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Chiang Mai, Thailand • b. 1970
Apichatpong Weerasethakul works in the space between cinema and contemporary art, creating short and feature films, videos, and installations that are often non-linear and convey a strong sense of dislocation and otherworldliness. Through the manipulation of light and time, Weerasethakul creates work that bridges the gap between the real and mythical, individual and collective, corporeal and chimeric. Over the years, the majority of his projects involve many of the same actors, allowing him to capture different phases of their lives. Frequently set in rural Thai villages and forests, his films traverse an extremely personal territory, inviting the viewer to enter the subjective world of memory, myth, and deep yearning. By using unconventional narrative structures, expanding and contracting the sensation of time, and playing with ideas of veracity and linearity, Weerasethakul’s work comfortably resides in a world of his own making. Weerasethakul received a BA in architecture from Khon Kaen University in Thailand in 1994, an MFA in filmmaking from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1998, as well as an Honorary Doctorate from the same institution in 2011. In 1999, he co-founded Kick the Machine Films , a company that produces many of his films as well as other experimental Thai films and videos that are unlikely to find support under the established Thai film industry. The artist was decorated by the French Government as Chevalier de l'ordre des arts et des lettres, Officier de l'ordre des arts et des lettres and Commandeur de l’ordre des arts et des lettres in 2008, 2011, and 2017. His art projects and feature films have won him widespread recognition and numerous festival prizes, including four awards from the Cannes Film Festival: Prix Un Certain Regard for Blissfully Yours in 2002, Prix du Jury for Tropical Malady in 2004, Palme d'or for Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives in 2010, and Prix du Jury for Memoria in 2021.
