︎
Rimbawan Gerilya  Ming Wong Heaven Baek Vuth Lyno Simon Soon and Munirah Mansoor Sim Chiyin Yee I-lann Nayoung Jeong Yeoreum Jeong Jason Wee Daejin Choi Tada Hengsapkul Cloud projectFyerool Darma Pio Abad
 


타다 행삽쿨
Tada Hengsapkul

‹당신은 나를 대양으로 내려가게 한다›, 2018
 You Lead Me Down, To the Ocean, 2018

2채널 비디오
16분
Two-channel video
16 min 



태국 남부 나라티왓의 바닷속을 촬영한 ‹당신은 나를 대양으로 내려가게 한다›는 어민들에게 이로운 인공 암초를 만들기 위한 왕실 프로젝트의 일환으로 2010년에 바다에 버려진 탱크의 역사를 탐구한다. 1987년 중국을 공식 방문한 쁘렘 띤술라논다 태국 총리와 와치랄롱꼰 왕세자는 친선의 제스처로 중국에서 중고 탱크를 여러 대 구입했다. 태국 군대가 수리하려 했으나 실패했고 이후 탱크는 작가의 고향이자 제2차 인도차이나 전쟁 이후 미군이 주둔 중인 코랏에 보관되었다. 해저에 가라앉은 탱크를 촬영한 매혹적인 16분짜리 2채널 영상은 친선 관계, 작가의 고향 인근의 군사화된 공간, 그리고 어민들의 일상에 스며든 무장 역사의 흔적을 가까이에서 비추며 외교와 신식민주의 점령의 역사 안에서 친밀함의 또 다른 기록을 다룬다. 태국은 1955년부터 1975년까지 베트남 전쟁에 대한 미군 지원과 1979년부터 1989년까지 태국-베트남 국경 분쟁에서 중요한 역할을 했다. 또한, 미국과 한국에 이어 남베트남에 세 번째로 많은 병력을 파병한 국가이다.

Filmed underwater off the coast of Narathiwat in southern Thailand, You Lead Me Down, To the Ocean explores the history of Thai army tanks abandoned at the bottom of the ocean in 2010 as part of a royal project to create an artificial reef to benefit Thai fisherfolk. The second-hand tanks were bought from China in 1987 as a gesture of friendship during an official state visit by Prime Minister Prem Tinsulanonda and then-Crown Prince Vajiralongkorn. The Thai military attempted and failed to fix the tanks, which have since been kept in Korat, the artist’s hometown, home to US military bases since the period of the Second Indochina War. Presenting a mesmerizing two-channel, 16-minute video that captures a view of the tanks submerged under water, Hengsapkul’s work speaks to the different registers of intimacy within a history of diplomacy and neocolonial occupation, from the friendship between states to the militarized spaces in the vicinity of the artist’s hometown, and an up-close encounter with the vestiges of armed histories absorbed in the daily life of fisherfolk. Alongside this, the installation also presents the artist’s research, which includes personal letters between a Thai soldier fighting in Vietnam and his family in Bangkok. Thailand played a crucial role in supporting the US army from 1955 to 1975 during the Vietnam War and the Vietnamese border raids in Thailand from 1979 to 1989. The nation was the third largest provider of forces to South Vietnam, following America and the Republic of Korea.


Tada Hengsapkul was born in 1987 in Korat, in the Isan region of northeastern Thailand. Korat has been home to American military bases since the period of the Second Indochina War, and the communities affected by lasting cultural and political legacies of this history have been a recurrent source of inspiration for the artist’s work. Trained in photography at Bangkok’s Pohchang Academy of Arts, Tada has been exhibiting in Thailand since 2009, and internationally since 2011. His recent exhibitions include The 9th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art (Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane, 2018), The Shards Would Shatter at Touch (Cartel Artspace, Bangkok, 2017), The Things That Take Us Apart (Gallery Seescape, Chiang Mai, 2017),Under the Same Sky (Nova Contemporary, Bangkok, 2016), Ying Chod Chai Chua (Toot Yung Gallery, Bangkok, 2014), Anthropos (Sundaram Tagore Gallery, Singapore, 2013), and The 2nd Chongqing Biennale for Young Artists (China, 2011).


Tada Hengsapkul, You Lead Me Down, To the Ocean, 2018, still. Courtesy of the artist.