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Exploration

Exposing the Exceptions —— Research Residency and Exchange Program in Thailand

2022
2022.06 - 2022.11

Taiwanese artist Chiu Chih-Hua spent two months in Thailand on a research residency, examining images that were edited out by the film censorship system, investigating the meaning of scenes, words, and taboos within the historical context.

 

The project was initiated by Chiu Chih-Hua, in collaboration with Thai artist Samak Kosem. The research focuses on images in Thailand that have been shut out of the timeline due to censorship and explores how they can be re-imaged in a contemporary way. The project begins with these silenced fragments and extends outward to explore the meaning of scenes, words, and taboos as they manifest within their historical context. During the residency, the artist interviewed filmmakers and independent screening organizations across Thailand in an attempt to piece back together these lost fragments. He explored how “independent screening” serves as a political action and how artists continue to examine the relationship between self, society, and nation under censorship. Chiu’s journey during his residency took place across Thailand, reaching Dan Sai, Bangkok, Nakhon Pathom, Songkhla, Hat Yai, Pattani, Trang, Chiang Mai, and Chiang Khong.……The artist also held two film screenings during the residency and three screenings and sharing sessions upon his return to Taiwan.

Almost Fiction Production

Whenever the phrase “This is a work of fiction” appears at the start of a film, it is easy to associate the plot with a non-fictional narrative that must be based on partial truth. The production company’s goal is to curate activities that fit the “real situation”, embodying creative thinking without deviating from reality. By embracing the art elements within the fibers of life, the exhibition focuses on the communication between different fields, opening up a two-way channel for viewer participation and expressing an omniscient perspective of visual art to achieve the ambition of community creation.

The production includes video creation, documentary filming, performance production, exhibition curating, and administration. The focus is on transitional communication between different fields, as to open up a two-way path for viewer participation.

Chiu Chih-Hua

Chiu Chih-Hua has devoted himself to film-related research for a long time, creating images that exist between static and dynamic, hovering between the real and the virtual. In the early days, he was inspired by documentary filming and engaged in single-channel video shooting with the city as the perspective. After 2010, he gradually developed the creative form of transforming real scenes into model production. He also shifted his focus to the unfinished things that have been lost, passed away, or no longer exist. Through different forms of film, he documents and recreates these memories that no longer exist. In recent years, he has also collected found footage from all over the world in an attempt to reorganize and give a voice to these abandoned images, as well as to connect himself with the history of other places.

Samak Kosem

Samak Kosem is an ethnographic and visual culture researcher, based in southern Thailand and focusing on Muslim culture, post-human relations, and trans-border/trans-gender concepts. He uses visual ethnography, photographic methods, cinematic images, and object texts as tentative media in his research process. He graduated from Chiang Mai University in 2009 with a B.Sc. in Cultural Anthropology and in 2013 obtained an M.A. in Social Development, then decided to pursue a Ph.D. in Social Sciences at Chiang Mai University, combining art and academic study.

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