<p><span style=""></span></p><p><span style="">‘Each viewer can glimpse within it their own relationship to the invisible,’ writes Rokhaya Diallo</span></p>

Artist Korakrit Arunanondchai’s intimate afterlife

<p>Born of a collaboration between the Thai artist&nbsp;<a href="https://www.artbasel.com/catalog/artist/16053/Korakrit-Arunanondchai">Korakrit Arunanondchai</a> and the American filmmaker Alex Gvojic, <em>Songs for living </em>(2021) is one part of a triptych that delves into the elemental question of mortality. On view at Lafayette Anticipations until May 15, 2023 as part of the exhibition ‘Au-delà’&nbsp;['Afterlife'], the work weaves together video, painting, and objects. This disparate assemblage echoes the temporalities of life and its end as they intersect over the course of individual destinies.</p>

<p>The three acts, written in collaboration with the Californian artist Diane Severin Nguyen, are structured around the fundamental stages of life: birth, ‘decreation’ (according to Simone Weil, the stage that follows creation by God),&nbsp;and death. But far from proposing a scholastic representation, the artist chooses to blur and politicize the boundaries of these spaces.</p><p>Arunanondchai anchors <em>Songs for living</em> in a painful personal experience: the death of his grandfather. He makes this intimate event the basis for a collective reflection and thereby transfigures the banality of mourning into a dazzling, hypnotic light. Existential questions – which have always been at the heart of Arunanondchai’s productions – take on a personal resonance hitherto unseen in his work.</p>

<p>By sharing his grief, the artist offers us an opportunity to reflect on the meaning of life from a standpoint outside of Western norms. In a world still dominated by civilizations that established human superiority over the rest of the living world, and whose elites desperately seek to push back the limits of life, Arunanondchai reminds us that life takes on diverse and sometimes contradictory expressions – and above all, that it is futile to try to master it.</p><p><em>Songs for living</em> is a journey into a multidimensional world where singular bodily and mystical experiences – childhood, old age, invocations, spirits – accrete. Fire, which appears on several occasions, gives the film a vibrant character, as if to remind us of the intensity of our existence – but also its ephemeral nature. Bodies are present in several states: from bursting with life to almost vegetal to postmortem decomposition. And the piece does not shy away from poetic detours that allow each viewer to glimpse their own relationship to the invisible.</p>

<p>Korakrit Arunanondchai’s work is strongly influenced by intellectuals engaged in deep meditations on humanity. Among them, the French philosopher Simone Weil is well-known for having declared, ‘There are only two instants of perfect nudity and purity in human life: birth and death.’ In the video, tai chi dancers simultaneously embody both a spiritual tradition and an age-old anchor transmitted through gestures as precise as they are unchanged. They echo Arunanondchai’s approach, which situates the human in a depth both earthy and spiritual. This dimension was not unfamiliar to Weil, who was herself a believer&nbsp;deeply connected to the&nbsp;religious.</p><p>Another French figure, Édouard Glissant, also features among the thinkers who feed Arunanondchai’s art. The philosopher and poet notably coined the concept of <em>tout-monde</em>&nbsp;[whole-world]&nbsp;which he defined as ‘the new co-presence of beings and things, the state of worldliness in which relation reigns.’ Glissant proposed to move past the borders of identity and to recognize a state based on relationships created by global movements. This interdependence of bodies, thought, and our imagination is represented by the different states of the beings that appear one after another in <em style="background-color: initial;">Songs for living</em>. They embody a <em style="background-color: initial;">tout-monde</em> where those here coexist, for Arunanondchai, with a hereafter that contains its share of the earthly rigidities of the military dictatorship that the Bangkok-born artist knows well. The implicit reference to intellectual figures who resisted oppression through their acts and in their writings is not anodyne. A great deal of emotion animates this metaphysical inquiry into the process of life.</p>

<p>
		Korakrit Arunanondchai is represented by&nbsp;<a href="https://parisplus.artbasel.com/catalog/gallery/13555/Bangkok-CityCity-Gallery">Bangkok CityCity Gallery</a> (Bangkok),&nbsp;<a href="https://parisplus.artbasel.com/catalog/gallery/2005/Carlos-Ishikawa">Carlos/Ishikawa</a> (London),&nbsp;<a href="https://parisplus.artbasel.com/catalog/gallery/2249/Clearing">Clearing</a> (New York, Los Angeles, Brussels) and&nbsp;<a href="https://parisplus.artbasel.com/catalog/gallery/12716/Kukje-Gallery">Kukje Gallery</a> (Seoul).
	</p>
<p>
	‘Au-delà’<br>Lafayette Anticipations, Paris&nbsp;<br>Until May&nbsp;16, 2023
</p>
<p>
	Rokhaya Diallo is an award-winning journalist, author, and director based in Paris.
</p>
<p>
	English translation: Jacob Bromberg.
</p>
<p>
	Published on April 6, 2023.
</p>
<p>
	Caption for full-bleed images:&nbsp;Korakrit Arunanondchai and Alex Gvoijic, <em>Songs for living</em>, 2021 (HD single-channel video, color, sound, 20’53’’). Co-commissioned by Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Zurich and Kunstverein in Hamburg with support from FACT, Liverpool. © Korakrit Arunanondchai, 2022. Courtesy of the artist, Bangkok CityCity Gallery, Carlos/Ishikawa, Clearing, and Kukje Gallery.
</p>
<p>Watch the video from the series <em>Meet the Artists </em>featuring Korakrit Arunanondchai below.</p>

false

title_style_2

<section></section><section> <section><main><div><div><section></section><section><section><main><div><div><section></section><section><div><div><section><main><div><div><p>‘The country’s history is splattered with blood’</p></div> </div><section></section></main></section></div></div></section></div> </div><section></section></main></section></section></div> </div><section></section></main></section></section><section> <section><main><section></section></main></section></section> <section></section>

Stories

Rokhaya Diallo responds to Faith Ringgold’s map of violence in America

<section></section><section> <section><main><div><div><section></section><section><section><main><div><p>On the occasion of its 40th anniversary, the Frac MÉCA pays tribute to the radical cross-dressing French artist</p></div><section></section></main></section></section></div> </div><section></section></main></section></section><section> <section><main><section></section></main></section></section> <section></section>

Pierre Molinier: ‘A man without morals’

<section></section><section> <section><main><div><div><section></section><section><section><main><div><div><p>From Paris to New York, the Art Basel editorial team shares its recommendations</p></div> </div><section></section></main></section></section></div> </div><section></section></main></section></section><section> <section><main><section></section></main></section></section> <section></section>

Editors’ picks: Seven exhibitions to see this Spring

‘Each viewer can glimpse within it their own relationship to the invisible,’ writes Rokhaya Diallo

Welcome,

DISCOVER MORE RELATED CONTENT BELOW: