This community-based project began with a personal letter from Navin Rawanchaikul to his daughter Mari who was born and lives in Fukuoka, Japan. The handwritten letter narrates the artist’s trip to Nagoya in January 2010 for a meeting regarding his participation in the Aichi Triennale. The letter tells about Chojamachi, a historical community in downtown Nagoya, which was one of the exhibition venues for Aichi Triennale. As seen on the line of old billboards throughout the main street, the name of the community’s centre is “Chojamachi Senigai”, meaning ‘the textile place of Chojamachi’. The area is occupied with lot of wholesale textile stores as well as production and distributing companies. Reflecting the ongoing recession in the Japanese garment industry, several stores in this area have closed. The textile place at Chojamachi is reminiscent of the artist’s birthplace in Chiang Mai, where his Indian family operates a textile store in the central market among the Indian community, who are known for selling in vibrantly coloured textiles.

The letter also mentions the two paintings that Navin previously made on the topic of his Indian heritage. Created in 2008 for a group show of Thai and Indian artists in Bangkok, Mario Sisters shows the artist’s daughter alone on a seesaw in front of the old train station in Gujranwala, the birth city of his mother and where she and migrated from to Thailand in 1947, during the India-Pakistan partition. The other painting, Places of Rebirth, was created in 2009 as a response to his first visit to his ancestors’ birthplaces in the Punjab in Pakistan.

The Place of Rebirth for Aichi Triennale was presented at two sites along Chojamachi’s main street. The first space was located on the second floor of an old building belonging to the Chojamachi Textile Association. In his letter Navin describes his first visit to this place and the familiarity between a pair of rooms there and the old living room at his family’s store in Chiang Mai. Upon entering the first room, the framed handwritten letter is the first thing seen. A Japanese translation is on the other wall next to the Mario Sisters painting. The central wall was hung with a Navin Production signature movie billboard painting newly produced for the project. The nostalgic painting featured 14 elderly residents who shared their stories and personal pictures, evoking a kaleidoscope of memories of the community. Realised in collaboration with the local NPO Machi No Kaicho, the elaborate ‘community portrait’ of Chojamachi also included nine Japanese Tanka poems contributed by community members.

In addition, a video interview with the 14 residents was also produced as an oral history of the community. The 20-minute video was screened in the second room along with some existing furniture. The room is accompanied with a monochrome panoramic painting, Places of Rebirth(2010) depicting almost 100 people gathering on the main access street of Chojamachi. The group of people in the painting is a mixture of different generations from the Chojammachi community as well as the artist’s family in Fukuoka along with his family and ancestors from Chiang Mai. A geographic bridge between two disconnected communities, the artist created an overlapping image of the market place in Chiang Mai and Chojamachi Senigai.

The site-specific installation was also presented in a small corridor next to the pair of rooms. The related Hong Rub Khaek (2008) video was presented at the end of the corridor, next to Khaek (2008) a small self-portrait of the artist in kindergarten uniform and showing his Indian last name, Rawal, written in Thai. Featuring elderly Indians and Thais of Indian origin living in Chiang Mai, Hong Rub Khaek (meaning ‘living room’ in Thai) posed questions to the interviewees about their memories and experiences of both India and Thailand. The images of the interviewees’ living rooms in the video refer to the new video interviews with the 14 elderly people sitting in their places in Chojamachi. Providing background on how Hong Rub Khaek was created, along with the artist’s views on national identity and his living with family in Japan, an earlier letter from the artist to his daughter was presented at the entrance of the corridor. The project’s second site was a parking lot where the Place of Rebirth painting was reproduced as an outdoor billboard for permanent installation. As part of the Aichi Triennale’s opening, an evening event called “Yebisu Party with Navin” was held at the parking space on August 21, 2010. Followed with speeches by community representatives and prefectural governor, the billboard was unveiled by the artist. With loads of ‘Yebisu’ beers for the summer peak, the fun party included music and live performances in collaboration with local organisations, artists and art students in the area.

Gallery

Yebisu Party with Navin