Apichatpong Weerasethakul: For Tomorrow For Tonight

This November, UCCA introduces For Tomorrow For Tonight, a new installation by leading Thai film director Apichatpong Weerasethakul that leads visitors through a cinematic narration of night. Night, a time for sleep, darkness and quiet, is the natural space for dreams and desires, a time as the artist says, “when you can’t see and your mind takes over.” Weerasethakul leads us with his subtle language of suggestion to consider a compressed reality of memory and dreams, that is both immediate and infinite. For Tomorrow For Tonight blends video, images and sound from three of his original films and one sound work to create an intensely lyrical atmosphere. The photographs that accompany the video works allow us to pause and contemplate these “frozen moments”, and the jarring sound evokes the stark contrasts found in contemporary Thailand. With a potency of imagery, Weerasethakul relies on feelings and abstraction rather than a linear narrative to draw the audience into the memory of a shared cinematic dream.

Apichatpong Weerasethakul, born in Bangkok in 1970, received his degree in architecture from Hon Kaen University and his M.F.A. from the Chicago Institute of Art. He has been creating his own films since 1994. His numerous awards include the prestigious Cannes Film Festival Palme d’Or (2010) for Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives， the Cannes Film Festival Jury Prize (2004) for Tropical Malady, and many others. In addition to his films and art installations, Weerasathekul actively promotes independent Thai filmmaking through his company Kick the Machine, founded in 1999.