Friday, July 17, 2015

October, 2008, "Asiotopia" Festival, Thailand



PERFORMANCE ART FESTIVAL "ASIOTOPIA", BANGKOK's SLUM, THAILAND

As everybody knows, Bangkok is a famous destination for the sex tourists who travel there from the west, and mainly the United States. Thanks to the power of the dollar they have long "enjoyed" very cheap and very young prostitutes who are recruited from the slums and villages of Thailand. Now that our glorious American capitalists have crashed, the crisis has come to haunt us at home. I decided to sell myself as the prostitute in one of Bangkok's largest slums. My purpose was help to save our economy. Nobody hired me.
Performance Art Festival "Asiotopia"



OCTOBER.2008 PERFORMANCE ART FESTIVAL, "ASIOTOPIA" ,BANGKOK, THAILAND (photo Wenrui)

Over the last six months, anti-government rebels, using the tactics of "direct democracy" (resonating with anarchism), have occupied the prime minister's official government headquarters. Several thousand rebels (including children) built a tent city around the building, forcing the Prime Minister to open an emergency office at the Bangkok International airport. From time to time a shell, being shot by pro government forces, landed directly over the protesters; killing some of them and injure scores. Shortly before I came to perform there a shell landed on the main tent and killed one of the rebels- on the picture you can see the hole in the tent-canopy where the shell went through. I sat down on the spot where the shell landed and I wrote the "automated" poem reflecting upon the atmosphere of this violated space. A the same spot where the shell exploded, I dug a hole and buried the poem. After I left the rebel camp I learned that another shell landed on the very same tent killing another rebel and injuring several others.
Performance Art Festival" Asiotopia"