The Butterfly of Dreams

The Butterfly of Dreams

The Butterfly of Dreams

This work started with an idea that was sent by Novan Effendy (Gresik, Indonesia) to the organizers of Loei Art Fes 2021 in Thailand via the internet. Initially, the idea of Novan Effendy's work entitled A Home (2021) was intended to build a dialogue about the future, as well as to respond to the pandemic situation that has occurred in the world. The COVID-19 pandemic situation that has swept the world to the Southeast Asian region over the past year and a half, has practically brought people into a gloomy state, filled with feelings of anxiety, and fear. Such a situation raises concerns as well as deep questions about what kind of future will come (dreams).

Through the social distancing system, a home is believed to be the safest place to take refuge from the threat of the spread of the virus. Soon this understanding will lead to the context of living, which has an urgent issue that we need to redefine, of course. So what kind of house is safe to take refuge in this kind of pandemic situation? Then, how is the imagination (shadow) of the house in the future? That is the Forest? That is the Moon? That is the Planet Mars?

As Novan Effendy mentioned earlier, the COVID-19 pandemic situation raises concerns as well as deep questions about what kind of future will come (dreams). However, human beings have come to enjoy, to a fault, the state of mass production and mass consumption that has continued to disconnect us from the myriad of these stakeholders. This is exactly what has led to the global environmental destruction we face today, and wealth inequality. A literary writer from Indonesia, Aan Mansyur tweeted a status on his Twitter timeline, of course, there is nothing wrong with having hope (dreams). May we, related to hope (want to have this, that in the future), always does not mean oppression for others in the present, or oppression for our children/youth generation in the future, and does not mean an increasingly damaged earth. (Aan Mansyur, June 17th, 2021/Twitter)

The idea of the work by Novan Effendy is in the form of a series of activities using art as an approach to mediate environmental and social issues. He believes that art helps us to mediate our environment, whether as a viewer or as a participator. These principles are driven not by a self-indulgent romance of art, but a belief that art can be socially relevant. From the initial ideas that Novan Effendy offered, Loei Art Fes (LAF) team were further developed in an intense and inclusive discussion, which in the final result was decided to be named “The Butterfly of Dreams”, the ideas which can connected they are to their hometown’s imagination of the future. The Butterfly are then chosen to be symbols to represent public who want to show dreams for the future. The Butterfly is a metaphor for the spirit of the youth generation from the Dansai district, Loei province, Thailand. They call themselves the collective of Mangkabia, which means butterfly in Dansai dialect.

Some of the crucial insights of the results of discussions by the LAF team with youth in the Dansai district at a mini session of the public gathering for the collection of local voices in the last month of February, it gives directions how precious the voices of each entity there are. Through a participatory process as a choice of practical methodology, it is possible to build democratize experiment(s).

This collaborative project was carried out using two methods, online program via the internet and offline in several locations in the Dansai district of Loei province, Thailand by involving several collaborators including; Novan Effendy an interdisciplinary artist based in Indonesia, Mangkabia youth network, Boonpong Panich from the Cherry theater group based in Bangkok, Thailand, Jeeramet Moonpom, a local ceramist and voluntary art teacher from Dansai, Pornsadet Junchamchoi, Dansai Crown Prince Hospital, and everyone in Dansai, Loei province, Thailand.

Under the guidance of Wayla Amatathammachad (curator) and Natnaree Riewpaiboon (project manager) with support by Thailand Creative Economy Agency (CEA), emphasized the following curatorial statements: A participative process with end results of permanent site installation art piece to express “how precious everyone’s dreams are”. We want to create dialogue with new generations in Dansai district to explore how their dreams look like and encourage them to take care of their dreams.

These efforts also enabled the emergence of a democratize dialogue with the new generations in the Dansai district to explore how their dreams look like and encourage them to take care of their dreams. It is undeniable that inequities will never be solved in these few years in Thailand. But the more we value our dreams, the more we voice out to the system. Intrinsically, I hope that, even the kids that they can’t grow up to be the person they wanted to be. But every time they are back visiting this art piece, it will remind them of their dreams.

