Katherine Amatavivadhana, co-founder and head of creation at Mad Motion Studio, first read The Little Prince -- the classic children's book by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry -- at the age of 10. She thought the character was cute but did not appreciate the storyline.
Travel The Planets.
As a teenager and a grown-up, Katherine reread The Little Prince several times. Like many readers, every time she read the book, she understood different aspects that she had overlooked before. In fact, The Little Prince became one of her favourite books and inspired her to create the immersive exhibition "The Little Prince Universe – An Immersive Journey", which is on display at Iconsiam.
"This is my personal project with my husband. I wanted to create something that inspired me and made people feel good. The original Little Prince features profound stories, beautiful graphics and has universal appeal, so I decided to purchase a licence from Media Link, an intellectual property management company headquartered in Hong Kong. However, the exhibition was created by a Thai crew," said Katherine.
"In today's digital age, young people do not grow up with books. They consume stories through other kinds of media. I wanted to create this exhibition to reach people who consume other types of media instead of than books."
Travel The Planets.
Covering more than 2,000m² at the Attraction Hall in Iconsiam, "The Little Prince Universe – An Immersive Journey" is divided into 15 zones. The first zone is The Entrance, which was inspired by The Little Prince souvenir shop in Paris. The second zone, Story Book Theatre, narrates the synopsis of The Little Prince through a short film with Thai and English audio and Thai, English and Chinese subtitles.
In the The Little Prince, the story is told by a pilot whose plane crashes in the Sahara Desert. This is where he meets a blonde-haired boy called The Little Prince. The conversations between the pilot and The Little Prince reflect profound messages about loss of innocence and concepts of love, friendships and life.
The third zone, Meet the Little Prince, depicts the Sahara Dessert. A sculpture of The Little Prince with blonde hair wearing a green outfit welcomes visitors to take pictures with him. This zone also features illustrations of sheep that The Little Prince asks the pilot to draw for him.
The fourth zone, Asteroid B-612, brings The Little Prince's tiny planet to life.
Katherine Amatavivadhana of Mad Motion Studio. (Photo courtesy of mad motion studio)
"According to the story, Asteroid B-612 is extremely small, so the exhibition was replicated in a small area. There are two highlights of Asteroid B-612 -- a rose and the sunset. In the past, there were no roses on Asteroid B-612. After one solitary rose blossoms on the planet, The Little Prince falls deeply in love with it. The rose tells The Little Prince that 'I am unique in all the world' and The Little Prince takes good care of it. In the story, The Little Prince says, 'One day I watched the sunset 44 times', so we created 44 beautiful sunsets so that visitors can experience life in Asteroid B-612," explained Katherine.
The fifth zone, Travel The Planets, presents scenes from when The Little Prince travels to six planets and meets six characters -- the King, the Conceited Man, the Drunkard, the Businessman, the Lamplighter and the Geographer. The experiences allow The Little Prince to learn about human behaviour, diverse perspectives and how people value and prioritise things differently. This zone displays characters of the six planets in the form of ceramic sculptures and were created by French figurine artist Arnaud Nazare-Aga.
The sixth zone, Hello Earth, represents the beautiful world of human beings. Katherine explained that this photogenic zone presents the vibrance of our world through rainbow lighting, kinetic moving clouds, colourful seesaws, a large Baobab and an interactive fox.
Walk With The Rose.
"Hello Earth is a highlight which I invested a lot of money in to create a beautiful ambience since The Little Prince appreciates our world. There is a seven metre manmade tree which was inspired by Baobabs in the story. Baobabs are commonly found in Africa and are known as the 'tree of life', " explained Katherine.
"Another highlight in this zone is an interactive monitor under the tree. If a visitor shouts 'hello fox' into the microphone, an animated fox will appear on the monitor. I hope people will enjoy spending time in this area. They can stay as long as they want."
The seventh zone, Walk With The Rose, is an impressive mirror room filled with 30,000 artificial red roses. There are also a few huge mechanical red roses that can automatically bloom and close.
In the book, The Little Prince was surprised to find 5,000 roses in one garden on Earth since he initially thought his rose is one of a kind in the universe. Katherine explained the part of the rose in the book made her realise the philosophy of love.
"When I was young, I did not understand it. As an adult, I eventually understood that there are many roses or many people in the world, but if we decide to choose one, that one is ours, so we have to take care of it."
The eighth zone, The Farewell and Star Gazing Hall, represents a scene in which The Little Prince decides to depart the world by letting a poisonous snake bite him. The team created an installation art which appears as a tall, black, cage-like structure decorated with numerous lights as symbols of souls to bid farewell to The Little Prince.
Though the journey of The Little Prince ends here, Katherine did not want to end the exhibition with sadness. Visitors can continue to The Little Prince Playroom where they can enjoy an interactive game throwing balls at animated Baobabs to get rid of these trees.
There are many spots to take photos, especially, Hello Bangkok, where visitors can pose with a specially designed tuk tuk with The Little Prince logo on the front and next to it a sculpture of The Little Prince.
Before Katherine started this project, she did not realise that The Little Prince had a lot of readers in Thailand. While working on the project, she found many partners who wanted to collaborate. Therefore, there are also ice creams, a café and children's clothing inspired by The Little Prince.
When asked if the exhibition will replace the imagination visitors may have had, Katherine replied the exhibition cannot replace the book.
"The exhibition can in no way compete with the book. I believe the exhibition is more like a teaser or highlight. I hope the exhibition will encourage people to read the book. My friends told me that when they heard about the exhibition, they reread the book before visiting. The goal of the exhibition is not to replace the book, but to help people reach the story through another dimension," explained Katherine.
"I hope that visitors will be inspired to live their lives meaningfully after viewing the show. Although this project was a lot of hard work, it conveys thought provoking messages to society and the world. I am proud of the project since it was produced by a Thai team. I hope that this show will be exhibited abroad. We are in the process of discussing it."
"The Little Prince Universe – An Immersive Journey" runs at the Attraction Hall, 6th floor, Iconsiam until May 11. Tickets cost 590 baht (per person) and 1,150 baht (two persons with one giveaway tote bag). Tickets can be purchased at ticketmelon.com.
For more information, visit bit.ly/3CpcopI.
