INAUGURAL BANGKOK BIENNALE TO LAUNCH IN NOVEMBER 2018

The first-ever Bangkok Biennale, spearheaded by the former permanent secretary of the Ministry of Culture Apinan Poshyananda, will be held in the capital of Thailand from November 2018 to February 2019, Crystal Wu of ArtAsiaPacific reports. The Bangkok Art Biennale Foundation made the announcement at the Westin Europa and Regina Hotel in San Marco, Venice, on May 13, which coincided with the opening of the Fifty-Seventh Venice Biennale.

The exhibition will feature contemporary art from Asia, Europe, and the Pacific region around the theme “Beyond Bliss.” Chief executive and artistic director Poshyananda said, “We live in the age of chaos, disruption . . . and violence. So the search for your bliss is up to the individual artist, who would interpret, as well as the visitors who come to Bangkok. We all want to find our own bliss.”

International advisers to the Biennale include Alexandra Munroe, senior curator of Asian art and senior advisor of global arts at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and Foundation; independent curator David Stuart Elliott; Eugene Tan, director of the National Gallery Singapore; Nanjo Fumio, director of Mori Art Museum; Nigel Hurst, chief executive of Saatchi Gallery in London; contemporary artist Rirkrit Tiravanija; and Sunjung Kim, director of Artsonje Center in Seoul. Among the venues hosting the exhibition are the Bangkok Art and Culture Center, Suan Lumpini Park, the historic East Asiatic Company building, and several ancient temples along the Chao Phraya River, including Wat Pho (Temple of Reclining Buddha), Wat Arun (Temple of Dawn), and Wat Prayoon (Temple of Iron Fence).