{"id":15269,"date":"2025-02-03T02:30:32","date_gmt":"2025-02-03T02:30:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.koktailmagazine.com\/?p=15269"},"modified":"2025-02-04T02:04:47","modified_gmt":"2025-02-04T02:04:47","slug":"is-bangkok-art-biennale-a-success","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.koktailmagazine.com\/th\/2025\/02\/03\/is-bangkok-art-biennale-a-success\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Bangkok Art Biennale a success?"},"content":{"rendered":"


VERY THAI: Returning after a break, this column by author Philip Cornwel-Smith explores popular culture and topics related to his best-selling books Very Thai <\/em>and Very Bangkok<\/em>. Here he reviews the impact of the Bangkok Art Biennale on the city and the art world, after speaking at a recent biennale event. <\/p>\n\n\n

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\u2018Rangda\u2019 is part of the \u2018Weaving the Ocean\u2019 project by Ari Bayuaji at BACC <\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Banner Photo:<\/strong> ‘Spectre System\u2019 by Preeyageetha Dia at QSNCC<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 4th Bangkok Art Biennale (BAB4) is two-thirds of the way through its four-month run. That\u2019s a good time to see how\u2019s it going. Biennales aren\u2019t neutral. They spark love or loathing, swoons or yawns, and shift how we see a place. Whatever the reaction, Biennales matter. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As some of the reviews were critical, BAB responded with a debate at Silpakorn University Art Center on January 12, under the teaser title: \u2018The End is Near.\u2019 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a land that can be a bubble of Thainess, BAB makes a point of hosting foreign artists, curators and pundits, whether visiting or expatriates. That was reflected in the panel of BAB founding director Apinan Poshyananda, Filipino curator of Singapore Art Museum Patrick Flores, art lecturer Thanavi Chotpradit, BAB4 curator Paramaporn Sirikulchayanont and me, moderated by BAB4 curator Brian Curtin. Among the issues tackled were sponsor influence and whether biennales remain relevant. This is my take. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Biennales are about more than Art<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In Bangkok Art Biennale, most people dwell on the \u201cArt\u201d bit, but my job is to focus on \u201dBangkok.\u201d This vast event impacts the city \u2013 and Thai soft power. Biennales \u2013 like the original in Venice \u2013 are typically run by a city to enhance its image. BAB has already leavened Bangkok\u2019s reputation and self-image beyond a threshold. Stopping it would feel like dropping the ball. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thailand came late to the biennale game, trailing Indonesia, Singapore and the Philippines. Yet BAB and new investments are propelling the city to art hub status. One ASEAN artist told me that BAB would lift them more than any previous event. An Indonesian artist wondered how his far bigger country could now compete. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, private complexes are mounting public art by famous artists. At OneBangkok, ThaiBev unveiled works by Tony Cragg and Anish Kapoor for BAB4 and re-situated one from BAB1 by Elmgreen & Dragset. Soft power isn\u2019t just about things Thai, but also joining things global.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u2018It is, It isn\u2019t\u2019 by Tony Cragg at OneBangkok<\/strong><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n


Who are biennales for?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

BAB attracts prominent art figures, with BAB4 having advisors from the Mori, Pompidou and Singapore museums. Yet weary pundits decry biennales over \u201cfestivalism\u201d and the agendas of politics, commerce and host cities. Critical piety over the structural drawbacks can however pre-disqualify consideration of the artistic and curatorial merit \u2013 and the relative situation of those catching up. Given Thailand\u2019s weak education in non-traditional culture, its art ecosystem hinges on cultivating deeper appreciation among the public, officials and collectors. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Delicate negotiations to place art in temples, museums, malls and heritage buildings have begun to mellow stuffy institutional guardians. Veterans of biennales abroad notice how BAB-goers expand beyond the usual earnest literati to throng with keen young Thais. And that very festivalism engages tourists and the masses. If only a fraction of the 775,000 who\u2019d visited BAB displays by January 20 get inspired to enter or support the arts, that\u2019s a win.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u2018Eyes\u2019 by Louise Bourgeois at Wat Pho<\/strong><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n


Engagement in the gallery<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Popularity doesn\u2019t always mean festivalism. There is a palpable thirst among young Thais for outside ideas that BAB helps supply. When the Institute of the performance artist Marina Abramovic \u2013 a BAB consultant \u2013 joined BAB1, participation by Thais in its austere durational disciplines was among the highest worldwide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wags often dismiss Instagrammers posting with cute displays like the inflatable fruits by Choi Jeong Hwa. Yet art events worldwide cater to social media for publicity and those who take selfies can be serious too. Many artists treat Insta as a portfolio, and I saw lots of them pose at BAB4 spectacles like Adel Abdessemed\u2019s installation of three entwined aircraft. <\/p>\n\n\n

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\u2018Telle M\u00e8re tel fils\u2019 by Adel Abdessemed at QSNCC<\/strong><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n



