Rehearsal Thai Lakorn (soap opera)

--- Präsentationshinweise

videocity.bs beteiligt sich bei der „∑-Summe“-Aktion, bei welcher die unabhängigen Kunsträume in Basel sich im Jahr 2017 abgesprochen haben, das Medium Video im November in den Mittelpunkt zu stellen, um eine Vielfalt an Themen und Herangehensweisen vorzustellen. Ein Aufruf erging an die audiovisuellen regionalen Kunstschaffenden, Werke der letzten beiden Jahre einzureichen.  Die videocity.bs-Kuratorin Andrea Domesle hat aus den über 200 Einreichungen 5 Künstlerinnen und Künstler ausgewählt.
Obwohl unabhängig und eigentlich für einen Kunstraum entstanden, ist bei videocity.bs spannend zu erleben, welche Herausforderung die Grösse der elektronischen Werbetafel und der öffentliche Raum an die Videos stellen: Welchen Einfluss hat das quirlige Treiben des Messeplatzes auf die Wahrnehmung der autonomen Kunstwerke?  Das Leben verstärkt die Faktoren Bewegung und Raum in den Videos und dort, wo diese mit Ton komponiert sind, ersetzt es die ursprüngliche Tonspur.  Der Alltag lässt die Videos in neuem Licht erscheinen und umgekehrt, die Videos den Alltag.  videocity.bs wird einen Monat lang zum immateriellen Bestandteil des Messeplatz und regt zu Austausch, Verschiebungen von Ordnungssystemen, unerwarteten Blicken und Begegnungen an.

 --- Notes on Presentation

videocity.bs is participating in the "∑-Sum" action, in which the independent art spaces in Basel have in 2017 simultaneously agreed to put the artistic medium of video at the centre of focus, in order to showcase a multitude of themes and artistic approaches. An appeal by "Summe" association was made to the audiovisual artists working in the region to put forward works completed during the last two years. videocity.bs curator Andrea Domesle has chosen 5 artists from out of the 200 applications. 
Although independently created and intended for an art space, it is exciting to witness during videocity.bs what challenges the large electronic advertising screen and the public space pose to the videos: What influence does the lively hustle and bustle on the Trade Fair Square have on the reception of these autonomous art works? The surrounding flow of life itself amplifies the factors of movement and space within the videos and wherever these have been composed with sound, the original sound track is substituted by noise from daily life. Everyday life allows the videos to appear in a different light and conversely the videos experience the different framework of today. videocity.bs is poised to become an immaterial daily component of the trade fair square once more, stimulating exchange, the displacement of interpretative systems, summoning unexpected views and encounters.

http://www.pascalegrau.ch

--- EN

Under the title of “ ∑-Summe” five videos from five artists are brought together by the curator Andrea Domesle, format 16:9, 1-canal. The videos from Pascale Grau, Parvez Imam and Dirk Koy have a soundtrack, but during videocity.bs they are however shown without sound on the eBoard, so that the Basel city sound for once provide their unique sound track.
From 03.11. till 30.11.2017 the videos had been visible with certain exceptions on a daily basis from 8 till 24 hour, broadcast interspersed between the infos on the eBoard of the Basel Congress Center, Messeplatz 21, adjacent to the Swissôtel Le Plaza.

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Unter dem Titel „∑-Summe“ sind fünf Videos, Format 16:9, 1-Kanal, gruppiert. Die Videos von Pascale Grau, Parvez Imam und Dirk Koy haben eine Soundspur, werden auf dem eBoard jedoch ohne Ton gezeigt, so dass die Stadtgeräusche ausnahmsweise den Sound bilden.
Vom  03.11. – 30.11.2017 wurden die Videos mit einigen Ausnahmen zwischen Infos auf dem eBoard des Congress Center Basel, Messeplatz 21, beim Swissôtel Le Plaza gezeigt. Täglich 8 bis 24 Uhr.

Artists: 
Matthias Aeberli, *1952, lives in Basel, matthiasaeberli.ch
Pascale Grau, *1960, lives in Basel, www.pascalegrau.ch
Parvez Imam, *1967, lives in Basel, www.parvezimam.net
Dirk Koy, *1977, lives in Allschwil, www.dirkkoy.com
Vladimir Mitrev, *1972, lives in Basel, www.vladimirmitrev.com

Rehearsal Thai Lakorn (2016) is a video work by the Swiss artist Pascale Grau. It shows an excerpt of a rehearsal for a ‘tableau vivant’, or a living picture. The filming of the rehearsal process reflects Grau’s practice of developing performances for a camera, which she learned during her studies with Marina Abramović. The tableau was rehearsed in the shadows of a garage where a a ละคร / lakorn (a soap opera) was on TV. There are two versions of the video, one with and one without the final scene.
Here, the footage becomes an artwork in itself. Three female student performers wearing military uniforms are recorded while holding their positions as statically as possible, an isometric exercise for the ‘tableau vivant’. They positioned their arms as if they were holding a big object. For several minutes, we only notice small eye movements. 
The absence of action and the seriousness of the pose greatly contrasts with the triviality and playfulness of the soundtrack with its typically exaggerated sound effects. This juxtaposition casts an ironic light on the whole scene: who is actually acting and who is watching whom? This tension is solved only at the very end when the performers are finally allowed to move and stretch their aching muscles, breaking their statuesque attitude.
The tableau was the final product of a one-week workshop Grau held in 2011 with students of the Media Art Department of Chiangmai University (Thailand). It was shown at Asiatopia 13 (2011), an international performance art festival in Chiang Mai. The tableau reworked an iconic photograph, which the students chose as particularly representative of their current situation. The image shows American soldiers holding a 7-metres-long creature, ‘The queen of Naga’, a giant fish-like god inhabiting the river.  According to its caption, it was taken in 1973 on the Laotian bank of the Mekong river and it is often displayed at Thai restaurants, bars or sold as a postcard at markets. It also became a political statement during the monsoon rains, which in-undated vast areas of Thailand in 2011, particularly damaging poor areas of the country. 
Additionally to the political significance of this reference, the filming of a rehearsal in the context of a Thai soap opera raises questions about a possible socio-political critique behind the very simple scene presented in the video, where only female students are to be seen. The hierarchical and “traditional” Thai etiquette perpetuates strict social and gendered roles that are often performed as part of Thai soap operas: the “perfect” love stories thwarted by bad luck aimed at entertaining the audience. In this sense, the video might cast light on the rehearsing of the social façade of the ‘land of smiles’, almost as a fiction needing exercise, held up regard-less of fatigue and muscle pain.

Chiara Giardi