A few months prior to its 10th anniversary, the Bangkok Art and Culture Centre (BACC) made a major announcement: a new director. As of March 1, Pawit Mahasarinand has taken the helm of the city's main art venue and the largest public-funded art centre in the country, a surprising choice to many, though an entirely welcoming one.
Pawit has a background in theatre (he was known to his students while still teaching at Chulalongkorn University as Kru Pom), and has taken the torch at BACC from Luckana Kunavichayanont. For the next four years, Pawit -- who's also chairman of the Silpathorn Award and National Artist Selection Committees in Performing Arts; member of the South East Asia Advisory Committee in Taiwan's Ministry of Culture; and theatre reviewer for The Nation -- is responsible for managing and overseeing the BACC's overall administration, policy, mission and objectives under the guidance of the BACC Foundation Board.
As the most active public-funded art centre in Thailand, the BACC's mission is to promote arts, culture and artists to the general public while nurturing and exchanging new ideas and knowledge. All this is done through the diversified art, theatre, film, design, cultural and educational programmes temporarily occurring in the centre each year.
HRH Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn's photo exhibition on the 8th floor, for example, has just ended its run, and now the venue's headline show is Vasan Sitthiket's "I Am You" retrospective -- featuring some shocking, politically charged and explicit mixed-media artworks. The BACC's space has also played host to seminars, theatrical productions and film screenings. At the same time, almost organically, the public has found a new political mission for the BACC.
Over many years, demonstrators have used the plaza in front of the centre at Pathumwan intersection as some sort of strategic spot for staging anti-government protests -- be it Yingluck Shinawatra's cabinet or the incumbent junta government. Currently, the BACC has allowed protests from wildlife and environmental activists protesting the suspected killing of a black leopard by Italian-Thai president Premchai Karnasuta.
Nothing's wrong with that, says the 45-year-old Pawit, as long as they include some art and cultural event within their protest. (The black leopard protesters read poems and paint pictures.)
"People say the BACC is bipolar," said Pawit while sipping coffee at one of the centre's many cafés. "But I'd say it's multipolar. I think we need to be multipolar these days.
"People say visual arts are the star of this place. What I'm trying to do is to create a programme that would link all these genres of art and culture together. We shouldn't say, 'I'm only interested in this or that'. If we step out of our comfort zone, we may discover something new in our lives. That's what I'm trying to encourage people to do -- to get out of their comfort zone."
Many Thais are still spooked by the space due to its association with the word "art", which is associated with highbrow culture. But with BACC being partly funded by taxpayers' money -- the rest comes from donations and rentals -- Pawit hopes to pay back the general public by being as inclusive as possible. And with his expertise in theatre, he's much more used to drawing people in and working with a live audience.
"I'm trying to make this place as friendly as possible," he said. "No matter who you are, you can come in and you can learn something and be inspired. We're trying to make art relevant to people's lives again."
"Contemporary art is very accessible because it's always open for interpretation," he continued. "In a country that is democratic, contemporary art needs to flourish. It's a platform for debate. Because we exhibit many different kinds of art, we have many different kinds of programmes. It doesn't belong to one certain group of people. It belongs to everybody. It's a space where people can come in and have different opinions and I think that's important for Thai society."
Vasan Sitthiket's exhibition, for example, might be one of their most chafing shows yet. Displaying explicit paintings, sculptures and videos criticising the Thai government and society, it's a refreshing spin on the usually politically passive centre, and it's almost a miracle that government bureaucrats haven't shut down the show.
"I can say that these paintings -- I would never be able to show them back where I used to work," he chuckled, referencing his two decades of teaching and directing theatre at Chulalongkorn. "I think that's a sign that we're more open-minded. For Vasan, art has to be related to society, and it should always reflect what he thinks about what's happening in society. I think the same."
What's different about BACC is that it has the autonomy to push the envelope. Unlike most public organisations run amok with government propaganda, the BACC is purely run by its foundation, made up of leading artists, cultural experts and academics. Even if less than half the budget (40 million baht) is provided by the state, no government bureaucrats are involved with any artistic decision. However, when they provide so little, the centre must find other ways to stay afloat like accepting funds by royal donors, corporate sponsors, and renting out commerce space on the bottom floors.
