ALI(E/A)NSI CONVERSATIONS 05

The ALI(E/A)NSI Conversations are part of the exhibition’s curatorial process, a way of connecting with participating artists through their practices, the works they bring into the exhibition, and their particular memories and relationships to NOVILLA and Schöneweide.

For our fifth conversation, we speak with Pisitakun Kuantalaeng, a Thai artist, longtime friend and collaborator of sōydivision and Moving Poets, who is currently part of the studio community in the NOVILLA building through a studio residency.

The work Pisitakun proposes for ALI(E/A)NSI emerged directly from something that happened here. At the beginning of 2026, the neighbourhood book exchange outside NOVILLA was targeted in two separate book burnings. Pisitakun witnessed the first incident himself. When books were burned again at the same place about a month later, sadness had turned into anger.

Rather than responding only to the violence of the act, Pisitakun began asking questions about the people behind it. Who are the perpetrators? How did they grow up? What are they afraid of? Do they have families? What histories were they taught? What experiences might have shaped the decisions they make?

His response takes the form of amulets based on the Thai Benjapakee tradition. Through them, Pisitakun connects the act of book burning in Germany with questions of belief, faith and protection. If belief can give an object spiritual meaning and turn it into something that offers comfort, strength or protection, the same capacity for belief can take another direction when attached to nationalism, skin colour, race or hatred.

The work therefore does not simply ask what an amulet might protect us from. It turns protection back toward the person carrying it, asking what belief asks us to do, what kinds of actions it produces, and whether an object can protect someone who refuses to reflect on their own behaviour.

Within ALI(E/A)NSI, the remains and questions of Pisitakun’s work also move into another artistic structure. Siestaria proposes transmitting fragments of banned and burned books through the outdoor mother-pillow, allowing traces of the book burning to continue through listening, rest and dreams.

In this conversation, we speak with Pisitakun about witnessing the two book burnings, the movement from sadness to anger, the histories behind acts of violence, belief as both protection and danger, and what an amulet might actually be able to protect.

1. During the first book burning you felt sadness, and during the second anger. What changed between those two moments?

Pisitakun:
The first time, I felt sadness because I had never experienced anything like this in my life. But the second time, I felt angry because I could not believe that it was happening again.

2. Your work asks who the perpetrators are, how they grew up, what they fear, whether they have families, and what history they learned. Why was it important to respond with questions rather than declarations?

Pisitakun:
I believe that nothing happens by itself. Everything has a reason, both directly and indirectly. The decisions people make are often shaped by what has happened to them throughout their lives and by the experiences that have formed them.

3. Why did the Benjapakee amulet structure become the right response to a book burning in Germany? What can this Thai form of protection introduce into European memorial culture?

Pisitakun:
Amulets are objects constructed through people’s beliefs. Their meaning, value, and even their monetary value also come from belief. I see belief and faith as two sides of the same coin.

On one side, faith can offer protection and become something people hold on to spiritually. When faith is used to create an object of worship, an amulet can become a source of comfort, protection, and strength.

But when belief and faith are attached to nationalism, skin colour, race, or hatred, they can become the other side of that same coin. They can contribute to things like book burnings and many other forms of violence.

Belief and faith exist everywhere in the world. The question is how we choose to use them. By making amulets in response to the book burning, I wanted to return to and examine the meaning of belief and faith themselves.

4. If someone actually carried one of these amulets every day, what would you want it to protect: the body, memory, courage, knowledge, or something else?

Pisitakun:
There is a teaching I often heard from my grandparents and elders: “The Buddha is in your heart.” If you do good, good things will come back to you. Even if you wear amulets all around your neck, if you behave badly, the amulets will not protect you.

For me, an amulet is an object that reminds us to reflect on ourselves. If we know that we are doing the right thing, we should not be afraid, because the amulet will protect us.

5. Siestaria proposes transmitting fragments of banned and burned books through the outdoor mother-pillow. How do you feel about the remains of your work entering another artist’s listening and dream structure?

Pisitakun:
I feel good about it because I think each of our works is connected to the others.