Edouard Malingue Gallery is pleased to present at S.E.A. FOCUS 2021 works by Apichatpong Weerasethakul (b. 1970, Thailand), Ho Tzu Nyen (b. 1976, Singapore) and Tromarama (Indonesia).

Apichatpong Weerasethakul (b. 1970) was born in Bangkok, raised in Khon Kaen. He studied architecture at Khon Kaen University and later received an MFA in filmmaking from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He started making films and videos in 1994 and has become an independent film producer in Thailand. Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s films and artworks are essentially the same. The political and the social are always alluded to, playing integral parts in his mysterious and poetic artistic language. By working chiefly on time and light, and by working meticulously with actors, Weerasethakul builds a delicate bridge for the audience, and allows them to travel through the real and the mythical, the individual and the collective, the spiritual and the somatic, entering via unorthodox narratives a rich consciousness, where one finds the artist’s memories, mythologies, dreams and desires. Weerasethakul has held solo exhibitions at Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taiwan (2019), Oklahoma City Museum of Art, Oklahoma (2018), the Museum of Contemporary Art and Design (MCAD), Manila (2017), Tate Modern, London (2016), and 53rd Gijón International Film Festival, Spain (2015), amongst others. Recent group exhibitions include 58th Venice Biennale, Venice (2019), Red Brick Art Museum, Beijing (2018), Gwangju Biennale, Gwangju (2018), 14th Lyon Biennale, Lyon (2017), 20th Biennale of Sydney (2016), Saitama Triennale, Saitama (2016), Kadist Art Foundation, San Francisco (2015) and Para Site, Hong Kong (2015).

A plethora of historical references dramatised by musical scores and allegorical lighting make up the pillars of Ho Tzu Nyen’s (b. 1976) complex practice that primarily constitutes video and installation. Features in their own right, each work unravels unspoken layers of Southeast Asian histories whilst equally pointing to our own personal unknowns. Permeating Ho’s work is a pervasive sense of ambiguity, theatricality and unease, augmented by a series of deliberate literary, art historical and musical references. Ho Tzu Nyen has been widely exhibited with one person exhibitions at ar/ge kunst, Italy (2020), the Edith-Russ-Haus for Media Art, Oldenburg (2019), Kunstverein, Hamburg (2018), Ming Contemporary Art Museum, Shanghai (2018), TPAM, Yokohama (2018), Asia Art Archive (2017), Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao (2015), Mori Art Museum, Tokyo (2012) and Artspace, Sydney (2011), amongst others. He also represented Singapore at the 54th Venice Biennale (2011). Recent group exhibitions include Theaterfestival Basel, Basel (2020), Museum für Gegenwartskunst Siegen, Siegen (2020), Pingshan Art Museum, Shenzhen (2020), ALIEN ART Centre, Taiwan (2020), Museum of Contemporary Art Busan, Busan (2019), Aichi Triennial 2019, Toyota City and Nagoya City (2019), Home Work 8, Beirut (2019), Sharjah Biennial 14, Sharjah (2019), Gwangju Biennale, Gwangju (2018), National Gallery Singapore, Singapore (2018), Dhaka Art Summit 2018, Dhaka (2018), Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin (2017), Guggenheim Museum, New York (2016), Queensland Art Gallery / Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane (2016), Times Museum, Guangzhou (2013), and Witte de With, Rotterdam (2012). He has participated in numerous international film festivals including Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah (2012) and the 41st Directors’ Fortnight at the Cannes International Film Festival in France (2009).

Engaging with the notion of hyperreality in the digital age, Tromarama explores the interrelationship between the virtual and the physical world. Initiating as a collective in 2006 in Bandung, Indonesia, Febie Babyrose, Ruddy Hatumena and Herbert Hans create works that combine video, installation, computer programming and public participation depicting the influence of digital media on society’s perception of its surroundings. Channelling language, text, wit, sequence as well as interaction through their varied practice, Tromarama reflect on the cornerstones of Indonesia’s political and cultural environment, a form of perceptive engagement that applies globally. Tromarama are widely considered one of Indonesia’s most exciting rising talents and have been exhibited around the world. They have held solo exhibitions at Centre A, Vancouver (2017), Liverpool Biennial Fringe, Liverpool (2016), Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (2015), National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne (2015), and Mori Art Museum, Tokyo (2010) among other locations. Their group exhibitions include National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne (2020), National Gallery of Australia, Canberra (2019), the Museum of Contemporary Art and Design (MCAD) Manila (2018), Singapore Art Museum, Singapore (2017), Gwangju Biennale, Gwangju (2016), Frankfurter Kunstverein, Frankfurt (2015), Samstag Museum of Art, Adelaide (2014), and the 7th Asia Pacifc Triennial of Contemporary Art, Brisbane (2012).