Some works tackle edgy topics. Gallery-goers wrote on the T-shirt that Burmese dissident artist Moe Satt writhed inside to demonstrate the constraints under Myanmar\u2019s junta. Bounpaul Phothyzan carved village scenes into giant bomb casings to show the destructions and disabilities wrought by the ordnance dropped on Laos.  Taiki Sakphisit filmed a dreamscape  around the French home of exiled Thai premier Pridi Banomyong. Sophirat Muangkum turned her camera lens on the taboo-laced subculture of nudism.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u2018Body Inside T-shirt\u2019 by by Moe Satt at BACC<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
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\u2018Story from Plateau\u2019 by Bounpaul Phothyzan at QSNCC<\/strong><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n


Curating with the old, the new and the sacred<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Apinan still sets BAB\u2019s curatorial tone. His recipe mixes topical commentary with interactive pop arts, and global art superstars with rising Thai names. This year\u2019s \u201cdiscovery\u201d is Supawich Weesapen for meshing digital networks with folk cosmology. A unique figure who links art to commerce and the bureaucracy, Apinan builds diplomatic bridges to tradition, showcasing late Thai and foreign masters, and involving heritage venues with aesthetic, promotional and political savvy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This year, he persuaded the Fine Arts Department to open its bastions of Thainess: the National Gallery and National Museum. Artists were invited to develop \u201cconversations with artefacts\u201d from the collection. Komkrit Theptian matches stone deities with his cute miniatures and Dusadee Huntrakul contrasts his ceramics with primaeval relics, while erotic masterpieces by French sculptor Louise Bourgeois were placed amid Hindu phalluses and yonis. This format suits the sly historicism of collagist Nakrob Moonmanas, in displays and animations at the National Museum and Wat Pho, paired with antique clocks. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

BAB\u2019s trademark is temple settings, now joined by Wat Boworn. Amid its Gothic carvings, Cole Lu of Taiwan built a classical gateway from neem wood charred to evoke the cycles of destruction and rebirth. <\/p>\n\n\n

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\u2018Thumb Centric Cosmology\u2019 by Supawich Weesapen at National Gallery<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
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\u2018The Engineers\u2019 by Cole Lu at Wat Boworn<\/strong><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n


Why the theme \u2018Nurture Gaia\u2019? <\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

BAB 4 sticks closer than its predecessors to a theme. Headlined \u2018Nurture Gaia,\u2019 it alludes to both the Greek goddess Gaia and to Gaia Theory, about the interconnectedness of planetary ecology. This extends to having female:male parity among the curators and 76 artists. Apinan is the only straight male on the team. It\u2019s not a \u2019Me Too\u2019 gesture, since top Thai curators have largely been women, and the 2023 Thailand Biennale had curator parity too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some say the theme is too broad, yet there is repetition of the \u2018earth mother\u2019 trope. Full-figured Indian women sculpted by Revinder Reddy emanate an aura from gilding, while Filipina Agnes Arellano humanises the generic goddesses of various cultures by live-casting the pastel nudes from her own body. Motif-packed prints by Indian New Yorker Chitra Ganesh burst with feminising takes on myth and psychedelic posters, contrasting with the surreal sprite-like reveries painted by the late Princess Marsi Paribatra. Most tenderly, the Singaporean Amanda Heng \u2013 a multi-disciplinary member of the Thai-based collective Womanifesto \u2013 photographed her ailing mother in unsparing clarity as their tense relationship softened, deeply touching anyone with ageing parents. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In counterpoint, George K layers sculptures of Indian hijras<\/em> (trans-women) with texts, conveying a voice of the voiceless. From Brazil, Guerreiro do Divino Amor also plays with gender norms in his operatic video allegory of Ancient Rome \u2013 one of BAB4\u2019s three representations of the multi-breasted she-wolf myth. <\/p>\n\n\n

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 \u2018Parvati’ by Ravinder Reddy at National Museum<\/strong><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
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‘She the Question’ by Chitra Ganesh at National Gallery<\/strong><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n


Showing the earth under environmental stress<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Several artists allude to the eco crisis. Thailand\u2019s Wishulada recycles waste into figures that emphasise their origin as trash. By contrast, Indonesian Ari Bayuaji disguises fishing detritus into a resource for handwoven textiles of lustrous beauty. Noting that all cultures have monsters, he re-configures the fibres from plastic ropes into deconstructed Balinese mythical creatures: a Barong<\/em> lion and Rangda<\/em>, a female spirit who scares humans into behaving better.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Environmental warnings also come through tech. George Bolster creates a new kind of tapestry, woven from pixels of a landscape photograph, depicting a Texan border riven by migration and the removal of nature protections by Trump. A collaboration by Bagus Pandega of Indonesia and Kei Imazu of Japan engineers a mechanical painting of a rainforest and its erasure, powered by the energy from an oil palm growing beside it in BACC. Similarly, Zul Mahmod, wires logs to function as a radio that broadcasts a \u2019Symphony of Coexistence.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Briton Susan Collins set cameras on Bangkok Noi canal and the River Thames in London to relay periodic photos of the tides on screens that refresh in real time. Her similarly captured stills of the Palestinian West Bank convey the epic re-contestations of that land. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Wat Prayoon, the media tour fell silent at twin immersive videos of American artist Jessica Segall swimming with two captive pets: an alligator and a tiger. Fed but not drugged, the beasts leave viewers gasping at the risk to her, and us, of toying with nature. <\/p>\n\n\n

