'I'm not an artist -- I'm only 50% of an artist," said Michael Elmgreen of the Nordic duo Elmgreen & Dragset on his recent visit to Bangkok.
It's been over 20 years since Dane Elmgreen and his Norwegian partner Ingar Dragset took up their mission to challenge our relationship to art and the art world. Later this year, they will be among the international artists to participate at the first Bangkok Art Biennale to take place this November.
At his talk in the capital, most in the audience -- especially the social media-savvy ones -- were familiar with the pair's Prada Marfa installation, a sterile and soulless replica of a Prada boutique placed along a non-descript highway, deep in the Texan desert.
Ironically, the drab, little-known location became a hit within years, and the artwork sees just as many people in line as a new Prada collection would.
We're fortunate enough in Bangkok that the pair are making the city one of their next destinations. Along with Marina Abramovic, Huang Yong Ping and Yoshitomo Nara, Elmgreen & Dragset are part of the impressive line-up of internationally acclaimed artists invited to take part in the Bangkok Art Biennale's first edition by its head curator Apinan Poshyananda.
Apinan first introduced the Nordic duo to Thai audiences in 2002 as part of a travelling exhibition "Beyond Paradise", which stopped in Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur and Shanghai. This year, the artists will once more demonstrate their wit, sharp humour and biting social critique in Thailand under the theme "Beyond Bliss".
"I like that it's called beyond bliss," said Elmgreen. "Today, there is so much emphasis on happiness that it can make a lot of people unhappy."
Social media is one culprit, pushing us to create content that showcases a facade of fulfilment to the world. But it can be an empowering tool as well, one that allows artists and individuals to break boundaries.
"If I can put my silly stuff out for the world to see, then other people can do so too. Social media can make us less fearful," he added.
It's too soon to say if the happiness imperative and social media will be at the centre of Elmgreen & Dragset's show in Bangkok, but the artist's comments can be interpreted as a hint.
The duo made headlines last year as they took on the role of curators at the Istanbul Biennale. While Elmgreen said he feels more comfortable in his position as an artist, the pair successfully navigated troubled waters, namely a delicate political situation in Turkey.
"It was all about finding balance," he noted. "As an artist, you have to believe that you are smarter than the people who impose their rules."
Rather than screaming at their faces, make your work a little more complex, a little more edgy, so they won't understand it at first glimpse, he added.
The advice is one that many Thai artists have been following in the past years, as the country is still ruled by a military junta and concerns regarding censorship are being raised ahead of what will likely be an important year for Thai art.
"If art could only be shown in places around the world where there is 100% democracy, then there would be very few exhibitions," Elmgreen argued.
During the majority of Elmgreen & Dragset's prolific career, the pair have taken a cross-disciplinary approach to shake up conventions and demonstrate their insubordination.
A notable target of theirs has been the art world itself, its elitism and uppity components. Using a wide range of mediums -- from sculpture to installation and performance art -- they have poked fun at the art scene's various actors, galleries and collectors alike.
In 2009, they transformed the Venice Biennale's Danish and Nordic pavilions into the lavish home of one eccentric (and fictional) collector. The opulent space was filled with design furniture and flamboyant collection of artworks, while the supposed "owner" of this bachelor pad laid dead -- face down -- in his swimming pool after a night of rough partying.
Perhaps the duo's piece most relevant to the Thai context, the early work How Are You Today? both highlights and tries to remedy to the divide between the contemporary art world and "regular folks". Presented in 2002 at the Galleria Massimo de Carlo in Milan, the artists tackled the issue of gentrification by creating a hole in the exhibition space's ceiling, thus connecting the ground-floor gallery -- which catered to the city's upper-crust population -- with the lower-income earner's apartment situated above.
The gallery-goers and building's residents, who hardly ever interacted, were brought together with the help of a ladder, allowing visitors to greet their neighbours.
Why is it the most relevant? Even as Bangkok prepares to host two large-scale contemporary art manifestations, social divides are not less of an obstacle now than in the past. While Apinan Poshyananda and his team of curators aim to showcase artworks in public spaces along the river and in the city's centre, they could find it a challenge to make contemporary art accessible to all.
Ironically, during their visit to Bangkok in the last couple of weeks, Elmgreen & Dragset were spotted in the company of Apinan, touring the East Asiatic Company building in Charoen Krung -- one of the announced locations for the Bangkok Art Biennale.
Although we don't know for sure yet whether the site will accommodate the duo's upcoming work, the venue is right at the heart of Bangkok's new "creative district", a trendy, gentrifying neighbourhood.
