Gathering of Dismembered Knowledges & Curing Dismembered Knowledges, 2023
Commissioned by Thailand Biennial, 2023; curated by Artistic Directors Rirkrit Tiravanija and Gridthiya Gaweewong, together with Curators Angkrit Ajchariyasophon and Manuporn Luengaram
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The Kok River Forest was destroyed for the extraction of Teak Trees to supply the international market. Photographs, drawings, herbariums and texts by travelers, botanists, diplomats, and business people who had been in the area from the 17th to 20th centuries and who recorded the local flora were consulted in archives in London and Paris, in particular the Kew Gardens archives, British Library, Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, Bibliothèque de Botanique, as well as online sources by researchers Sophie Moiroux and Giuliana Ravviso. This research resulted in the addition of dozens of flora to the list compiled by Sutti Malithong of Chiang Rai Rajabhat University of the original flora of the Kok River Forest. We hope that this research might contribute in gathering knowledges of the forest being from here, the Forest of the Kok River.
The outdoor garden-scape Curing Dismembered Knowledges celebrates a selection of flora from this list.
