Facing Demons I The Devil is in the Details

Facing Demons I The Devil is in the Details

To realize the atmosphere of one of the most brutal instances of violence in Thai history, the October 6, 1976 massacre[1] at Thammasat University, the designer intentionally brings the audience immediately into the lynch mob on the morning of October 6. Upon opening the exhibition door, as if entering a time machine, the audience enters into the lobby of the gallery, titled “Facing Demons.”

[1] On the morning of October 6, 1976, right-wing state, para-state, and civilian groups massacred unarmed students at Thammasat University inBangkok. Taking place at the height of the Cold War, state, monarchical and other elites feared that Thailand would follow its neighbors in transitioning to communism. They demonized the students as alien communists and brutally murdered them in a sustained attack on the university. They defended their actions in the name of protection of the nation and its key institutions of the monarchy and the Buddhist religion and were lauded as saviors rather than being condemned as murderers. Today, forty-six years later, no one has been held to account for the massacre and much continues to remain unknown.

Watch design animation : https://youtu.be/Si1G6jZHF-4

The selected unpublished photos on both sides are scenes of those who were present during the massacre. This was chosen as the opening of the exhibition story, in order to represent the eyes of the photographers and witnesses of this moment.

Mirrors reflect the audience and place them within the lynch mob. Bystanders in the past watched violence as if it were entertainment, and the exhibition audience joins them.

Stepping into the low ambience light room, the audience is suddenly surrounded by 1:1 scale images of people who gathered at Sanamluang directly opposite the university gate, and comes eye-to-eye with demons.

“Facing demons I The devil is in the details,” is an exhibition of unseen photographs created for the 46^thanniversary of the October 6 massacre in Bangkok, curated and design by Cutting Edge of Things [CoT] https://thestoreysoffice.com/cutting-edge-of-things-i-cot/

The October 6 Museum Project [OMP] team found fourteen rolls of unpublished photos from a group of photographers who witnessed the massacre. On the evening of the massacre, the junta that launched a coup banned the dissemination of photographs. They remained unseen until now, after the passage of 46 years.

The exhibition focuses on examining the unpublished photographs as new evidence and searching for perpetrators and suspicious figures. The history of the massacre is still unfolding. Contributing to the fight against impunity is a key part of the OMP’s manifesto,

CoT noted the key message in OMP’s brief and focused on the key word “the devil” to shape the exhibition theme and design concept.

The design starts the introduction to the story right away at the outside front of the gallery. Current exhibition posters are combined with newspapers published on the morning of October 6, 1976, in which agitators accused the students of staging a mock hanging of the crown prince and calling for their deaths. Reproductions of the newspapers cover the outside walls of the gallery.

The audience is invited to sit down and read. The chairs themselves are also a symbol of the massacre and refer to “The Chair Man,” Neal Ulevich’s 1976 Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph of a person using a metal folding chair to brutalize a student who was hung from a tree. CoT designed the exhibition front to blend in with the local context by referencing newspaper stalls common in the past. For audience members unfamiliar with the area, this functions to provide a sense of discovery of a hidden place and an unfolding history inside.

The design intentionally exaggerates the uncomfortably narrow, low ceiling of the existing space to create a depressive feel in which the audience witnesses the demons’ actions. At the burning bodies scene, the bystanders, those who watched in the past, are watched by the audience in the present. The most stunning instance of the massacre, when people and corpses were burned, is part of the mezzanine level.

The space includes the mapping of bullet traces from the assassination of students on the wall.

The exhibition begins to invite the audience to investigate each picture in detail on the second level. An informative design approach is the main design direction. A dark grey wall background is used to enhance the black and white photographs. The information unfolds in direct text and clear photographs. The design continues the scale and sense of place from downstairs, by forcing the audiences walk through a narrow corridor on the second level to experience enlarged photographs.

Using focused light and red crop markers, the tools invite the audience to use their visual skills to investigate the details in the photographs.

Pieces of paper containing the junta’s orders, which came into power by a coup after the massacre, are scattered all over the floor and are made audible and noisy as the audience walks over them.

On the third level, the exhibition provides the audience with five different sections to view inconsecutively as they choose. This includes two films — a documentary film about reading the new photos of the massacre and a film of six interviews with those present on the day of the massacre – and then a series of photos of the photographers, Village Scouts (a right-wing civilian group involved in the massacre), and the paratrooper police (an elite police unit involved in the massacre). Objects remaining from the massacre and infographics complement the visual material.

The main hall provides a seating area for viewing the films and an overflow space for the panel discussionsheld every weekend.

A Specter of Red: Red is the symbolic color representing both the Communist Party of Thailand targeted during the massacre and, coincidentally, present-day Thai liberal democracy. A floating red box glows in the midst of the dark room providing colored reflection on one side and a vessel to hold the objects on display on the other side. The box size and shape represent a coffin and those lost during the massacre. A reflective surface over the box reflects distorted images, representing the unresolved history of the massacre.

An Easter Egg: A set of narrow stairs without an outlet is covered on all sides by photographs of students who were forced to lay on the ground during the massacre. As the audience reaches the last step, lights turn on and the voice of Tomayanti, a famous novelist who incited people on right-wing radio broadcasts to attack the communist students in Thammasat University, rings out.

In the Circle of the Coup: Looking in and out from two different sides of a circular window embedded in the wall to find hidden stories.

The Finale: The brightness of the final room of the exhibit represents the experience of coming to consciousness (ตาสว่าง) about the massacre upon viewing new information about the 6 October 1976 massacre. Within Christian and Jewish belief, there can be multiple demons, but the Devil is the singular leader who empowers the demons with their destructive power. The display of previously-unpublished photos point to the Devil, who remains unspeakable in Thailand.