‘Resistance to stay’ Information

SOUZOU / Former Iwabashi house will present works by artists from the Mekong area, which is currently undergoing rapid development. Taiki Sakpisit expresses the tensions of contemporary Thailand in his fantastical yet disturbing video works, while Truong Cong Tung presents a chaotic and realistic dream that is not merely beautiful and nostalgic. Kanita uses steel wire, a common sight in Cambodia, to create the forms of her works from intuitive hand movements. Their gaze does not look towards a glorious future, as everyone used to do during Japan’s period of rapid economic growth, but poetically expresses the lost nature and changing urban spaces that are now before our eyes. In the Nakaheji-based Awaya’s new work, sound art that captures the ethereal world of Kumano will be created in the garden of SOUZOU.

Artists：AWAYA（Japan）、Taiki Sakpisit（Bangkok）、Kanitha Tith（Phnom Penh）、Truong Cong Tung（Ho Chi Minh）

【Venue】

SOUZOU

The old private house café SOUZOU is run by artists Kinemura Naoko  and Kinemura Shiro, and is located not far from the Minakata Kumagusu Archives. While gradually reconstructing and improving the former Iwahashi house, the café is changing day by day as a place of harmony for local people and a place that draws out people’s imagination and creativity.

Address：〒646-0035 70-1 Nakayashiki-machi Tanabe City Wakayama, Japan
Open：10:00- 17:00
Closing Day: Opening
EverydayContact: info@kinan-art.jp

【Artists】

AWAYA
Sound art unit formed by Masatomo Fukushima and Yumiko Okuno. Since 2007, they have moved to Nakaheji in the Kumano region, and using the sounds they hear every day in their daily life close to nature as a source of inspiration, they create “sound art works” that express the mysteries of the universe and life hidden in everyday life in their unique sound world. His activities transcend genres. In particular, at the BIWAKO Biennale international art festival, which he has participated in every time since 2010, he continues to transmit his unique world view through both sound installation exhibitions and artistic concerts. 2021 KINAN ART WEEK Kohei Maeda ‘Breathing’ music provided. 2022 March Release of album ‘WATER FOREST KUMANO’ co-produced with ACOON HIBINO from TAICHIKU ENTERTAINMENT. 2022 Scheduled to participate in BIWAKO Biennale 2022 起源~ORIGIN~.

Taiki Sakpisit
Taiki Sakpisit is a filmmaker and visual artist based in Bangkok, renowned for his innovative approach to storytelling and his profound exploration of Thailand’s complex history. Through the lens of cinema, Sakpisit unpacks the nation’s turbulent past, infusing his experimental films with a subtle yet resounding political commitment. His works delve into the underlying tensions, conflicts, and anticipations of contemporary Thailand, meticulously crafted through precise and sensorially overwhelming audio-visual assemblage. Utilizing a diverse array of sounds and images, Sakpisit creates immersive experiences that challenge conventional narratives and provoke thought. His feature-length film The Edge of Daybreak garnered acclaim, winning the FIPRESCI award at the International Film Festival Rotterdam. His recent works have been showcased at the fourteenth Gwangju Biennale, the Museum of Contemporary Art Busan, the 2024 Bangkok Art Biennale and the fourteenth Mercosur Biennial.

Kanitha Tith
Kanitha was born in 1987, Phnom Penh, Cambodia and centers on intuitive processes as she works across media with a focus on sculpture and drawing. Her solo presentations include the performance How Heavy Is Time? at Casco Art Institute, Utrecht (2020) and the exhibition Instinct, SA SA BASSAC, Phnom Penh (2018). Select group exhibitions include 58th Carnegie International, Pittsburg (2022), Singapore Biennale (2022), SUNSHOWER: Southeast Asian Art from 1980s to Today, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo (2017), and Rescue Archaeology, ifa, Berlin and Stuttgart, Germany (2013). Kanitha was a resident at Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten, Amsterdam (2019-2021). She is a member of Anti-Archive film collective in Cambodia. 

Truong Cong Tung
Born in 1986, Truong Cong Tung grew up in Dak Lak among various ethnic minorities in the Central Highlands, Vietnam. He graduated from the Ho Chi Minh Fine Arts University in 2010, majoring in lacquer painting. With research interests in science, cosmology and philosophy and the environment, he works with a range of media, including video, installation, painting and found objects, which reflect personal contemplations on the cultural and geopolitical shifts of modernization, as embodied in the morphing ecology, belief or mythology of a land. He is also a member of Art Labor (founded in 2012), a collective working between visual art and social/life sciences to produce alternative non-formal knowledge via artistic and cultural activities in various public contexts and locales.