Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Deforming Thai Politics

2011; Routledge; Volume: 25; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/09528822.2011.587687

1475-5297

Pandit Chanrochanakit,

Cinema and Media Studies

Abstract This article contemplates four Thai contemporary art works as signs of deforming Thai politics. The author's readings of Porntaweesak Rimsakul's RGB's War (2006), Navin Rawanchaikul's Lost in the City (Long Krung, 2006), Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook's Manet's Luncheon on the Grass and Thai Villagers (2009), and Apichatpong Weerasethakul's ‘Primitive’ project (2009) relate these artworks to the ways in which artists portray the Thai socio-political situation and the rupture between urban and rural Thais. Thais have been divided into two political movements: the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) and the National Front of Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD). The two movements share an idea of democratisation but represent different practices as shown in Rasdjarmrearnsook's work, which poses questions of aesthetic distinction between Thais and the West. Rawanchaikul's Lost in the City brings out the complexity of political conflict in Bangkok. Weerasethakul's Primitive project draws on his experience in a rural area where the ghosts of Communists are still haunting democracy. Keywords: contemporary Thai artPeople's Alliance for DemocracyDemocracy against DictatorshipRimsakulRasdjarmrearnsookRawanchaikulWeerasethakul Lost in the City Manet's Luncheon on the Grass and Thai Villagers Primitive Project Notes 1. Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Primitive, CUJO, Milan, 2009, p 13 2. The Ministry of Culture organised the exhibition ‘Imagine Peace’ at the Bangkok Art and Culture Centre between 25 June and 22 August 2010. According to its curator, Apinan Poshyananda, the exhibition was meant to express ‘the desire for peace and reconciliation’. See ‘Imagine Peace: Thai Exhibit on [the] Political Crisis’, http://www.artdaily.org/index.asp?int_sec=11&int_new=39048, accessed 10 August 2010. 3. The letter to Montien Boonma is part of Navin Rawanchaikul's installation Please Donate Your Ideas to a Silpathorn Artist in his Silpathorn award-winning exhibition held at Queen Sirikit Art Gallery from 29 July to 10 August 2010. 7. Vasan Sitthiket, 20/20: 20 Years 20 Artists: Anniversary Celebration Exhibition, 3 August–15 August 2010, Bangkok Art and Culture Centre and Akko Art Gallery, Bangkok, 2010, p 24 9. Ark Fongsamut, ‘Porntaweesak Rimsakul’, Porntaweesak's Exhibition 7 September–29 October, 2006, 100 Tonson Gallery, Bangkok, 2006 10. In Phongpaichit and Baker, op cit, pp 278–279. See another translation from Wikipedia which reads: ‘In horse racing they have the stable and the owner of the stable owns the horse. The jockey comes and rides the horse during the race, but the jockey does not own the horse. It's very easy [to comprehend].’ Wikipedia.org, ‘Prem Tinsulanonda’, accessed 20 August 2010. 4. I refer to each artist by his or her first name, following Thai custom. 5. The PAD, the anti-Thaksin movement also known as the ‘yellow shirt’ movement, was founded on 8 February 2006. The founders were Sondhi Limthongkul, Chamlong Srimuang, Somsak Kosaisuk, Somkiat Pongpaibul, Pipob Thongchai and Suriyasai Katasila. Vasan and many other artists joined the PAD, using their art to raise funds via art auctions, campaign T-shirts etc. 6. Thaksin Shinawatra served two terms as Prime Minister of Thailand from 2001 to 2006. He was ousted by a military coup on 19 September 2006. See Pasuk Phongpaichit and Chris Baker, Thaksin, second edition, Silkworm Books, Bangkok, 2009 for more details. 8. Elaine W Ng, ‘Thailand’, ArtAsiaPacific Almanac 2008 (3), 2008, pp 267–268 11. I use the term ‘middle class’ in the manner of a discursive concept; as suggested by James Ockey, there are two outstanding groups among the middle class. The first is the group made newly rich by the economic prosperity of the 1980s and 1990s that Ockey calls the ‘consumer middle class’. They enjoy the fruitful products of economic development but are seldom satisfied with public policy. The second group enjoys careers that grant them a higher status than that of the rural poor. See Chapter Seven, ‘Thai Middle Class Elements: Leading in Democracy?’, in James Ockey, Making Democracy: Leadership, Class, Gender, and Political Participation in Thailand, Silkworm, Bangkok, 2005, pp 151–171. 12. See discussion on Thaksin Shinawatra and his charges in Phongpaichit and Chris, op cit, and debates on Thaksin's undemocratic acts and reasons to overthrown him and his government in Kasian Techapira, ‘Toppling Thaksin’, New Left Review 39, May–June 2006, pp 5–37 and Thongchai Winichakul, ‘Toppling Democracy’, Journal of Contemporary Asia, vol 38, no 1, February 2008, pp 11–37.Winichakul's arguments support Tamada's analysis of the process of de-democratisation and the rise of pro-monarchist sentiments. 