KAWITA VATANAJYANKUR
ABSURDITY IN PARADISE
Curator: Pichaya Aime Suphavanij
Opening: Thursday, August 30, 2018, 7pm
Exhibition: 31.08. - 28.10.2018
Opening hours: Tuesdays to Sundays from 11am to 6pm
(Opening hours for the museum night on 1.9.2018: 17h - 1h)
In collboration with the Kasseler Kunstverein, Kassel, Germany, Bangkok Art and Culture Centre presents the first Thai Contemporary Arts exhibition in the Museum Fridericianum, opened in 1779 as the world's first museum conceived for the public and has been the main location of the ‘documenta’ the renown art exhibitions since its founding in 1955 in Kassel, Germany.
Hope, desperation, and celebration guide the logic of this paradise. This exhibition reconfigures human and relationship with his changing surroundings through culture of thoughts and dialogues embedded in the artworks. The project feature works by 14 Thai contemporary artists and a special work of Austrian artist. The exhibition combobulates a collection of communications that fall through cracks of everyday life as different communities and ideologies emerge. The idea is at the point where languages malfunction, and the ‘Absurdity’ of situations occurs. At Museum Fridericianum, the works of art present politics of memory, debris of speculation, myth of comprehension, human relations, and philosophy of faith.
Absurdity in Paradise plays with the paradox of Thailand as a paradisiacal place of yearnings. With video and media works, photographs and spacious installations, fourteen contemporary Thai artists illuminate the fracture points of present-day Thailand. Whether it is Pixelated uniforms of Manit Sriwanichpoom, Performing textile of Kawita Vatanajyankur, or the artwork of Rirkrit Tiravanija "untitled 1994 (angst essenseele auf)” a reference to the film ‘Angst Essen Seele Auf’ (fear eats soul) of German director, Rainer Werner Fassbinder depicting cruelty as well as human tenderness between insider and outsider. In addition to renowned artists such as Arin Rungjang, Pratchaya Phinthong and Korakrit Arunanondchai, the exhibition will also feature young artists such as Nuttapon Sawasdee, Alisa Chunchue, and Harit Srikhao. In doing so, internationally acclaimed works stand alongside new works created especially for the Kasseler Kunstverein.