THOUGH THE MOUNTAINS DIVIDE, AND THE OCEANS ARE WIDE

TYPE
4:3 single-channel, sound, color,
11:30 minutes

YEAR
2020

PLACE
Berlin, Germany

Though the mountains divide, And the oceans are wide is a short video essay on the interrelation between childhood encounters and current realities through a personal story of the artist - Belle Phromchanya - who has moved from Thailand to the Netherlands in her adulthood. The video compiles home video footage of family trips during the 1990s taken by her father, along with video materials of a senior Thai artist living in Amsterdam taken by Phromchanya herself. The senior artist, who is around the same age as her father, has been a subject of Phromchanya's work until his sudden passing in 2020. By layering these early years' memories with the struggles of dealing with the uncertainty of daily life, the video shares attempts of capturing the temporarily of the moment - and both beauty and unsettling experience of being elsewhere.

Translated by Jeanne Penjan Lassus
The work was presented at the open studio of Majhi International Art Residency Program's 2020 edition during Berlin Art Week.

Majhi International Art Residency, Berin, Photo by Ludger Paffrath