Growing up in Thailand’s art scenes during one of the country’s most politically unstable periods, Pisitakun Kuantalaeng kicked off his practice as a visual artist in 2009, essentially focused on political speculations and frustrations. Thailand’s 2010 Red Shirt protests and the government crackdown solidified his approach as a permanent critical thinker and artist.
One of the works that first brought him into the spotlight, “The Unfinished History” initiated in 2012, queries the truth hidden behind political power and conflicted histories by asking who is allowed to write history. The project proposes a re-writing of histories in the form of drawings and comic strips, and includes blank spaces where the public can also add their own interpretations. The work continues to travel and evolve, collaboratively exploring multiple dimensions of histories by allowing different groups of people to collaboratively create an alternative library of world histories.
Pisitakun’s interest in music started to increase. He began to experiment with how sonic expressions take shape under different media environments. The multimedia work “Black Country” (2017) was born out of forced confrontation in a country where things go beyond rationality. In the show, which combined noise and techno sonics with black metal aesthetics and performance, a set of made up beliefs and rituals of a fictitious country were played out to humourous scrutiny.
Pisitakun’s practice represents a decisive break from many of his Thai peers: he questions fundamental and increasingly global values without merely decrying the fact of corruption or offering neat palliatives.
Pisitakun Kuantalaeng feat. DJ Wanton Witch & surprise guests
Saturday, 10.6.2023 | Doors 19:00 | Starts 19:00 CET
daadgalerie | Oranienstraße 161 in 10969 Berlin