13. Arjun Appadurai, Modernity at Large, University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, 1996 14. Walter Benjamin, The Arcades Project, Howard Eiland and Kevin McLaughlin, trans, Belknap Press, New York, 2002, p 917 15. Anek Laothamatas, Song nagara prachathippatai (Tales of Two Democratic Cities: A Path to Economic and Political Reformation for Democracy), Matichon Press, Bangkok, 1995, p 12 16. Thamrongsak Petchlertanan, Korang karn patiwat-ratpraharn-kabot nai karnmoung thai patchuban: Botwikroh lae ekasarn (Excuses for Revolution-Coup-Rebellion in Current Thai Politics: An Analysis and Documents), Foundation for the Promotion of Social Sciences and Humanities Text Books Project, Bangkok, 2007, pp 13–44 17. Yoshifumi Tamada, ‘Democracy, Democratization and De-democratization’, Fa Diaw Kan, vol 6, no 4, 2008, pp 98–139 18. Iola Lenzi, ‘BACC Opens to Contemporary Art’, C Arts 6, November–December 2008, pp 98–102 19. Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook, ‘In This Circumstance, the Sole Object of Attention Should Be the Treachery of the Moon’, Ardel Gallery of Modern Art, Bangkok, 2008 20. Ibid 21. Police General Kovit Wattana, a former Chief of the National Thai Police, who at that time was the Minister of the Interior, answering a question posed by the opposition in which he used the term ‘mob meesen’ to imply that the PAD is supported by the elites in Thailand, especially pro-monarchists and ultra-royalists. It is the major reason why the PAD was able to seize Government House for 193 days (from 25 May to 2 December 2008) without being disbanded. The PAD seized Don Muang and Suvanabhumi Airports from 25 November to 2 December 2008. In contrast, the UDD gathered on Rajadamnern on 12 March 2010 and were violently crushed by troops on 10 April 2010. The death toll reached twenty-six. As a result, the UDD moved to Rajaprasong Road on 14 April 2010. Tragically, Apbhisit Vejjajiva set up the Centre for the Resolution of the Emergency Situation (CRES) on 7 April 2010, under the State of Emergency Act 2005, to deal with the mass protest. In the end, the military, acting under the orders of the CRES, broke up the UDD protest site at Rajaprasong Junction on 19 May 2010. UDD protesters and members of the public, including two foreign journalists, were killed, bringing the total number of deaths to ninety-one. The creation of the CRES as a reaction to the UDD protests, in contrast to the (lack of) reaction to the PAD protests, raises the issue of double standards in Thai politics. 22. The legal civil war is not an over-simplified statement. It is widely known that CRES closed down and blocked more than 65,000 websites accusing them of posting matters falling under lèse majesté legislation. Many community radio stations were also shut down. Yet the CRES, the Minister of Justice and Army leaders announced that they would hunt down anyone involved in acts of lèse majesté including even organising anti-lèse majesté networks. Ironically, freedom of expression and freedom of the media were promoted after the May 1992 massacre and posited in the 1997 constitution as well as the 2007 constitution. Under the state of emergency such freedom is banned, however. 23. Walter Benjamin, ‘Theses on the Philosophy of History’, Illuminations, Schocken Books, New York, 1968, p 257 24. Giorgio Agamben, State of Exception, Kevin Attell, trans, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 2005, p 2 25. Weerasethakul, Primitive, op cit, p 12 26. http://www.komchadluek.net, accessed 15 August 2006 27. Brian Mertens, ‘Apichatpong Bids to Unshackle Thai Cinema’, ArtAsiaPacific 55, September/October 2007, p 93 28. Apichatpong Weerasethakul, ‘Influence: Today and Tomorrow’, ArtAsiaPacific Almanac 2008, no 3, 2008, p 269 29. Nick Nostitz, Red vs Yellow Vol 1: Thailand's Crisis of Identity, White Lotus, Bangkok, 2009, p vi 30. Head was presented to CTW as a gift from the Indian Embassy to commemorate sixty-two years of the Indian–Thai relationship with the support of the Ministry of Culture, the Bureau of the Crown Property, the India-Thailand Chamber of Commerce, and the Central Pattana Group. 31. Susan Buck-Morss, The Dialectics of Seeing: Walter Benjamin and the Arcades Project, MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1989, p 81 32. The project ‘Shopping to Rescue the [Thai] Nation’ was held right after the May 2010 massacre. The Abhisit Government and BMA worked closely to make sure that shop owners could get space and make a good return after the UDD had been dispersed. 33. Gilles Deleuze, Francis Bacon: The Logic of Sensation, Daniel W Smith, trans, University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, 2002, pp 31–38 34. Kham Phaka, Nub tae nee pai mai meun derm (From Now On [Thai People] Will Not Be the Same), Matichon Sudsapda (Matichon Weekly), 24–30 April 2009 35. Sven Lutticken, ‘On Gerald Raunig: Art and Revolution’, Art Forum, September 2007, p 83 36. See http://www.matichon.co.th/news_detail.php?newsid=1277631908&grpid=&catid=0, accessed 18 October 2010.