Bangkok is turning into a giant art gallery
Bangkok is renowned for street food and shopping de lights as well as notorious nightlife, but the latest effort to woo tourists aims for the cultural high ground by turning the metropolis into an art gallery.
An exhibition called the Bangkok Art Bi en na le is showcasing more than 200 pieces from dozens of artists around the world, such as Japan’s Yayoi Kusama and South Korean ChoiJeongHwa. Paintings, photos and videos, installation sand performance art are on display in 20 venues throughout the city, mostly in mall so rat key tourist attractions.
“Visual art is a very powerful medium ,” said the exhibition’ s art director A pin an Po shy an and a .“The artists who are in the show can reveal their interpretation of Bangkok.”
While Bangkok was the world’ s most-visited city in 2017, as lump in Chinese arrival sin military-run Thailand during the past few months is causing some jitters. The second-largest economy in Southeast Asia relies on tourism to help power growth, putting the on us on officials to find new ways of attracting holiday makers, such as the art festival lasting just over three months.
The installation sin Bangkok tackle topics such as climatechange, pollution, refugees, technology, urban is at ion and sometimes taboo subjects, such as sex work. Exhibits include Chump on Apisuk’s “I Have Dreams” video installation that tackles the stigma faced by Thai sex workers, while Sakarin Krue-On’s “Guardian Giants” could be interpreted as a critique of political conflict. Fiona Hall’s “Forest Floor” depicts conflict and genocide with painted glass bottles placed to look like human skeletons.
Among the tall est artwork sis the golden “Lost Dog ,” stationed outside a five-star hotel near Bangkok’ s Chao Phraya river.
“The theme is about our existence, about us now and about the future generation ,” said its creator, the French artist Aurèle Ricard, who added that he thinks it’ s possible for Bangkok in future to become a major art destination, like HongKong, Shanghaior Venice.