Tuesday, 31 January 2011

"Bangkok Experimental Film Festival (BEFF6)"

KLEX is invited by the 6th Bangkok Experimental Film Festival to present a special program featuring KLEX works selected from Malaysia, Japan and Hong Kong on 5 February 2012 at the Bangkok Art & Culture Center.

Please check it out if you’re in town!

For more information: http://beffbeff.com/beff-programmes/beff6-presents

FROM REMEMBERING TO RISING

This is a special selected KLEX program that consists of works from Malaysia, Hong Kong and Japan of various content, styles and approaches.

The human brain is the most fundamental agent of archiving. Like it or not, it records everything every single moment. After the recording, some materials are remained while others are discarded. Memories are then stored in different forms: image, sound, smell… that eventually provokes emotions. PASSING II presents a journey of rapidly changing images of the city as if the brain is in the very process of “recording”. In those split seconds, which image will stay in the consciousness? Sharing a similar visual aesthetic is When the Time Without My Memories, meditating on the absence of memory. PERHAPS is the only narrative-based (although pretty abstract) work in the program, intertwining the story-world and our physical world. Now which one is “real”? What we “see”, or what we “think”? What about the experiences that are too painful to be remembered? Kolam is a quiet memorial of the unforgettable 2004 Tsunami in Indonesia, displaying such courage from the victims. Di Bawah Bintang Mengerdip uses sound - music and poetry, to pay tribute to the unfortunate events in life. The Butterfly is an excellent 30 seconds meditation on the impermanence of life!

The three Japanese works with the length of 3 minutes 11 seconds, are selected from the KLEX 2011 Guest Program: “3.11: What Is To Be Remembered?”, co-curated by Hiroaki Sato and Katsuyuki Hattori, as Tokyo’s artists’ responses to the March 11 major earthquake in 2011. Sky Don't Fall shows breathtaking images of Tokyo’s sky. Nakamura uses humour and rhythmic editing to inject reality into melancholy sentiments as she narrates “I'm gonna make sure that doves fly, Cause kids fly too…Then I see the moon sets over the bank sign.” Making of Tokyo uses found footage and graphics to investigate a stereotypical Tokyo as outsiders’ impression, with a touch of humour. Iso juxtaposes news footage with personal footage to remember the event and raises critical questions. Adapting a poetic aesthetic, Star ponders over social and political violence as it scratches over the images and sounds as if history is being removed forcefully. ความมืดสีขาว Whiteness In Darkness, with an intense editing style, playing with the “broken rhythms” of video, sound and fragments of text, invites the viewers to engage actively on a philosophical ride. When intense sensations violently overflowing our senses, what will remain in our memories? Morning is a quiet observer who merely “watches”, so does Flow. When one truly observes, compassion will rise.

ARTISTS & WORKS:

When the Time Without My Memories (2010, Malaysia, 4:55 mins)

Alison KHOR

For my parents. A time that never occurs in my memory but were their most precious moments in life.

Kolam (2007, Malaysia, 12:40 mins)

Chris CHONG Chan Fui

Kolam is a short documentary about a village pool and the post-trauma kids swimming lessons.

The Butterfly (2004, Malaysia, 0:35 secs)

CHAN Seauhuvi

…. And this is living.

PERHAPS (2006, Malaysia, 8:50 mins)

KOK Kai Foong

Women in Love.

PASSING II (2009, Malaysia, 6:30 mins)

AU Sow Yee

Moving in city, as if chasing the speed of light but was eventually pulled back onto the earth.

Di Bawah Bintang Mengerdip (Under the Twinkling Star) (2010, Malaysia, 3:30 mins)

Kamal Sabran

Di Bawah Bintang Mengerdip is a collaboration project between experimental musician, Space Gambus Experiment with A. Samad Said, a national poet Laurette. The inspiration for this poem was derived from unfortunate living stories that he’d heard from some dancer friends. He was deeply touched by their stories and wrote this poem in 1960.

Sky Don't Fall (2011, Japan, 3:11 mins)

Akiko Nakamura

I'm watching the sky

I wanna make sure the sky don't fall

I'm gonna make sure that doves fly

Cause kids fly too

I'll always make sure the sky don't fall

Then I see the moon sets over the bank sign

iso (2011, Japan, 3:11 mins)

Katsuyuki Hattori

50 means “many” in Japanese language and sometimes pronounced “iso”. The earth has shaken, city system has frozen, a safety myth has fallen, and economic Godzilla appeared by the earthquake. I have to face the monster, but in what way?

Making of Tokyo (2011, Japan, 3:11 mins)

Yousuke Sano

How to make Tokyo in 3 minutes 11 seconds?

STAR (alternative version) (2011, Hong Kong, 8:00 mins)

Choi Sai Ho

Star is like a collage of news, banners and sound of demonstration of the “protecting the historic sites – Star Ferry Pier and Queen’s pier” event. The rhythm is so intense and the work shows the violence of the news event. (Phoebe Man Ching Ying, curator/scholar)

Morning (2010, Malaysia, 3:50 mins)

KOK Siew Wai

In the morning, very loud dogs’ barking woke me up. I walked up to the window and saw a very unlikely scene, not the usual morning breezes and birds chirping. I quickly took out a camera and pressed “record”. Reality is blunt, straightforward, and intense. All is part of nature.

ความมืดสีขาว Whiteness In Darkness (2012, Japan/Thailand, 8:00 mins)

Koji Tambata

ความมืดสีขาว is a Zen Buddhism phrase meaning “knowledge that cannot stop suffering and greed”. Blocking the eyes and the heart to see and understand by it one cannot reach enlightenment. Whiteness In Darkness is an audio-visual collaboration with Malaysian improvised saxophonist Yong Yandsen, who has the intensity and lyricism like the historical Kaoru Abe.

Flow (2011, Malaysia, 3:00 mins)

Chew Win Chen

Humans leave traces in nature throughout their life. Amid of pursuing their own good, the surroundings are often neglected and left to be swept away by the waves of modernization. The footage and audio recorded at Kampung Sungai Batu, Kedah, Malaysia.

(Total Run Time: 70+ minutes)