Japanese artist Shinya Akutagawa has come up with a unique way to present interactive and participatory art for the "New Old City -- The Permanent Temporary Mound Exhibition", which takes place at WTF Gallery until Oct 13.
Held as part of the Bangkok Biennale 2018, the exhibition features an interactive installation in the form of an elevator replica to represent the idea of "non-places", aiming to take viewers to a utopian land inspired by Trai Phum (Three Worlds), a Thai literary work written in the 14th century.
As a project and research-based cross-disciplinary artist, Akutagawa aims to interrogate how we see culture and from which perspective art should be shown regardless of an audience's nationality?
The elevator is deemed one of the symbols of ubiquitous hyper-modernity. In urban life, it must function perfectly, and just as functionality is the ultimate requirement for the urban condition, being out-of-order or idiosyncratic is not provided for in that culture.
Once the viewers step into this symbolic elevator, it will take them to explore a new interpretation of contemporary society. Inside, the elevator is a homogenised "non-place", where one can spend as much time as one wants regardless of social status. However, to temporarily stay with one another in such a limited space, elevator-goers must respect each other's cultural norms and let go, to some extent, of one's own cultural identity.
WTF Gallery is on Sukhumvit 51 and opens Tuesday to Sunday from 4pm to 10pm. There is no admission fee.
Call 02-662-6246 or 089-926-5474.
