September 21 – December 1, 2019
Ravisara is a multi-channel video installation exploring stories and strategies of postcolonial resistance among Thai female immigrants in Germany. Choreographed, performed, and filmed as a means of both translation and to protect individual identities, six women’s stories are presented as part of the installation. Rungjang’s practice is invested in how historical narratives, symbols, and memories are intertwined, addressing ways that specific social, economic, and political transformations affect individuals’ lives. His work is characterized by how it deftly revisits little-known connections that link different political events and overlaps narratives across time, place, and language.
Commissioned by the Toronto Biennial of Art, co-presented with Harbourfront Centre, and made possible with generous support from DAAD.
Bio
Arin Rungjang (born and lives in Bangkok, Thailand) received his BFA from Silpakorn University, Bangkok, and has participated in exchange and artist-in-residency programs in Berlin, Paris, the Philippines, Taipei, London, Antwerp and New York City. Arin represented Thailand at the 55th Venice Biennale (2013) and presented work at documenta 14, Kassel (2017). Rungjang produces site-specific installations and videos to foster various social interactions characterized by inclusiveness and open-heartedness, including cooking lessons and communal meals, taking up residence and hosting guests in galleries, and working with marginalized populations.
Exhibition Site
Harbourfront Centre
Sitting prominently on Lake Ontario, Harbourfront Centre was once a trucking warehouse that processed goods arriving by rail or ship. In 1974, the cultural Centre opened two years after the federal government expropriated 100 acres of Toronto’s waterfront for revitalization. The population around the harbour has since boomed, with the majority made up of first-generation immigrants. Alongside French and British settler-colonialists, Toronto was also settled by freedom seekers from the southern United States; slaves from Africa and the Caribbean; and labourers from China, India, and Eastern Europe.
235 Queens Quay W
Toronto ON
M5J 2G8