The eighth edition of Chiang Mai Design Week, a nine-day cultural festival that wrapped up last week, was a manifesto of the melting pot that is this northern province. At an out-of-use warehouse in Chang Moi, a group of local artists who took part in a homecoming project exhibited objects from their neighbourhoods in the style of Renaissance curiosity. Here, Achariyar Rojanapirom and Ratthee Phaisanchotsiri curated personal items from their cupboard, including a bowl of stir-fried salted chilli from a nam ngiao shop in the old town, to show how they remain contemporary.
Recognising the country's art scene and digital economy, Siam Piwat and Iconsiam have joined forces with Baandam Museum, Kasikorn X and Plan B Media to host the first Thailand Digital Arts Festival 2022 (TDAF2022) to provide a platform for Thai artists to showcase their creativity and create new visual art experiences.
Leading Thai artists recognised for their disciplines, techniques and signature styles are showcasing their art creations during "Thailand Digital Arts Festival 2022", which is running at the Charoen Nakhon Hall on M floor and Icon Art and Culture Space on the 8th floor of Iconsiam, Charoen Nakhon Road, until Sunday.
At the recent ribbon-cutting ceremony of the Office of Contemporary Art and Culture's (OCAC) Art Collection in the spacious art hall on Ratchadamnoen Avenue, a group of ageing male artists covered in sanitary masks surrounded the director of OCAC, Vimolluck Chuchart, who gave a self-congratulatory speech. She proudly announced that the public will be able to view for the first time the national collection of the Ministry of Culture's contemporary Thai art. Beside these elderlies stood a white giant fibreglass sculpture by Sutee Kunavichyanont in Thai military uniform wearing a helmet with a rifle erect. Sutee's Equality; Thai Soldier (2016) is inspired by the cultural mandates between 1939 and 1942 during the premiere of Phibul Songkhram that aimed to uplift the national spirit and moral code of the nation and instil progressive tendencies and newness into Thai life.