We all connect our spirits through hopes and dreams
Novan Effendy (Gresik, Indonesia), Boonpong Panich (Nakorn Pathom, Thailand), and Jeeramet Moonpom (Loei, Thailand) had collaborated with the Mangkabia youth network to explore our dreams and hope together through the inter-disciplinary workshop called “A conversation with dream” on August 25th, 2021. A hybrid workshop “A conversation with dream” led by Boonpong Panich from Cherry Theatre, an artist based in Bangkok, Thailand, we are found fresh moments and input.

How a thought about a dream can be stimulated through body movements that form the silhouette of a particular object into the imagination (shadow). Likewise with the depiction of the concept of time. It reminded me of the past that seemed slow, and the present that seemed to be moving fast towards the future. So, I found a correlation that, the pandemic situation that we are currently experiencing, requires a balance in perceiving a dream by constantly touching the past and future.

Jeeramet Moonpom, a local ceramist and voluntary art teacher from Dansai district had prepared a sketch of the butterfly structure design. In the last hybrid workshop session, he led the participants to decorate cardboard materials and used milk cans with colored pencils. Participants consisting of the Mangkabia youth network of the Dansai district were also asked to include the dream writing they wanted to be hung on the butterfly wing structure later.

After the workshop, our collaborations have resulted in a sculpture called "Butterfly of Dreams" at the public park at Changweng-Ni Kiangsiri, Dansai Crown Prince Hospital. The sculpture represents a butterfly family as a vehicle taking people’s dreams to their destination. The “Butterfly of Dreams” sculpture was made by Jeeramet Moonpong at his studio in Dansai district, and inspired by the uniting of the youth network called “Mangkabia”, which means of butterfly in Dansai dialect.

When you visit the artwork “Butterfly of Dreams”. We invite you to close your eyes and think about you hope and dream that lay deep down in your heart. Then write them down on the provided bamboo stick and hang it on the “Butterfly of Dreams” sculpture to release your hidden dreams. These butterflies will always remind you of your dream and hope whenever you visit them.

This collaborative project is intended to invest our spirits and soul, our skills, our time to create the society in which art will be more valued and well managed by capital administrative office. Even our art project focuses on multi-disciplinary fields of art, the keystones our every projects is to create participative process with community in order to incubate and contextualise artist’s ideas and intention. Besides, we try to keep these 3 inter elements into our every steps which are interdisciplinary, intercultural, and intergeneration.

From previous researching, Loei Art Fest team found that Dansai area is the place has unique identities and distinguish from surrounding districts. This uniqueness leaves traces in their daily routine and way of living in several aspects. And they have been weaved altogether in a form of spirits/souls. Loei locates in the northeastern part of Thailand (Esan) , taking about 7 hours from Bangkok by car. This province has diverse culture and well recognition of Phi Ta Khon, ghost mask festival.

To sum up, we see possibilities of Loei to be creative city and a sandbox model of involve art process in community development strategies. Here are mainly 5 reasons why Loei has potential to be creative city: Loei is richful in cultural heritage, Loei has many active citizens, Loei has active civil sectors, Loei has diversity of economic system, there are public transportation systems directly to Loei, and Loei has a spotlight on international political issues and international relations.

As art advocators, we intend to learn and artistically engage with these spiritual aspects of Dansai residents by connecting through their culture, unused found objects, dreams and hope in order to inherit and build on these local assets together with the community. Ultimately, we would like to show that ‘contemporary art’ can be utilized as instrument for community, economic, and tourism development, sustainably.

This work started with an idea that was sent by Novan Effendy (Gresik, Indonesia) to the organizers of Loei Art Fes 2021 in Thailand via the internet. Initially, the idea of Novan Effendy's work entitled A Home (2021) was intended to build a dialogue about the future, as well as to respond to the pandemic situation that has occurred in the world. The COVID-19 pandemic situation that has swept the world to the Southeast Asian region over the past year and a half, has practically brought people into a gloomy state, filled with feelings of anxiety, and fear. Such a situation raises concerns as well as deep questions about what kind of future will come (dreams).