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\u2018Rising Tides\u2019 in Khlong Bangkok Noi by Susan Collins at BACC<\/strong><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
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\u2018(un)common intimacy\u2019 by Jessica Segall at Wat Prayoon\u2019<\/strong><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n


The Art Trade Goes Corporate<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

BAB also exhibits in the vast complexes of Queen Sirikit National Convention Centre and the new OneBangkok \u2013 both owned by key sponsor ThaiBev, whose label colours for Beer Chang appear in the BAB livery. In the wake of Bangkok Bank Art Prize, DTAC\u2019s prominent MOCA, and Jim Thompson Art Centre, Thai bohemia is now getting swamped with investments by CP (Kunsthalle), Central Department Store (De-Central) and, in December, Osotspa (Dib Bangkok). These giants might muscle-out indie galleries, while some artists dread corporate caution after decades of resisting state propaganda. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vehemence against \u201cartwashing\u201d by sponsors so roils the West that the boards and names of institutions have been wiped clean of patrons deemed unfit. This revokes a longstanding civil ethic, whereby the rich repaid society through benevolence to museums, from Tate to Mori, Getty to Guggenheim.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Asked if BAB had censorship, Apinan countered that they\u2019d shown political art and allowed a BAB4 artist to critique ThaiBev, who later switched topic for artistic reasons. Paramaporn made the point that while the West lauds public funding, many Thai artists refuse anything tainted by the state. Each culture placates its own goddesses and monsters.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u2018The Impermanence of Protection\u2019 by George Bolster at BACC<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n


Healing a Divided Art Scene<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In the absence of purity, the imperative shifts to what works. State budgeting takes too long and political rivals change pet projects, whereas Thai arts have had longterm support from private benefactors, like Bangkok International Festival of Music & Dance. The Nation newspaper and Central department store ran film festivals and fashion weeks for decades, while the state\u2019s versions typically imploded after two or three years. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although Thailand Biennale finally realised its potential at Chiang Rai in 2023, the National Gallery stopped collecting decades ago, and the stalled National Art Gallery has bought new works yet languishes unfinished. The best collection of contemporary Thai art is still in the National Gallery\u2026 of Singapore. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For decades, Thai art was divided. Thais who appealed to international tastes for topical art met with indifference or scorn from defenders of \u2018Thainess.\u2019 And Thai championing of neo-traditional, hierarchical craft seemed parochial to foreign eyes. Some of the best Thai artists exhibited mostly abroad. That gulf, amplified by political rifts, has swung towards openness in both directions since the advent of Thai biennales. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Suddenly, mainstream Thais take pride in Thai artists being exhibited alongside world-renowned stars. And all of that art is of the edgier kind. At the National Gallery, vivid displays of punchy BAB artwork flank the institution\u2019s collection by Thai modern masters, which now feels like a sepia glimpse of a bygone era. <\/p>\n\n\n

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The video \u2018Our Place in Their World\u2019 by Nakrob Moonmanas & Chitti Kasemkitvatana was shown by BAB first in Venice and then the National Museum<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n


Will there be a 5th BAB?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Thailand had a pavilion at the Venice Biennale, only to be cancelled by the junta. Then last year, BAB hosted ASEAN artists at an independent Venice pavilion, \u2018Spirits of Maritime Crossing.\u2019 It earned good reviews and augurs a potential formal return. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the state plays catch-up, the panel\u2019s title, \u2019The End Is Near,\u2019 hinted that BAB might cease. However, Apinan revealed that BAB5 is already funded. Given Thailand\u2019s fitful record in the arts, such constancy provides something for Gaia to nurture. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This periodic column, Very Thai, is syndicated by River Books, publisher of Philip Cornwel-Smith\u2019s bestselling books Very Thai: Everyday Popular Culture and Very Bangkok: In the City of the Senses.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The views expressed by the author of this column are his own and do not necessarily reflect the views of Koktail magazine.<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

VERY THAI: Returning after a break, this column by author Philip Cornwel-Smith explores popular culture and topics related to his best-selling books Very Thai and Very Bangkok. Here he reviews the impact of the Bangkok Art Biennale on the city and the art world, after speaking at a recent biennale event.  Banner Photo: ‘Spectre System\u2019 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":15279,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15269","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-arts"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nIs Bangkok Art Biennale a success?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"VERY THAI: Returning after a break, this column by author Philip Cornwel-Smith explores popular culture and topics related to his best-selling books Very\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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