Spore

Spore, a duo exhibition of Thai artists Jakrawal Nilthamrong and Kaensan Rattanasomrerk, consists of newly produced collaborative films, video installations, and ephemeral biosculptures.

Working with moving image and installation, the artists share an interest in experimenting with cinematic languages and exchanging knowledge. In the exhibition, their collaborative and individual works revolve around each other, feeding into and reflecting on each other’s thought processes. Their artworks often address issues of collective trauma and Thailand’s history in a wider geopolitical context. Nilthamrong and Rattanasomrerk’s new project, Spore, is a research-based, site-specific art project exploring the possibility of a future where mushrooms act as powerful guides.

During their residency in Oldenburg, Germany, the artists worked on films that follow Thai restaurant workers searching for mushrooms in the forest as a metaphor for spirituality, immigration, transformation, and homesickness. The resulting artworks examine wounds from the past and illustrate these scars’ ongoing existence.

In the artists’ words: “The mushroom can only grow from decay. It’s a metaphor for how humans may reinhabit the space of the wounded, making it the very foundation of our existence. How might we interpret exposure as a form of political critique and action, rather than a manifestation of victimhood? At this point in history, these are critical concerns for the global community.”

The exhibition is a poetic entanglement of organic sculptural matter, filmic experiments, and geopolitical historical investigation, placing site and cultural specificity at its core.

Jakrawal Nilthamrong and Kaensan Rattanasomrerk were the 2024 recipients of the Media Art Grant from the Stiftung Niedersachsen at the Edith-Russ-Haus for Media Art.