Belle Phromchanya

artistiek onderzoek - audiovisueel - cross-over - design - documentair

Born in Bangkok in 1984, Belle Phromchanya was trained as a graphic designer before relocating to Amsterdam in 2011 to study MA Design at the Sandberg Institute. She continues her artistic practice between The Netherlands and Thailand until today. Her works address subjects such as, political memeification, digital legacy, marginalized-transborder identities, and contemporary migration, many of which are rooted in the unsettling relationship between herself and the globalized society. Her works have been shown at Beijing Design Week, Bangkok Art and Culture Centre, De Appel Arts Centre, Objectifs Singapore, Pakhuis de Zwijger, Porto Design Biennale, and W139 among others. Belle is a co-founder of NON NATIVE NATIVE, an independent platform based in Rotterdam aiming to extend the international, non-western discourses within the cultural landscape, operating in collaboration with various disciplines to celebrate the art of reclaiming the unclaimed.


LANDS WITH NO VOLCANOES - 2021, single-channel video, 16:9, sound, color, 7:50 min. Majhi International Art Residency Eindhoven, The Netherlands. Portals into the heart of the earth, there are burned bottomless cauldrons fueled by an ancient wrath bubbling and boiling thousands of miles beneath. Storing pressure underneath, any change in the surface could be a sign of a possible eruption that can trigger climate chaos. 'Lands with no Volcanoes' is a collaboration between NON NATIVE NATIVE together with Thai artists based in The Netherlands, Belle Phromchanya, Anon Chaisansook and Sankrit Kulmanochawong. The audio-visual installation narrates through the re-appropriation of found digital materials, displaying the current socio-political tensions that exist underneath the tranquil facade of the two regions.
WHETHER IT IS ART OR NOT - 2016, single channel video, 16:9, sound, color, 31:47 min. premiered at Bangkok CityCity Gallery and NeverNeverLand Amsterdam. This project is a tribute to Amsterdam-based Thai artist, Chavalit Soemprungsuk (1939), through the eyes of three young designers who are fascinated by his life and works, including: a short documentary film by Belle Phromchanya and printed publication by Pat Laddapan and Piyakorn Chaiverapundech (studio 150) which examined his recent digital work and transformed them onto physical pages.
I WAS HERE THE WHOLE TIME (-3,653) - 2022, 6-channel video installation, 16:9, sound, color. River City Gallery, Bangkok. Ten years prior to his passing, Chavalit Soemprungsuk (1939–2020) has submitted his lifetime collection to a social media platform; publishing more than ten thousand materials in a digitalized format, this includes scanned written manuscripts, scanned films, digital photographs, tagged locations, videos, live-streams, artworks, and personal commentaries. Leaving behind an immense amount of self-presented materials accessible to the public. This action is comparable to any regular social media users during years of their lives online, the only difference is that Chavalit began this process while preparing towards his own death. He believed the collection was for eternity.
I WAS HERE THE WHOLE TIME (80+) - 2022, 6-channel video installation, 16:9, sound, color, 107 min. W139, Amsterdam. I was here the whole time (-3,653) is a research collection produced as part of Phromchanya's ongoing audiovisual project which explores the construction of one's legacy through the tracing and reappropriating of found digital materials. The project questions how much control and ownership we do have, not just about our own data, but about our memories of others and vice-versa.
THOUGH THE MOUNTAINS DIVIDE, AND THE OCEANS ARE WIDE - 2020, 4:3 single-channel, sound, color, 11:30 min. Though the mountains divide, And the oceans are wide is a short video essay on the interrelation between childhood encounters and current realities through a personal story of the artist - Belle Phromchanya - who has moved from Thailand to the Netherlands in her adulthood. The video compiles home video footage of family trips during the 1990s taken by her father, along with video materials of a senior Thai artist living in Amsterdam taken by Phromchanya herself. The senior artist, who is around the same age as her father, has been a subject of Phromchanya's work until his sudden passing in 2020. By layering these early years' memories with the struggles of dealing with the uncertainty of daily life, the video shares attempts of capturing the temporarily of the moment - and both beauty and unsettling experience of being elsewhere. Translated by Jeanne Penjan Lassus The work was presented at the open studio of Majhi International Art Residency Program's 2020 edition during Berlin Art Week.
NON NATIVE NATIVE FAIR 2021— GREATER THAN THE OLYMPICS - 2021, project management, a hybrid event. NNNFAIR is an online event that brings together cultural practitioners from various backgrounds and disciplines to participate in an experimental trade fair environment. Through the combination of a teleshopping-inspired live symposium and an online market, the fair aims to cross the boundaries between reality and fiction, appreciation and appropriation, and labor and play.
THE RISE OF THE MOON - 2013, installation, single-channel video, 7 panels (180 x 90 cm.) inkjet on backlit films, lenticular prints (various sizes), newspaper. The Rise of the Moon is a fictional story about an ordinary girl named Sia who moves to the West in search of a better life. Despite the new standard of living and freedom that she gains, there is a trade-off, a disconnection from her origins. One day, in the shift towards the new world order, Sia adopts the role of the new superpower, designated by the universal force that rotates every century. By 2050, she is predicted to rule the world. With surprise and confusion, she realises her dream has come true – a chance of turning this place into a place where she belongs. But will this turn out to be a good dream or a nightmare? – this is not preordained. Global shifts are infused with fiction, captured through metaphors, imagined characters and supernatural powers. As reality becomes the script for a fantastical story, fiction becomes a necessary means of dealing with the real. A speculation for the 21st century, The Rise of the Moon is told through the eyes of the new Asian superpower, who just happens to have blue eyes and blond hair.
CAPITAL OF MAE LA - 2019, single channel video, 16:9, sound, color, 38:09 min. premiered at Pakhuis de Zwijger. This short film tells the story of Mae La camp, one of the largest refugee camps along the Thailand-Myanmar border, and of the people who live there. The film is a semi-longitudinal work in the Mae La camp filmed over a 4-year (2014–2019) timespan, taking place against the backdrop of the camp's impending closure and preparation for repatriation. The film is developed with a kind support of Voordekunst crowdfunding platform, Amsterdam Fund for the Arts (AFK), and Amsterdam Institute for Social Science Research (AISSR).
WHETHER ART IS LIFE OR NOT - documentary, 2019, single channel video, 16:9, sound, color, 80:08 min.
TIGER EYES - documentary, 16:9 single-channel, sound, color, 30 minutes, 2020 Tiger Eyes, presenting at Tiger City exhibition during Bangkok Design Week 2020, is a short film presenting the human side of UNDP Tiger Project. It is a short narrative on the invisible value of nature, through the eyes of people who are at the frontline of the conservation at the largest intact seasonal tropical forest complex in Mainland Southeast Asia, Huai Kha Khaeng Wildlife Sanctuary. The project is made possible with the support of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Thailand.