While keeping molam’s inclination to shape-shifting, Mo[ram]lam draws its minimalist soundscape from the earliest forms of molam, known as lam pifah and lam puen, while focusing on themes of religion, spirituality and sickness that were significant preoccupations in Kafka’s life and his works. Returning to molam’s roots in animist beliefs, Buddhism and folk practices can rejuvenate dimensions of the tradition that have been eclipsed by its commercialisation, while formulating new models for multicultural and interdisciplinary exchange that deviate from molam’s absorption into mass entertainment when its plasticity is instead brought into encounter with experimental, contemporary dance. The improvisatory performance tradition and induced state of trance in lam pifah, a shamanistic healing ritual, and the mimicry of animal sounds and sermonizing of Buddhist monks in lam puen, are derivatives of Isaan’s cultural identity and provide the mainsprings for these cultural fusions, which will unfold along the festival’s overarching themes. Additionally, The gendered division of lam pifah and lam puen, which require a female singer for the former and a male singer for the latter, open up grounds for the exploration of overlapping regional and globalized constructs of gender. Positing an alternative to the tendency of contemporary dance in the region to be determined by forms and trends innovated in the West, Mo[ram]lam reverses the current of cultural expansion by centering the two oldest and most local forms of molam and allowing cross-cultural collaboration to radiate from it. Tasked with choreographing to the same molam piece, the artists must not only study molam and adapt their styles to it, but become attuned to moments of synchrony between their pieces in order to execute a simultaneous performance.
lam pifah ceremony in Kalasin province.
Kafka’s lifelong preoccupation with health and affliction with tuberculosis– which he framed as an existential condition and often considered in symbolic terms– register a different affinity with, specifically, lam pifah. In “A Country Doctor”, a short story written after just his diagnosis, Kafka obliquely characterizes illness and medical treatment as a spiritual issue. Kafka’s experiences of illness and views on healthcare can be richly juxtaposed against lampifah, a healing ritual conducted through the female molam singer and khaen, who act as spiritual mediums to call on and propitiate the “sky spirit” through improvised song and movement to cure an individual of serious illness. These ceremonies can last [an entire day?] and lead gathered audiences into a state of trance. The artists will reinterpret the motifs of lam pifah within their own movement and thematic vocabulary while exploring different aspects of Kafka”s life and works.
Date and Time: 01-14 Nov from 10:00-18:00
Venue: Jim Thompson Art Center
