bêka & lemoine unveils its latest film with Boonserm Premthada
After their “Journey to Tokyo” in by Ryue Nishizawa vintage Alfa Romeo, Bêka & Lemoine now take us bangkok on a chaotic day trip through the concrete jungle of the South Asian megacity. In their new documentary entitled “Big Ears Listen With Feet”, the recognized artist-filmmakers start by sharing the personal story of Boonserm Premthada, one of Thailand’s most important contemporary architects and recipient of THE DESIGN AWARD 2021|22 in the “Social Impact” category. The film, soon to be featured exclusively on designboomunfolds through a free wandering, punctuated by encounters, events and dizzying places, which have contributed to shaping Premthada’s unique identity and sensibility.
“Big Ears Listen With Feet” follows Boonserm Premthada through the streets of Bangkok
all images courtesy of Beka & Lemoine
Big Ears Listen With Feet: ONLINE PREMIERE BY DESIGNBOOM!
In Bêka & Lemoine’s latest film, Boonserm Premthada, deaf from birth, recounts how his disability led him to develop another way of hearing in which his whole body serves as a resonance chamber for sound vibrations. The way that the thai architect hears is similar to how elephants perceive sound: despite their large ears, elephants also “hear” acoustic signals primarily through their very sensitive feet. By learning from elephants, Premthada developed an architecture of the senses in which sound vibrations become the voice of space. This story is the origin of the title of the documentary: “Big Ears Listen With Feet”.
The documentary of recognized artist-filmmakers shows Boonserm Premthada walking through the dark streets of the slum where he grew up, flying to isolated rural communities living in symbiosis with elephants, and observing the devotion of old ladies to the Buddhist monks of their village. In this way, the film reveals the architect’s active engagement with people for whom architecture can have a powerful social impact. In ‘Big Ears Listen With Feet’, a road movie merges with a diary, revealing Bêka & Lemoine’s unique style of performative cinema. Stay tuned for the exclusive online premiere on designboom soon! 
Boonserm developed his unique architectural style by learning from elephants
the documentary shows Boonserm walking through the dark streets of the slum where he grew up 
the film then unfolds as a free wander through concrete streets and rural communities
the documentary shows the Thai architect observing the devotion of the old ladies to the Buddhist monks of their village
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