Pisitakun Kuantalaeng grew up in the midst of Thailand's art scenes, to a politically extremely unstable period. In 2009, he took up his work as a visual artist, focused on political speculation and the not lacking frustrations. The “red shirts” protests of 2010 and the crackdown on the government consolidated his attitude as a critical thinker and artist.
One of the works that brought him more attention for the first time is The Unfinished History, which began in 2012. It seeks the truth that lies behind political power and contested history, and asks who can write history. The project offers the opportunity to rewrite history in the form of drawings and comics; deliberate empty spaces allow the audience to bring in their own interpretations. The work travels and continues to evolve, explores the polyphonic dimensions of history and gives various groups the chance to create an alternative library of world history together.
Over the years, Pisitakun's interest in music grew. He began to experiment with how tonal forms of expression take shape in different media environments. The multimedia work Black Country (2017) emerged from forced confrontations in a country where things have left the path of rationality. With a combination of noise, techno sounds, black metal aesthetics and performance, the show humorously examined a number of invented beliefs and rituals of a fictional country.
As a result, music became a central element in Pisitakun's career. He joined Chinabot – a mixture of platform and collective, whose declared goal is to change the dialogue about Asian music – and released several albums there. SOSLEEP (2018) was created shortly after his father's cancer death and combined traditional mourning instruments with hard noise and techno beats, superimposed with intimate images of hospital machines that kept his father alive in the last days. Absolute C.O.U.P. (2020) calls into question the existence of democracy and freedom of expression that seems like a distant dream in Thailand. Since the Siames Revolution of 1932, the nation has experienced 13 military coups, more than any other country in modern history. Kongkraphan (2022) reproduces the forgotten voices of Thai demonstrators and the sound of anger over an unjust situation. The title literally means “unawareable” or “immortal”, but also refers to a Thai talisman, which gives invincibility. On this album, the word symbolizes the convictions and the never-ending fighting spirit of the protesters.
