Apichatpong Weerasethakul

At once a major figure of contemporary cinema (honoured in 2010 with the Palme d’Or for Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives), an artist distinguished by many exhibitions, and an explorer of the possibilities opened up by new immersive technologies, the artist constantly shifts between all the forms of the moving image to create a dreamlike, contemplative, and sensual body of work that blends the reminiscences of a bygone past with the dizzying heights of science fiction, with a focus on the metamorphoses of the living, the pulsations of dreams and the presence of ghosts. 

As indicated by its title (“Lights and Shadows”), the programme imagined with Apichatpong Weerasethakul deliberately blurs the boundaries between the worlds of day and night: dedicated for the first time to the work of a contemporary artist,  the pavilion on the Piazza of the Centre Pompidou that hitherto hosted works by Constantin Brancusi will see its large bays plunged into darkness for the in-situ exhibition titled “Night Particles”. 

In contrast, it is in the darkness of the Grande Salle that the public is invited to discover “A Conversation with the Sun”, in an experience combining performance and virtual reality. 

With sessions in the presence of the filmmaker and many guests, the complete retrospective of his films and videos allows the public to appreciate the extent of his work, in a constant dialogue between narrative and experimental cinema, defying frameworks and formats. Apichatpong Weerasethakul will complement the exhibition with a short film made in response to the Centre Pompidou’s commission for its “Où en êtes-vous ?” (“Where are you at?”) film collection, which will be presented at the end of the event. 

Published for the occasion by Éditions de l’Œil, in partnership with the Centre Pompidou and in collaboration with Apichatpong Weerasethakul, the collective book titled Homes  brings together all of these aspects and retraces the career of an exceptional artist.