics and technology, to question what it means to be an artist today, while celebrating connectivity, the merging of art and life, of fantasy and reality, of science and incorporeality.