Through the social distancing system, a home is believed to be the safest place to take refuge from the threat of the spread of the virus. Soon this understanding will lead to the context of living, which has an urgent issue that we need to redefine, of course. So what kind of house is safe to take refuge in this kind of pandemic situation? Then, how is the imagination (shadow) of the house in the future? That is the Forest? That is the Moon? That is the Planet Mars?

As Novan Effendy mentioned earlier, the COVID-19 pandemic situation raises concerns as well as deep questions about what kind of future will come (dreams). However, human beings have come to enjoy, to a fault, the state of mass production and mass consumption that has continued to disconnect us from the myriad of these stakeholders. This is exactly what has led to the global environmental destruction we face today, and wealth inequality. A literary writer from Indonesia, Aan Mansyur tweeted a status on his Twitter timeline, of course, there is nothing wrong with having hope (dreams). May we, related to hope (want to have this, that in the future), always does not mean oppression for others in the present, or oppression for our children/youth generation in the future, and does not mean an increasingly damaged earth. (Aan Mansyur, June 17th, 2021/Twitter)

The idea of the work by Novan Effendy is in the form of a series of activities using art as an approach to mediate environmental and social issues. He believes that art helps us to mediate our environment, whether as a viewer or as a participator. These principles are driven not by a self-indulgent romance of art, but a belief that art can be socially relevant. From the initial ideas that Novan Effendy offered, Loei Art Fes (LAF) team were further developed in an intense and inclusive discussion, which in the final result was decided to be named “The Butterfly of Dreams”, the ideas which can connected they are to their hometown’s imagination of the future. The Butterfly are then chosen to be symbols to represent public who want to show dreams for the future. The Butterfly is a metaphor for the spirit of the youth generation from the Dansai district, Loei province, Thailand. They call themselves the collective of Mangkabia, which means butterfly in Dansai dialect.

Some of the crucial insights of the results of discussions by the LAF team with youth in the Dansai district at a mini session of the public gathering for the collection of local voices in the last month of February, it gives directions how precious the voices of each entity there are. Through a participatory process as a choice of practical methodology, it is possible to build democratize experiment(s).

This collaborative project was carried out using two methods, online program via the internet and offline in several locations in the Dansai district of Loei province, Thailand by involving several collaborators including; Novan Effendy an interdisciplinary artist based in Indonesia, Mangkabia youth network, Boonpong Panich from the Cherry theater group based in Bangkok, Thailand, Jeeramet Moonpom, a local ceramist and voluntary art teacher from Dansai, Pornsadet Junchamchoi, Dansai Crown Prince Hospital, and everyone in Dansai, Loei province, Thailand.

Under the guidance of Wayla Amatathammachad (curator) and Natnaree Riewpaiboon (project manager) with support by Thailand Creative Economy Agency (CEA), emphasized the following curatorial statements: A participative process with end results of permanent site installation art piece to express “how precious everyone’s dreams are”. We want to create dialogue with new generations in Dansai district to explore how their dreams look like and encourage them to take care of their dreams.

These efforts also enabled the emergence of a democratize dialogue with the new generations in the Dansai district to explore how their dreams look like and encourage them to take care of their dreams. It is undeniable that inequities will never be solved in these few years in Thailand. But the more we value our dreams, the more we voice out to the system. Intrinsically, I hope that, even the kids that they can’t grow up to be the person they wanted to be. But every time they are back visiting this art piece, it will remind them of their dreams.

We all connect our spirits through hopes and dreams
Novan Effendy (Gresik, Indonesia), Boonpong Panich (Nakorn Pathom, Thailand), and Jeeramet Moonpom (Loei, Thailand) had collaborated with the Mangkabia youth network to explore our dreams and hope together through the inter-disciplinary workshop called “A conversation with dream” on August 25th, 2021. A hybrid workshop “A conversation with dream” led by Boonpong Panich from Cherry Theatre, an artist based in Bangkok, Thailand, we are found fresh moments and input.

How a thought about a dream can be stimulated through body movements that form the silhouette of a particular object into the imagination (shadow). Likewise with the depiction of the concept of time. It reminded me of the past that seemed slow, and the present that seemed to be moving fast towards the future. So, I found a correlation that, the pandemic situation that we are currently experiencing, requires a balance in perceiving a dream by constantly touching the past and future.

