PRATCHAYA PHINTHONG
During the day, a poster hangs in the exhibition space, announcing Pratchaya Phinthong's Ephemeral Cinema (2004). Below the poster is an electric plug, whose cable snakes out of the gallery and into the street. It is charging the battery of an electric car, and when night falls, the car travels to temporary locations where it becomes a vehicle for a temporary, mobile cinema. Almost clandestinely, it proj ects films chosen by Phinthong onto barren walls, buildings, or other architectural elements, until its power runs out, when it moves back to the gallery to be recharged again the following day.
Like several other projects by this young Thai artist, including his recent project In someone else's body, there is a place for your mind to go (2004), which took him by foot, car, train and boat to 56 cities from Frankfurt to Bangkok, the social aspect of the Ephemeral Cinema's simple gesture lies in the act of turning random public spaces into sites of hospitality and community. Projecting films to strangers in places where art would not otherwise reach, Phinthong's car uses the electricity of art institutions to bring flickering cinematic images to the street. The rigid confines of the exhibition space are thus transformed into improvised outdoor spaces, and the deliberate decision taken by the art-going public to visit an exhibition gives way to accidental encounters with a transient cinema, made for and by a wide range of citizens.-B.V./E.F.
http://www.artforum.com/inprint/id=7598
Born 1974 Bangkok, Thailand
Lives and works in Bangkok, Thailand and Frankfurt, Germany
Ephemera! Cinema, 2004
Performative video projection
Electric car, video, poster
Courtesy the artist
Performative video projection
Electric car, video, poster
Courtesy the artist
During the day, a poster hangs in the exhibition space, announcing Pratchaya Phinthong's Ephemeral Cinema (2004). Below the poster is an electric plug, whose cable snakes out of the gallery and into the street. It is charging the battery of an electric car, and when night falls, the car travels to temporary locations where it becomes a vehicle for a temporary, mobile cinema. Almost clandestinely, it proj ects films chosen by Phinthong onto barren walls, buildings, or other architectural elements, until its power runs out, when it moves back to the gallery to be recharged again the following day.
Like several other projects by this young Thai artist, including his recent project In someone else's body, there is a place for your mind to go (2004), which took him by foot, car, train and boat to 56 cities from Frankfurt to Bangkok, the social aspect of the Ephemeral Cinema's simple gesture lies in the act of turning random public spaces into sites of hospitality and community. Projecting films to strangers in places where art would not otherwise reach, Phinthong's car uses the electricity of art institutions to bring flickering cinematic images to the street. The rigid confines of the exhibition space are thus transformed into improvised outdoor spaces, and the deliberate decision taken by the art-going public to visit an exhibition gives way to accidental encounters with a transient cinema, made for and by a wide range of citizens.-B.V./E.F.
http://www.artforum.com/inprint/id=7598