Arin Rungjang
Ravisara
04 Apr - 24 May 2020
ARIN RUNGJANG
Ravisara
4 April - 24 May 2020
With his multi-channel video installation Ravisara (2019), Arin Rungjang presents an intimate portrait of six women who have emigrated to Germany from different parts of Thailand. During his stay in Berlin in 2018, Rungjang developed this work with members of the city’s Thai community, whom he got to know, interviewed, observed and accompanied. By learning more about the protagonists and their stories, he was keen to explore how memories can be expressed through performative gestures and physical presence. In his video installation, the women appear on their own, with others in close-ups, and also as a group of six, and in each configuration they express themselves without words. Rungjang uses text inserts – accounts of the women’s experiences of migration, violence, discrimination, loss, and the abuse of power – as a contrast to the intimate atmosphere generated by their bodily presence. In the recorded conversations, the Thai immigrants vividly describe the difficulty of trying to find a new personal identity in conditions that are influenced by postcolonial power structures and prescribed gender roles.
Arin Rungjang was born in 1975 and currently lives and works in Bangkok, Thailand. In 2018 he was a guest of the DAAD Artists-in-Berlin Program. Rungjang’s work has been exhibited internationally in numerous solo and group shows.
Ravisara was commissioned by the Toronto Biennial of Art with support from the DAAD Artists-in-Berlin Program and DC Collection.
Ravisara
4 April - 24 May 2020
With his multi-channel video installation Ravisara (2019), Arin Rungjang presents an intimate portrait of six women who have emigrated to Germany from different parts of Thailand. During his stay in Berlin in 2018, Rungjang developed this work with members of the city’s Thai community, whom he got to know, interviewed, observed and accompanied. By learning more about the protagonists and their stories, he was keen to explore how memories can be expressed through performative gestures and physical presence. In his video installation, the women appear on their own, with others in close-ups, and also as a group of six, and in each configuration they express themselves without words. Rungjang uses text inserts – accounts of the women’s experiences of migration, violence, discrimination, loss, and the abuse of power – as a contrast to the intimate atmosphere generated by their bodily presence. In the recorded conversations, the Thai immigrants vividly describe the difficulty of trying to find a new personal identity in conditions that are influenced by postcolonial power structures and prescribed gender roles.
Arin Rungjang was born in 1975 and currently lives and works in Bangkok, Thailand. In 2018 he was a guest of the DAAD Artists-in-Berlin Program. Rungjang’s work has been exhibited internationally in numerous solo and group shows.
Ravisara was commissioned by the Toronto Biennial of Art with support from the DAAD Artists-in-Berlin Program and DC Collection.