In Ayutthaya, ancient Thai capital, characters fixed in their ancestral history figure a spoken and sung text, that of Rama VI, king of Ayutthaya. A Buddhist monk, a Thai family, two workers, a little girl, a warrior, constitute a micro society of a past buried in ruins. The slow and continuous movement of the camera links several still scenes like paintings.

Scenes from everyday life, rituals, ceremonies and traditions where ghostly voices whisper the memory, the spirit of a culture. Themes of Marina Abramovic and Ulay's initial work then appear: tension through the suggestion of an action to come, temporal unveiling, concentration and endurance.

Stéphanie Moisdon

Translated by Mia Stern, 2021