Jeeramet Moonpom, a local ceramist and voluntary art teacher from Dansai district had prepared a sketch of the butterfly structure design. In the last hybrid workshop session, he led the participants to decorate cardboard materials and used milk cans with colored pencils. Participants consisting of the Mangkabia youth network of the Dansai district were also asked to include the dream writing they wanted to be hung on the butterfly wing structure later.

After the workshop, our collaborations have resulted in a sculpture called "Butterfly of Dreams" at the public park at Changweng-Ni Kiangsiri, Dansai Crown Prince Hospital. The sculpture represents a butterfly family as a vehicle taking people’s dreams to their destination. The “Butterfly of Dreams” sculpture was made by Jeeramet Moonpong at his studio in Dansai district, and inspired by the uniting of the youth network called “Mangkabia”, which means of butterfly in Dansai dialect.

When you visit the artwork “Butterfly of Dreams”. We invite you to close your eyes and think about you hope and dream that lay deep down in your heart. Then write them down on the provided bamboo stick and hang it on the “Butterfly of Dreams” sculpture to release your hidden dreams. These butterflies will always remind you of your dream and hope whenever you visit them.

This collaborative project is intended to invest our spirits and soul, our skills, our time to create the society in which art will be more valued and well managed by capital administrative office. Even our art project focuses on multi-disciplinary fields of art, the keystones our every projects is to create participative process with community in order to incubate and contextualise artist’s ideas and intention. Besides, we try to keep these 3 inter elements into our every steps which are interdisciplinary, intercultural, and intergeneration.

From previous researching, Loei Art Fest team found that Dansai area is the place has unique identities and distinguish from surrounding districts. This uniqueness leaves traces in their daily routine and way of living in several aspects. And they have been weaved altogether in a form of spirits/souls. Loei locates in the northeastern part of Thailand (Esan) , taking about 7 hours from Bangkok by car. This province has diverse culture and well recognition of Phi Ta Khon, ghost mask festival.

To sum up, we see possibilities of Loei to be creative city and a sandbox model of involve art process in community development strategies. Here are mainly 5 reasons why Loei has potential to be creative city: Loei is richful in cultural heritage, Loei has many active citizens, Loei has active civil sectors, Loei has diversity of economic system, there are public transportation systems directly to Loei, and Loei has a spotlight on international political issues and international relations.

As art advocators, we intend to learn and artistically engage with these spiritual aspects of Dansai residents by connecting through their culture, unused found objects, dreams and hope in order to inherit and build on these local assets together with the community. Ultimately, we would like to show that ‘contemporary art’ can be utilized as instrument for community, economic, and tourism development, sustainably.

This work consists of 3 parts of activities, including a hybrid workshop a conversation with a dream that does not use materials, only uses body parts to form an imagination (shadow) about future dreams. Next, the workshop on implanting the dream into the butterfly used cardboard materials with a size of 20cm x 20 cm which was shaped into butterflies and used milk cans that were pasted with paper and decorated with colored pencils. As a final result, this work makes butterfly sculptures of various sizes, about 150 cm high with a maximum width of 200 cm, made of cylindrical iron with a diameter of 15 mm which are assembled using welding, the bottom of the statue is cast using cement. Meanwhile, for the material used to write dreams, use bamboo sticks with a width of 3 cm and a length of 20 cm.

This work consists of 3 parts of activities, including a hybrid workshop a conversation with a dream that does not use materials, only uses body parts to form an imagination (shadow) about future dreams. Next, the workshop on implanting the dream into the butterfly used cardboard materials with a size of 20cm x 20 cm which was shaped into butterflies and used milk cans that were pasted with paper and decorated with colored pencils. As a final result, this work makes butterfly sculptures of various sizes, about 150 cm high with a maximum width of 200 cm, made of cylindrical iron with a diameter of 15 mm which are assembled using welding, the bottom of the statue is cast using cement. Meanwhile, for the material used to write dreams, use bamboo sticks with a width of 3 cm and a length of 20 cm.

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