Home & Away # 5: The Dream
West Den Haag

Saturday January 10, 2015 (7pm – 22pm)

The fifth edition of Home & Away is located in West’s bedroom where, through the video work of Thai artist Chai Siris, we will contemplate the time, distance, and memory of dreams.

In ‘Magic Mountain’, Thomas Mann’s Hans Castrop speaks about his life in the Sanatorium, nestled amongst the Swiss Alps, making his other life on the lower flatlands seem like a dream.

In some ways the intersection of past, present, and future can be entered whilst lying in bed: as we let our minds drift to what we left behind, shifting toward what will happen tomorrow or next week. We replay memories, or fantasize about futures, as our wandering mind can keep us awake shifting in the sheets. As we travel, like Hans perhaps we have to remind ourselves of life back home, as faraway as it seems; just as we try to recall the experiences of travel that seem to have lost clarity. These memories and fantasies are just like the dream, moments after sleep has washed over those wandering thoughts.

Chai Siris’s work focuses primarily on questions of memory within various communities in Thailand. Working predominantly with film and video, his works have shown in the Palais de Tokyo, Paris, Espace Louis Vuitton, Tokyo and Galerie Torri, Paris. His films have screened in among others, the International Film Festival Rotterdam and the 67th Venice International Film Festival. He has collaborated on multiple occasions with Apichatpong Weerasethakul, with exhibitions for MOMA PS1, New York, Documenta 13, Kassel and the Sharjah Biennial, Sharjah.

He lives and works in Chiangmai, Thailand.
Home & Away is a thematic program series, which travels from West Den Haag to cities such as Perth, and Sao Paulo, to think about what it is to be away, or stay at home, and how this impacts on both art production and consumption.

Kindly send a RSVP to Eloise Sweetman at eloise@westdenhaag.nl to secure a warm spot, and a bowl of soup.