House of Yaprom

work in progress, part of the Heritage trajectory

'I would like this story to be in some sense the home where she feels safe.' from A Woman's Battles and Transformations

˜ Édouard Louis


Yuang Yaprom is a Thai woman who ended up in a Flemish village with her white husband in the mid-90s where she did not feel at home or welcome. After two years of loneliness and exclusion, especially within the marriage, she decided to return to her home country and leave everything behind in Belgium. Including her one-year-old son. Since then, her existence, as well as a significant part of her son's identity, has been denied. In the years that followed, mother and son barely had any contact with each other.

Now, 25 years later and inspired by Vietnamese-American writer Ocean Vuong, Kenneth Cardon tries to reach his voiceless Thai mother through a love letter. Using the few memories, photos and video footage, he reconstructs her story in order to get closer to her and the unknown part of himself.

In 'House of Yaprom' Kenneth addresses themes such as 'identity', 'oppression', 'anguage and cultural differences','racist and homophobic violence', 'queerness' and the 'mother-son relationship' to tell a personal coming-of-age story, but also to form an indictment of the white, heteronormative world in which both his mother and he must try to survive.

credits:

a concept by Kenneth Cardon | performed by Kenneth Cardon | residency in WPZimmer | met thanks to: Tine Van Aerschot, Untold Asian Stories | funnded by the Flemish Government