Arthub Film Commission: Ho Tzu Nyen at Tate Modern
Ho Tzu Nyen was invited by Arthub directors Defne Ayas and Davide Quadrio to create a new artwork during the Arthub Summit: The Making of the New Silk Roads symposium in Bangkok. This film will be on view at Tate Modern’s No Soul for Sale.
Here below is what Ho says about this experience:
“With The Making of the New Silk Roads, Davide Quadrio and Defne Ayas seemed concerned with the symposium itself as an object. I’m guessing that this is why they have situated it in a gallery. It is clear that they have thought through the spatial configuration and the temporal shape of the symposium, and they have sought to choreograph its unfolding. There is a dramaturgical dimension to it, and as I understand, a willingness to experiment and risk failure.
I believe that there is always a personal dimension to the projects and experiments that we undertake. For me, this event happened at a time when I had just come off a particularly grueling film shoot, and the notion of being a participant in the symposium created some amount of discomfort. Yet what I knew of The Making of the New Silk Roads seemed so interesting, that I was also inevitably drawn to it. The solution seemed to lie in finding a way for me to be simultaneously, and productively involved with the event as a whole, while also not being a part of it as a participant. What interested me was the shape of the event as a whole. It seemed to me that the best way to do this would be to become a part of the ‘documentary’ team that Davide and Defne had already assembled, while getting an actor to be my substitute in the symposium.
Being part of the ‘documentary’ team turned out to be a fascinating experience, a kind of being inside and outside at the same time. Freed from the anxiety of participation, I was somewhat plugged into the skin of the event, without being pulled into its pool of words. Through the lens of the cameras, I could feel the intangible, but nevertheless concrete dimensions of every symposium–its atmosphere, its moments of heaviness and lightness.
I think of this video as a documentation of the symposium from a physiological dimension. It is a narrative of faces, gestures and energies. Perhaps it was my attempt to create a kind of group portrait. But I guess it could also be a dream, or perhaps a love story (the most commonplace of all stories): a story about elements coming together and falling apart.”
The symposium was organized by Arthub Directors Davide Quadrio and Defne Ayas, Ark Fongsmut (BUG), with coordination support from Monvilai Rojanatanti.
Invitation by: Defne Ayas, Davide Quadrio (Arthub Asia)
Organization team: Ying Monvilai, Defne Ayas, Ark Fongsmut, Davide Quadrio, Bunyanut Suwannakul, Fat, P
Graphic design: Bunyanut Suwannakul Space Design by : Supersudaca Technical support by :Supernormal
Directed: Ho Tzu Nyen, Singapore
Idea: Ho Tzu Nyen, Defne Ayas, Davide Quadrio and Seph Rodney
Filming crew organized: Chacree Rujivipat
Actor 1: Ms. Karn Wanadornworawisan
Actor 2: Joe Chan
Commissioned: Arthub Asia
Produced in co-operation with FarEastFarWest Ltd.
Ho is a filmmaker, born in 1976, Singapore. Participant at Selected Film Festivals: HERE, 41st Directors Fortnight, 62nd Cannes International Film Festival, France, Invisible Room (with The Observatory), Singapore Arts Festival, Singapore, NEWTON, Some Rooms, Osage Gallery, Hong Kong, The King Lear Project, Kunsten Festivaldes Arts, Brussels, Belgium, Reflections, International Competition, 54th Oberhausen International Short Film Festival, Germany, The Bohemian Rhapsody Project, Recontres Internationales 2007–2008, Center Pompidou, Paris, France, 2007–Thermocline of Art, ZKM, Karlsruhe, Germany, 2006–1st Singapore Biennale, Singapore, 2005–Utama–Every Name in History is I, 3rd Fukuoka Asian Art Triennale, Japan, 2004–Image Smugglers, 26th Sao Paolo Biennale, Brazil.
