Unforgetting
Mark TehIn reflecting about the collective silence surrounding the October 6 massacre
which took place in Thammasat University, Bangkok in 1976, historian and former
student activist Thongchai Winichakul characterises the ‘unforgetting’ as an
inability to remember or to forget. Suspended in this liminal state, these areexperiences that have to be repressed or suppressed because they do notcohere to articulating a socially meaningful memory under the existing regimes oftruth.

Over the past decade, a younger generation of artists and social actors acrossAsia have begun to excavate the traumatic memories and experiences of theirnations’ histories, often going against the grain of official accounts and versions.
Investigating events they never lived through, their projects can be read as
attempts to recover silenced experiences and narratives, to reveal the complex
afterlives of history, and to give shape to these moments and legacies ofunforgetting.

Thongchai Winichakul at Thammasat University, Bangkok in 1976.
Source: https://mekongreview.com/the-silence-of-1976/

Thongchai Winichakul at The Breathing of Maps symposium, Jim Thompson House, Bangkok,
2020
Photo: Cattleya Paosrijaroen

Related LinksBook
1. Thongchai Winichakul, Moments of Silence: The Unforgetting of the October
6, 1976, Massacre in Bangkok (2020)
https://uhpress.hawaii.edu/title/moments-of-silence-the-unforgetting-of-theoctober-6-1976-massacre-in-bangkok/

Online Documentation Projects
1. Documentation of Oct 6 (Thailand). Online archive to collect, maintain andorganize information related to October 6 1976 massacre in Bangkok, initiatedby academics and activists https://doct6.com/
2. Perpustakaan Online Genosida 1965-1966 (Indonesia). Website with over
1,000 entries and links relating to 1965-66 mass killings across Indonesia.
Entries include books, dissertations, opinion pieces, films and artworks.
https://19651966perpustakaanonline.wordpress.com/
3. May 13, Never Again (Malaysia). Website tracing the story of the violent racial
clashes in Kuala Lumpur on May 13 1969. Includes a timeline, maps,interviews with victims and witnesses, rare photos and documents. Initiatedby news site Malaysiakini. https://pages.malaysiakini.com/may13/en/
4. May 13, 50 Years Later (Malaysia). Video series featuring five eyewitnesses ofMay 13, 1969 who revisit their experience of the day by walking through Kuala
Lumpur. Initiated by investigative journalism platform R.AGE.
https://www.rage.com.my/may13/

Artistic & Cultural Projects (includes videos, books, artists’ works)
1. Thanavi Chotpradit & Kornkrit Jianpinidnan, Prism of Photography: Dispersionof Knowledge and Memories of the 6th October Massacre (2019)https://www.kornkritwork.com/prism-of-photography)
2. Rap Against Dictatorship, My Country Has (2018)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZvzvLiGUtw)

3. Luke Duggleby, For Those Who Died Trying (And Those Who Endure) (2019)http://www.maiiam.com/forthosewhodiedtrying/
4. Adrian Mulya, Pemenang Kehidupan (2016). Photo book documenting storiesof women survivors of 1965 – project undertaken from 2007 to 2015
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/30077931-pemenang-kehidupan
5. #1965SetiapHari / #Living1965 https://linktr.ee/1965setiaphari
6. Joshua Oppenheimer, The Look of Silence (2014)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RcvH2hvvGh4)
7. Koizumi Meiro interview about his works in "Stories of a Beautiful Country"
exhibition (2012) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jO8E2IU3dqo
8. chi too,

ピカ - BOO (PIKA - ブ) (2011-2012) https://www.chitoo.net/pika-boo

https://www.chitoo.net/state-of-doubt
9. Yamashiro Chikako, interview about Mud man (2016)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ZLwxxYmwHU
10. Vandy Rattana, interview about Monologue (2015)
https://vimeo.com/123078294
11. Lau Kek Huat, trailer for The Tree Remembers (2019)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=seJswC9gBS0
12. Komori Haruka & Seo Natsumi, trailer for under the wave, on the ground(2014) https://vimeo.com/107363343