#12 Young Birds from Strange Mountains - Queer Culture in Thai Buddhism and Southeast Asia

*ENGLISH AUDIO ONLY*


This episode was produced in collaboration with Schwules
Museum 


Get ready for the most unhinged episode of this podcast (so far)!
Filmmaker and curator Sarnt Utamachote returns
for the second time to discuss the group exhibition Young Birds
from Strange Mountains at Schwules Museum, Berlin. Joining them
are visual trans artist Eda Phanlert Sriprom and
erotic artist Oat Montien as they explore the
gender constraints in Thai Buddhism and the societal perceptions
of Thai queers both within and outside Thailand.


We also delve into why queer individuals in Southeast Asia are
often associated with spiritual practices and shamanism—and how
Sarnt was hilariously mistaken for Eda at Berghain. 


You see, there's much to unpack in this episode, so grab your
headphones or bluetooth speaker, make yourself a hot cup of tea,
and tune in! Enjoy!


Young Birds from Strange Mountains 


Group Exhibition


Duration: 28/11/2024 - Summer 2025 


Schwules Museum


Lützowstraße 73 


10785 Berlin 


https://www.schwulesmuseum.de/


Curators: Sarnt Utamachote, Hải Nam Nguyễn, Ferdiansyah Thajib,
Thảo Hồ, Ragil Huda


Artists and Participants: Hoo Fan Chon, Indra Liusuari,
Natthapong Samakkaew, Thanh Mai (Nu), Oat Montien, Kelvin
Atmadibrata, Luu Bich Ngoc, Thu Anh, Trần Thảo Miên, Việt Lê,
Vanasay Khamphomala, Alvin Collantes, Tamarra, Suriya Khuth, Eda
Phanlert Sriprom, shasti, Thanh Nu Mai, Aiden… and so many more!


Exhibition text


“Young Birds from Strange Mountains flock around the connections
and divergences between gender and sexuality in the situated
geopolitical histories in/of the region and how they flow through
diasporic imaginings and frictions. Looking past and against the
orientalist gaze and exoticizing trope, together with the
contributing artists and cultural producers, we seek to reclaim
the question: What does it mean for us to identify as Queer—or in
other culturally specific terms like Kathoey,
Bakla or Kwir—within the
context of Southeast Asia, both in the past, present, and future?
These multiple journeys fold in and out of an assemblage of
different chapters: the communities’ archive, embodied promises,
paths of faith, ancestral knowledge, and tropical technologies.”


—--


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Sound effects by Pixabay