On the experience and the art of narrating. A dialogue between Walter Benjamin and the work of Navin Rawanchaikul A dialogue between Walter Benjamin and the work of Navin Rawanchaikul

Abstract

This paper analyzes the artwork Welcome Visitor (2008), by the Thai artist Navin Rawanchai-kul (1971), under the perspective of German philosopher Walter Benjamin (1892-1940). This analysis begins with a recap of the text The Narrator (1936), where Benjamin theorizes about the terms of “oral narration” and “experience”. Such concepts can be useful keys, indeed the work of Rawanchaikul is based in issues such as the experience of exile and identity in the global world, to show the stories of different migrants. Consequently, this work is based on an interpretative perspective, to stablish a dialogue between a Benjaminian perspective and the analysis of an artwork of one of today’s most resounding contemporary Asian artists.