The Ambassador of France to Thailand

Through its rich and eclectic program, where films, exhibitions and performances mix, the Unfolding Kafka festival disrupts conventions and distorts habits with the challenge to offer demanding proposals that are accessible to all types of audiences. The Embassy of France in Thailand is pleased, this year again, to support the festival, which offers a unique space for contemporary creation in Bangkok.

Three French shows are presented for this edition. Programmed in close collaboration with the Director of the festival, Jitti Chompee, these creations invite us to question our relationship with the world, the place we occupy in our environment and in society with enthusiasm and imagination:

Vania Vaneau offers an investigation into ritual, trance and transformation. Charlie and Sylvain Bouillet, through their acrobatic show, combine the spontaneity of childhood with the precision of writing. Finally, Nathan Israel will offer us a sensory journey through raw material – the soil – to become a man of mud, a mirror of our humanity.

These artists ignore frames and labels, they are in love with risk and insolence, they offer us the opportunity to dive into their unique worlds and I hope that even closer links can be forged between the public, the festival and the other invited artists. In addition to disseminating French artists in Thailand, The French Embassy encourages, cooperation projects and creations in the territory. Exchanges between French and local artists are at the heart of our activities and I hope that many of you will participate in the workshop organized with Charlie and Sylvain Bouillet at the Alliance française.

I hope that this this third edition may become a great success and that the visitors may experience many beautiful discoveries. As Kafka wrote, the gaze does not seize the images, it is the images that seize the gaze, they invade consciousness.

Jean Lapouge
Ambassador of France to Thailand

The Director of the Goethe-Institut Thailand

Once again the Goethe-Institut Thailand is proud to work in cooperation with the Unfolding Kafka Festival. The institute has been involved in many cultural projects over the past decades, promoting values of exchange and collaboration. However, the Unfolding Kafka Festival has proven to be a unique event in the international contemporary art scene. Its focus on the variety of conceptual and moving works allows everyone to experience the countless interpretations of Kafka’s words. We are proud to support and promote the festival and consider this an ideal framework to democratise Kafka’s work, making it more accessible to everyone.

The festival allows scope for exploration and interaction. With cross-cultural discussions on themes and issues relevant to a contemporary social and political context, the festival explores different approaches to a variety of predicaments. This year, the festival programme includes everything from film screenings and video installations to performance, dance and graphic expositions while also exploring new media such as the virtual reality experience VRwandlung, all allowing the equally diverse audience to enter Kafka’s world with their own opportunity for personal interpretation.

I believe that the ongoing success of the Unfolding Kafka Festival contributes to the rise of an even more dynamic and inspiring local contemporary art scene.

Maren Niemeyer
Director of Goethe-Institut Thailand