Palme d'Or-Winning Filmmaker Apichatpong Weerasethakul Has Created a New Cinematic Installation for the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia
The acclaimed Thai 'Memoria' and 'Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives' director's latest work will display at the MCA in Sydney.
Watching any film by Apichatpong Weerasethakul, it's easy to pick that the Thai director is also a visual artist, even if you didn't already know going in. In every one of his features to play in cinemas, including his Palme d'Or-winner Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives, Asia Pacific Screen Awards Best Film recipient Cemetery of Splendour and the Tilda Swinton (The Room Next Door)-starring Cannes Jury Prize awardee Memoria, peering deeply is rewarded. So is soaking in imagery that no other filmmaker could conjure up, as well as being immersed in his movies at a patient, reflective pace.
The above films, a trio from among Weerasethakul's four most-recent releases, all had dates with the big screen in Australia — but A Conversation with the Sun (Afterimage), his next creation, isn't heading to a picture palace. Instead, the acclaimed director has crafted the cinematic installation especially for the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia in Sydney.
Apichatpong Weerasethakul in collaboration with DuckUnit, A Conversation with the Sun (installation), 2022, installation view, BANGKOK CITYCITY GALLERY, Bangkok, Thailand, 2022, image courtesy the artist and BANGKOK CITYCITY GALLERY, photograph: Miti Ruangkritya.
2025 marks a decade and a half since Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives collected one of the world's most-prestigious film prizes thanks to its 2010 Cannes victory. This is also the year that A Conversation with the Sun (Afterimage) will grace the MCA, displaying from Thursday, August 14, 2025–Sunday, February 8, 2026.
Musing on cinema and its emotional impact, fittingly, as well as memory, making images and time's passing, the large-scale work is a collaboration with Rueangrith Suntisuk and Pornpan Arayaveerasid, who hail from Bangkok-based collective DuckUnit. Inspired by pondering the sun while walking in nature, featuring video diaries projected onto floating fabric, and designed to provide a dream-like experience that appears to fade and return thanks to the curtain, it will take over a five-by-16-metre space in the MCA Macgregor Gallery.
Chayaporn Maneesutham
Weerasethakul calls the piece "a meditation". The same word applies to every one of his movies — the also Cannes-awarded Blissfully Yours and Tropical Malady, plus the Venice-premiering Syndromes and a Century as well.
"A Conversation with the Sun (Afterimage) is a meditation on light, urging us to observe the impermanence of images as they shift, dissolve and reappear. The work explores the nature of projection and perception. Surfaces shift, and meanings transform. The projectors serve as both light sources and vehicles of memory, evoking sunlight, cinema and the passage of time," explains the filmmaker.
Apichatpong Weerasethakul in collaboration with DuckUnit, A Conversation with the Sun (installation), 2022, installation view, How to Hold Your Breath – 2024 Asian Art Biennial, National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, Taichung, Taiwan, 2024, image courtesy of the artist, photograph: Apichatpong Weerasethakul.
"Apichatpong Weerasethakul is one of the world's most-innovative artists working at the intersection of visual art, moving image and cinema. It is a privilege to be presenting his new collaborative work that has been made especially for the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia. It is an exciting moment for Sydney and our visitors," said Jane Devery, MCA Australia Senior Curator, Exhibitions.
Weerasethakul will also be part of an Artist in Conversation session at MCA Australia on Saturday, August 16, 2025, while a range of his short films from between 2007–24 will screen at the venue on Saturday, October 25, 2025.
Apichatpong Weerasethakul in collaboration with DuckUnit, A Conversation with the Sun (installation), 2022, installation view, How to Hold Your Breath – 2024 Asian Art Biennial, National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, Taichung, Taiwan, 2024, image courtesy of the artist, photograph: Apichatpong Weerasethakul.
A Conversation with the Sun (Afterimage): Apichatpong Weerasethakul in collaboration with Rueangrith Suntisuk and Pornpan Arayaveerasid displays at the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia (MCA Australia), 140 George Street, The Rocks, Sydney, from Thursday, August 14, 2025–Sunday, February 8, 2026. Head to the venue website for more details.
Top image: Apichatpong Weerasethakul in collaboration with DuckUnit, A Conversation with the Sun (installation), 2022, installation view, How to Hold Your Breath – 2024 Asian Art Biennial, National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, Taichung, Taiwan, 2024, image courtesy of the artist, photograph: Apichatpong Weerasethakul.
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