/ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT/CULTURE-THAILAND: Malls Threaten to Edge Out Modern Art

By Marwaan Macan-Markar Reprint | | Print |

Marwaan Macan-Markar

BANGKOK, Jan 22 2002 (IPS) - Chumporn Apisuk is a rebel with a cause. Armed with 100 paintings, this Thai performance artist wants to shake up the authorities running Bangkok for their lack of aesthetic sensibilities.

In the coming weeks, the 54-year-old Chumporn hopes to exhibit these works by contemporary Thai artists that have a common theme running through them: an unequivocal voice of protest expressed through colours and brushwork. This art of protest is also directed at the city’s authorities.

What has triggered this protest is the still-to-be-built Bangkok Metropolitan Contemporary Art Centre, the first of its kind in the Thai capital. Samak Sundaravej, Bangkok’s governor, is in no mood to sanction a plan by his predecessor to dedicate the centre’s building as a space exclusively for the works of Thailand’s modern artists.

The Samak administration wants to put the land aside for the art centre to more commercial use — build an edifice to house a giant shopping mall in addition to some space set for the arts and culture. This plan, in fact, is very much in line with the thinking of the country’s political establishment, which enjoys promoting this city as South-east Asia’s shopping mecca.

And for his structure of choice, the governor has sought the vision of a carpark management company in Japan. This firm will design the building.

“It is proof that commercialism is supreme in this country,” says Chumporn. “The governor is not interested in promoting modern Thai art. He has even accused the artists protesting against his plans as ‘jerk’ artists.”

However, Chumporn is determined to strike back in the only way he knows — through art. Hence the planned exhibition to be held in one of the city’s smaller private galleries. “It is one of many activities we have in mind to challenge the governor’s plan,” adds Chumporn, who is also the secretary general of a Thai artists’ network.

This follows the initial show of strength in November by Chumporn’s group, the Artists’ Network for the Bangkok Metropolitan Contemporary Art Centre. It brought out hundreds of people to the streets to march with a four-kilometre-long banner to protest the governor’s new plans. The banner was made up of some 4,000 paintings.

The country’s artists, in fact, are not the only ones leading this charge against the philistine tastes of city hall. Political figures like Kraisak Choonhavan, chairman of the Thai Senate’s committee on foreign affairs, have come out in support of the protesting artists.

“Neither the city nor central government has a policy on art and culture. They cannot see the aesthetic and intellectual gains from modern art,” says Kraisak. “There is a poverty of understanding art.”

Likewise, Thailand’s leading social critic, Sulak Sivaraksa, is perturbed at the insensitivity toward culture that the new building plans have revealed. “The city has lost its soul. Bangkok will get uprooted further in this age of capitalism and consumerism,” he explains.

“We need a modern art centre to enable artists to exhibit work that reveals our identity — uniquely Thai, but contemporary and cosmopolitan,” Sulak stresses.

Indeed, meeting such a need was one reason Bhichit Rattakul, Bangkok’s former governor, approved the building of the contemporary art centre near Siam Square, a busy commercial area in the capital.

There were other reasons, too, like informing the world that this city of eight million people is interested in developing the space for modern art to thrive with public support.

This city has no such publicly-funded space to offer other than the national art gallery, which often displays traditional art and has been criticised for lacking the required facilities to exhibit the works of international artists.

On the other hand, neighbouring cities like Singapore, Manila, Hanoi and Ho Chin Minh City have publicly-funded modern art galleries.

“We cannot be a city known for shopping malls only,” says Banasopit Mekvichai, an architect who was a deputy governor of Bangkok during the Bhichit administration, which ended in 2000. “We have placed too much value on material things at the expense of aesthetics.”

The challenge during her years in city hall was to buck this trend, adds Banasopit. “We wanted to incorporate the spirit of modern art into the city. We wanted to offer space for our artists and also offer Thai children a new cultural experience, something different, an alternative to spending all their time in the shopping malls.”

The initial steps led to the approval of an award-winning design for the contemporary art centre. This plan, which had 10,000 square metres of exhibiting space, had incorporated both traditional and modern features of Thai architecture. Close to 300 million baht (about seven million U.S. dollars) was allocated in the budget for the building.

But a change of administration put paid to that plan.

“We took the plans very seriously from the beginning,” admits Chumporn. “We have to convince the governor that there is a growing community of support behind us.”

“The politicians have little idea about how much modern Thai art can achieve,” agrees Nitaya Ueareeworakul, a Thai artist currently exhibiting works of paintings, mixed media and installations at a small privately-owned gallery.

Over the last 50 years, a few Thai artists have gained recognition among art circles here and overseas for works that emphasise individual and contemporary concerns and offer social commentary in contrast to what prevailed before — serving the kingdom and religion.

According to Nitaya, artists’ creative efforts are often overlooked by the central and local authorities. What often gain favour, she says, are works of art stuck in the traditional mode, art that is “ornamental and about story-telling”.