WORKSHOP / BODY CASTING
Body Casting at Jai Thep Festival 2020, Thailand
In February Jai Thep arts and music festival hosted body casting workshops in the mountains of northern Thailand.
By Ellen Downes Mon 27 Jan 2020
“We see ourselves in 2D; in our reflection, the mirror and in photos but rarely in 3D. Seeing your body cast gives a whole new perspective of the body. Experience your body being cast, have it painted gold and take home a moment in time and your body from Jai Thep Festival 2020.“
So read the sign outside my workshop space in the Healing Area of Jai Thep Festival in Chiang Mai, Thailand in February.
It was such a pleasure to be part of the Jai Thep workshop team and to meet and cast so many wonderful people. From a man who built a stage to a woman who performed on that stage with fire I cast a singer between sets and a chef who ran the busiest food stall on site just before he started service. I cast old friends, new friends and strangers.
The woman in the photo above had made a spontaneous on-the-day decision to go to the festival on her own. The next week she took her cast back home with her to Belgium. She recently sent me a message to tell me that it hangs in her room and reminds her every day of her time in Thailand; of the world of opportunities and experience beyond her walls.
Festivals are magical places for bringing together creatives and all those who share the want to experience new things and learn from a community forged by collective appreciation of the arts. In the mountains of northern Thailand I was able to give festival goers the gift of their golden body cast to take home.
Since the festival I have received photos from around the world of casts displayed in homes. The photo above was sent from Bangkok.