Chitti Kasemkitvatana

From the end of May to the end of June 2025, Chitti Kasemkitvatana will be in residence at Methone in Paris. During this period, he will conduct research and present “Coda,” the first part of a three-part interdisciplinary project titled “Epilogue.” The subsequent phases of the project will take place throughout 2025 and 2026 at the Mae Fah Luang Art and Cultural Park in Chiang Rai and at Gallery Seescape in Chiang Mai, Thailand.

“Epilogue” explores the cultural variations and sociocultural processes involved in the production of time in society, with a particular focus on the northern provinces of Southeast Asia, including Tai Kra-Dai ethnic groups, Lua, and other indigenous communities living in mountainous villages and cities. This ongoing project is “driven by an enduring curiosity about the nature of (multi-layers of) space, time, and matter in the universe, [in which] the artist explores these questions through the lenses of philosophy, Buddhism, astronomy, and physics, responding with a fluid artistic language over the years.” (Esther Lu, “The Mountain Algorithms” exhibition handout, Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts, Taiwan, 2024). The project dives deep into the ghostly temporality of the entanglement of “what was / is / to come,” understood as a dynamism of forces in which all things are constantly diffracting, influencing, and acting inseparably.

“Coda,” a prelude rendition in Paris, will present a selection of both early and recent works—mostly sketches and pieces that gesture toward the coexistence of different temporal layers within a single moment, and the multidirectional flow of time between past, present, and future. “Coda” intertwines the artist’s ongoing research into scientific inventions from the Enlightenment through the early 20th century in France with cultural artifacts and mythologies from the northern provinces of Southeast Asia, alongside works informed by his recent explorations in quantum physics.

Chitti Kasemkitvatana is a Bangkok based artist, independent curator and educator. His methodology relies on research-based art practice that relates to the use of archival fragments and spatial practice. Applying the new materialist lens, he focuses on entangled ideas in sociocultural history, especially on the moment in which various spheres become “porous”. His artistic operation involves transmission of collective memories via object-device and conversion of data that entails an active process of construction of time in society. His recent exhibitions include, notably, “The Mountain Algorithms”, Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts (Kaohsiung, Taiwan, 2024), “The Spirits of Maritime Crossing”, a collateral event of 60th La Biennale di Venezia, Palazzo Smith Mangilli Valmarana (Italy, 2024), Thailand Biennale, Wat Pa Sak and National Museum Chiang Saen (Chiang Rai, 2023), Bangkok Art Biennale, The Prelude: One Bangkok (Bangkok, 2022), and “Stories We Tell To Scare Ourselves With”, MOCA Taipei (Taiwan, 2019).

Additional support from the Office of Contemporary Art and Culture, Ministry of Culture, Thailand