As part of his exhibition Villa in the Slums (through Nov 30), American artist Phil America moved a slum house into the Bangkok University Gallery (BUG) and had local artist Orawan Arunrak fill it with it with small acrylic paintings in order to portray the general lack of awareness of life in the slums. Here, Phil talks to BK about the story behind the installation and his time spent in Klong Toey Slum.

What inspired you to work on this project?
To me it’s fascinating that you have such a divide between people in this society. For example, people look at me and automatically say “you’re Farang.” This would never happen in the West. You cannot say “you’re yellow” or “you’re dam [black]” to others. On the social level, too, the term “hi-so” doesn’t exist anywhere else. The Klong Toey slum is one big and integral part of the city, which was built in the face of denial, without permission. My desire to fully understand the way they live and the reality of the things people in Klong Toey face daily just kept drawing me into it. It can be dangerous, but, to really achieve that, you must be able to face those dangers and look people in the eyes.
 
It’s not often we see a slum house installed in a gallery; what’s the meaning you’re trying to deliver?
My work is not really about this house; it just represents the final product of what I did. It’s more about the performative aspect which was me living in the neighborhood. The real meaning is the stories behind this house which is something you need to explore to understand, the same way society must learn more about the Klong Toey neighborhood.
 
Tell us about your work process.
We first spent a lot of time there to find out how things work and to get around things like the mafia and police. It didn’t go too smoothly. At first, they were like, “Why are you here? Are you here to look at us like animals in the zoo?” We had to explain to them that we were there to understand what they are about. Then we managed to get permission from the mafia for a space in the dangerous zone where people do ya baa in the day. We asked the carpenters around the railroad to build us a house the same way it’s built around there. After it was finished we moved it from the railroad to the slum. After the two weeks I spent living there, we moved the house to the gallery.
 
What is your perception of Klong Toey now?
I think it’s extremely sad that people usually associate happiness with money. By that criterion, we often see these people as underprivileged, but in fact, they have many privileges that many people with money don’t have. They share a really strong sense of community and social relationships. Culturally, they are not underdeveloped at all. There’s more togetherness and cultural richness in Klong Toey slum than in places like Siam Square. Everyone was indeed a part of the community. Many people, like in Phuket, look at tourists as a dollar sign while in Klong Toey, there are things you can’t put a price on.
 
What kind of impact do you hope this project can achieve?
The fact that we have a third of the urbanized world population living in slum housing is extremely crazy. It shows that the world doesn’t care enough about the issue. This is a problem. I put myself in their shoes to see what they feel and portray what these people have to deal with, both the negatives and positives. Hopefully, it will bring a little awareness to that. That’s the change we hope the work can incite. Hopefully, it can bridge the gap in the society, taking away the world’s disassociation with the slum. 

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Ender’s Game

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The latest Hollywood take on a bestselling book arrives in the form of Gavin Hood’s adaptation of Orson Scott Card’s award-winning science-fiction novel, Ender’s Game, in which the author himself was involved as a co-producer. The 80s space opera classic, known for its thought-provoking story delving into heady philosophical issues is here presented as a two-hour adrenaline-rush. 

Opening Date: 
Mon, 2013-11-04
Images: 
Author: 
Thitipol Panyalimpanun
RSS Category: 
Places to go
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Ahead of Jitti Chompee’s contemporary dance, On The Tightrope (Oct 28), we sit down with English music producer and saxophonist Nathan Harrow and French oud (a pear-shaped stringed instrument normally used in Arabic music) player Léo Fabre-Cartier who have joined together for the first time to compose and perform for the show. 

How different is composing and playing for contemporary dance to composing in general?

Léo: We can’t just make beautiful music and get away with it. It all depends on what goes best with the performers’ actions, sometimes it can be anything from majestic to dirty. I read Jean Genet’s The Tightrope Walker to get inspiration and help with interpretation.

Nathan: It doesn’t work like composing film scores. We take a more contemporary and experimental approach where untraditional techniques are used. It’s a totally different thing from performing the usual jazz or classical music, too.

What sounds can we expect to hear?

Nathan: People are here for the dance and they don’t want to hear us all the time which means we can’t be overpowering. The music is minimalist, repetitive patterns and a lot of improvisation.

Léo: We know when to provide ambience and in what scale and mode, but only a few scenes are fixed. Despite employing Arabic scale and modes, it is far, far away from the traditional Arabic music I usually play. 

Do you think live music adds an extra something to the performance?

Nathan: I think this is one of the first times that Jitti has featured live musicians. Seeing where the music comes from rather than just hearing it play from speakers should provide some extra freshness. We’re interactive with the dancers too; they come toward us and we respond to them, so it should be engaging. 

Léo: Normally, dancers rehearse with CDs; the music never changes. It puts more challenge on the dancers, too, because with us it changes a lot, so they have to listen to what we play, just as much as we have to observe their actions, to interact. There’ll be plenty of hidden details and nuances.

What’s your experience been like working with Jitti on this project?

Nathan: You don’t feel like he puts you in a box and tells you exactly what you have to do. He’s got crazy ideas and is not scared to do things that the audience might not expect. He changes all the time. He never stops changing his mind, you know. 

Léo: I have worked with other choreographers who gave me freedom, too, but in a way that made me play inside my comfort zone. With Jitti, it’s another story; he pushes us to create. When my idea gets turned down, I’m encouraged to come up with a new one, which helps the creative process.

As an insider, do you have anything to say to people attending the show?

Léo: Try to know a little about the subject of the show beforehand. It should give you the material to absorb or interpret the whole performance better.

Nathan: It’s a combination of contemporary dance with performers, one trained in ballet, one in hip hop and one in Thai classical dance. That, along with saxophone and oud, makes for something surely never seen before in Bangkok. 

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