This performance is changing the space of the BTS train temporarly.
The performers enter the train and sit down in a row on the seats.
One of the performers start the cd player. The sound is backgroundnoise
from the river, and people from Bangkok who still use the riverboats as
transportation, describing how it is to take the boat and what they see
while taking it. The performers take up the laptops, start the dvd and turn
the laptops around so they face the other passengers on the train.
The films show the costal line which is views from the riverboats.
The past and the present. In most of Thailands history, boats have been
the main form of transportation. Still people are using the "leaduan" (express boat),
and the "lea kram fa" (crossing boat) for everyday transportation, but cars,
trains and scooters are more and more shaping the cityspace and how people
connect in the city. With this project, we wanted to combine the pace of traditional
and new transportation, to give the BTS train a view and natural noises from the
environment of the river. You hear thai people describing their view from the boat,
and you can sense the physical connection between vision, body, water, boat,
motor and sound.
The bank of the river is a place where you can see traditional houses, temples and
ways of living alongside with rapid modernization. The view while travelling is
different compared to the BTS train, where you almost cannot see out of the window
because of commercials.
Trains are moving spaces sealed from the outside, a technological environment in a
confined space, making the train move in a constant smooth pace with almost no
sound besides the installed tv commercials, compared to the noisy, open view boat,
navigating in and out between other boats freely roaming the river, with a view of
the riverbank, like a mixed gallery of contemporary Thailand.
A collaboration between:
Adhitep Duksukkaew (Thailand), Darragh O’ Callaghan (Ireland),
Jette Hye Jin Mortensen (Denmark), Rares Kovesdi (Romania),
Andreas Siagian (Indonesia) and ‘Bank’ (Volunteer – Thailand)