"We would love to operate purely as an art and culture space," explained Pawit. "But we need more of a budget. Right now we have a major budget problem dealing with the city. I can reveal that right now we are operating on our savings and it's running out. So we need to come to a conclusion soon, whether we get how much of a budget and what way. Thai politics always changes, and it affects many parties, and we're one of those affected."
When asked if the future of Thailand's art scene looks bright, Pawit said it depends on three things: the artist, the audience and the patrons.
"We have a lot of artists already. Our education programme nurtures the artist but not the art audience. In Singapore I would always see a group of students led by their teachers coming to the museums. And these aren't future artists, they're just ordinary students. Instead of going to cram schools on weekdays, they'll go to galleries and museums.
"In a typical Thai school, your art class would be painting, Thai classical dance, classical music. But they don't have a class that would teach you how to enjoy art as an audience. Do they really understand how to watch khon dance even though they know how to do it? I think that's the problem. Little by little we're trying to create an educational programme here, to make sure they really understand it. We're running partly on taxpayer money, so it's our job to make sure it's relevant to everyone and to make sure it's friendly for anyone to come in and learn and enjoy.
"I'm suggesting that teachers or professors in the art field have a meeting with those in the other fields to create a kind of learning experience for students so they enjoy different fields together. Then the future will be bright."
Go to www.bacc.or.th or facebook.com/bacc. Open Tuesday to Sunday, 10am-9pm.
Now a Bangkok staple filled with exhibitions, countless workshops and art-related commerce, it's easy to forget the BACC was almost never constructed, due to Thailand's bureaucratic incompetence.
Through powerful protests led by passionate citizens, it took more than a decade for the on-again, off-again project to come to light. Soon to celebrate its 10th anniversary, we look back at the BACC's history of protest.
In 1995, Bangkok governor Bhichit Rattakul proposed the country's first major art centre be built by the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) right in the heart of the city. Planned to honour King Rama IX and called the Bangkok Contemporary Art Centre, the space was supposed to have art galleries; a permanent collection; a mini-theatre; a library specialising in the arts, design, and culture; outlets offering art supplies and equipment; and hip cafés and restaurants.
However, four years into his term, nothing but a design sketch had materialised, and Bhichit left his seat without a construction agreement being sealed.
In 2001, Samak Sundaravej came into the governor's office and scrapped the project completely. Citing irregularities in the design bidding process and alleged corruption, he instead wanted to build a mall. The disgruntled the art community erupted in unison.
"Once the project changed, we saw right away what politicians thought of art and culture," said Manit Sriwanichpoom, an executive board member. "They don't see any importance in it at all. Once that happened, a group of artists, including myself, came out to protest. The state has the responsibility to give its people [a legitimate art centre]. We protested until Samak stopped. However, he didn't continue the project. He said he'll let us wait until his post is over, which means that there was wasted opportunity for another four years."
Once Apirak Kosayodhin was elected in 2004, Manit along with fellow artist Chumpon Apisuk led a group of artists dubbed the "People's Network for the Bangkok Arts and Culture Centre" to continue their campaign for the long-awaited art centre. They created the "Art Vote" campaign, ending up with 50,989 signing the petition. It was a success, as a few months later Apirak kept the ball rolling.
Apirak finally greenlit the project. With artists and citizens from different fields of art protesting alongside the People's Network for the BACC, it was only fair that the name would encompass all of these fields. The Bangkok Contemporary Art Centre then changed to the Bangkok Art and Culture Centre.
"Notice that we use the word 'centre' and not 'museum'," said Manit. "Once the building was finished, we weren't able to limit it to the visual arts. That's why it has to be called an art centre. And it's not a museum because there's no permanent collection."
Yet the problems didn't stop once the BACC finished construction in 2008. For its inaugural year, the BACC was directly operated by bureaucratic BMA officers under the Office of Culture, Sports and Tourism. They lacked any direction or permanent staff, resulting in an empty, crippled and indebted gallery.
Fed up with management, the Network of Artists of the BACC stepped up again and joined hands with the Bangkok Theatre Network to demand the centre be run by an independent foundation. Artists vowed to withdraw their programmes from the centre if they didn't reach their demands, and the BMA caved in. No more would the government be directly involved with the BACC's exhibitions.
The principle of the BACC is to be independent, said Manit. "No matter if we're getting money from the government, we have to support ourselves so we're free. Creating art needs freedom."
