Apichatpong Weerasethakul
Primitive
8 March–28 April 2013
Opening: 7 March, 7pm
HangarBicocca
Via Chiese 2 Milan
Hours: Thursday–Sunday, 11–11pm
Free admission
T +39 02 6611 1573
info [at] hangarbicocca.org
Curated by Andrea Lissoni
HangarBicocca presents Primitive, the first solo exhibition in Italy by Thai artist and film director Apichatpong Weerasethakul, from 7 March to 28 April 2013. The Primitive project is conceived here in its most complete and dense version in a new display.
Curated by Andrea Lissoni andmade possible by the support of Pirelli, the multi-platform project leads the visitor into a world of cinema and sound, documentary-interviews and music clips, with a mix of artistic genres and languages that create a truly choral work. The work focuses on the young inhabitants of Nabua, a village in northern Thailand, who are seen in their everyday lives and and in their project to build a spaceship. This becomes a symbolic means for imagining a different future, but also a place for coming together and escaping from reality.
A contemporary tale in which we find biographical elements and reflections on history, youth culture and spirituality, with dreamlike atmospheres and social criticism, Primitive is also a reflection on the cinema and on how it is transforming our way of seeing. It does so by simultaneously juxtaposing a number of visions, in ways that may be contemplative or distracted, immersive or fleeting, intimate or shared.
The power of Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s work comes mainly from his ability to convey universal themes such as the overwhelming strength of youth, the coexistence of life and death, the violence of war and the ability of man to find redemption, and he achieves this by starting out from the history of his country and the story of his own life.
All in One Night: The Cinema of Apichatpong Weerasethakul
From 7pm on Friday 22 March to 8am on Saturday 23 March, HangarBicocca presents a one-night special program featuring the majority of Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s short, medium, long, experimental and documentary feature films and video. The complete screening, which offers an unmissable opportunity to plunge into the dream-like, mysterious world of Apichatpong Weerasethakul, constitutes a sort of imaginary extension of the Primitive exhibition. For the event, a real cinema including a 35mm projector will be constructed and all the films will be exceptionally subtitled in Italian.
Primitive was commissioned by the Haus der Kunst, Munich, with FACT (Foundation for Art and Creative Technology), Liverpool, and Animate Projects, London. Produced by Illuminations Films, London and by Apichatpong’s production company Kick the Machine Films, Bangkok.
