In the Spotlight: Visual Artist Apichatpong Weerasethakuls

This month, we celebrate the annual International Film Festival Rotterdam. In collaboration with IFFR, Spaces Hofplein will be exhibiting the works’ of four international visual artists. In celebration of the cultural achievements of these renown filmmakers, we shine the spotlight on each of the Spaces Within featured artists.

Apichatpong Weerasethakuls

Apichatpong (1970, Bangkok) grew up in Khon Kaen in northeastern Thailand. Having studied architecture at the Khon Kaen University and attending a film course at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, he began is career in the early nineties. He is one of the few Thai filmmakers working outside the strict Thai studio system. Currently, he is gaining increasing international recognition for both his films and his art projects.

Winner of the prestigious 2010 Cannes Film Festival Palme d’Or prize, for his film Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives. Themes reflected in his films include dreams, nature, sexuality and Western perceptions ofThailand and Asia. His films are renown for displaying a preference for unconventional narrative structures, like placing titles and credits in the middle of a film, and for working with non-actors.

His installation Fireworks, which will be exhibited at Spaces Within, depicts a hallucinatory memory machine that allows illuminate nocturnal animal sculptures in a temple in northeastern Thailand, the region where Weerasethakul grew up. Personal, political and cultural memory merge with the explosive power of fireworks. Weerasethakuls’ hypnotic fever dreams that fill the space.

Are you interested in seeing the work of Apichatpong? All are welcome to join our opening show and 9 day exhibition at Spaces Hofplein. Check out the event page for the full programme.