The shared memories of two festivals in two cities are portrayed by five Korean and Thai artists during "Watching Together At The Boundary", which is running at Bangkok Kunsthalle, until Aug 9.
This is an international artistic collaboration between the gallery and PharmaResearch Culture Foundation of South Korea that brings together works originally commissioned and presented through the Gangneung International Art Festival, but reconfigured for the spatial context of Bangkok Kunsthalle.
The exhibition explores the shared sense of communal renewal and regeneration by connecting two significant cultural celebrations -- the Gangneung Danoje Festival, one of South Korea's most important traditional folk festivals, and Songkran, Thailand's traditional New Year festival. Both are recognised by Unesco as Intangible Cultural Heritages.
While rooted in different cultural traditions, these two festivals have brought communities and family members together just the same for celebrants to share best wishes, pray for peace and celebrate renewal.
The core concept of the exhibition, "Watching Together", considers collective viewing as something more than the mere co-existence of strangers in the same space. The experience of shared time and space is presented as a practice of hospitality and recovery and art-based connections.
Structured around "rhythms" and "temporality", this moving-image exhibition weaves together the memories, ambiences and stories of the two cities -- Gangneung and Bangkok -- through the works of five artists, who explore boundaries, recovery, presence and community from distinct perspectives.
They include Hong Lee Hyunsook, Jung Yeondoo, Mackerel Safranski and Yanghee Lee from South Korea and Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook from Thailand.
Bangkok Kunsthalle is on Maitri Chit Road and opens Wednesday to Sunday from 2pm to 8pm.
