Pichet Klunchun and myself (2005), Jerome Bel

title : Pichet Klunchun and myself (2005)

a commission by : Tang Fu Kuen for the Bangkok Fringe Festival

concept : Jerome Bel

creation : Bangkok (Thailand) on Decembre 12th 2004, at the Bangkok Fringe festival

by and with : Jerome Bel and Pichet Klunchun

production : Bangkok Fringe Festival (Bangkok), SACD Le Vif du Sujet (Paris), Festival Montpellier Danse 2005 (Montpellier), R.B. Jérôme Bel (Paris)

with the support of : Institut Français (Paris), French Alliance of Bangkok, Cultural Service of the French Embassy in Bangkok and « The Flying Circus Project » in Singapore

thanks to : Frie Leysen and Mark De Putter

duration : 105 minutes approximatively

language : The piece is in English without translation (a live translation is possible - see technical rider)

subsidies : R.B. Jerome Bel is supported by the Direction regionale des affaires culturelles d’Ile-de-France (French Ministry of Culture and Communication) and by the Institut Français (French Ministry for Foreign Affairs) for its international tours

R.B. Jerome Bel :

artistic advice and company development : Rebecca Lee

production manager : Sandro Grando

website : www.jeromebel.fr

In 2008 Jerome Bel and Pichet Klunchun received the Routes Princess Margriet Award for Cultural Diversity (European Cultural Foundation) for Pichet Klunchun & myself (2005).


" In September 2004, I was invited in Bangkok by Singaporean curator Tang Fu Kuen to lead a project. I wondered for a while if I should accept the invitation or not, and I finally proposed to try to work with a traditional Thai dancer.

I am indeed deeply interested in the extra-occidental performing arts traditions, for both dance and theatre, since being dazzled by a Kabuki performance I attended in Tokyo in 1989. I had similar feelings with Indian traditional dance or with the parade of the Rio de Janeiro Carnival.

Tang Fu Kuen suggested to dancer and choreographer Pichet Klunchun that he meets me during my stay in Bangkok in December of the same year. We met without knowing anything about what could finally result from our meeting. I had just prepared beforehand some questions to ask to this dancer. Personally, I had only a vague idea of what traditional Thai dance was, and Pichet Klunchun didn’t know my work.

The circumstances of our meeting determined the nature and the form of the result we obtained. Jet lag, the fascination that the city of Bangkok and its inhabitants exerted on me, the monstrous traffic jams which did not make it possible to do all the rehearsals, the context of the Bangkok Fringe Festival where the piece had to be premiered, led us to present to the audience a kind of theatrical report of our experience.

We happened to produce a kind of theatrical and choreographic documentary on our real situation. The piece puts two artists face to face who know nothing about each other, who have very different aesthetical practices and who both try to find out more about each other, and above all about their respective artistic practices, despite the abyssal cultural gap separating them.

Some very problematic notions such as euro-centrism, inter-culturalism, or cultural globalization, are issues defined all through the piece. These notions which are so delicate to discuss can’t be left out. The historical moment doesn’t allow what is at stake here to be skipped over ".

Jérôme Bel, Seoul, June 1st 2005