New Years Eve if you have no plans and want to avoid an overpriced party!
December 21st, 2018
Come by for good music and good drinks. We’ll supply the hats!
All posts by cw
MaisMeno//Miguel Januário: More or Less
December 21st, 201814 December 2018 – 10 February 2019
Opening reception & Artist Talk/Presentation By Miguel Januário and Headache Stencil : Friday 14 December 2018, 7.30pm
The Embassy of Portugal in Thailand, the Portuguese Cultural Center in Bangkok in partnership with WTF Gallery are delighted to invite you to the solo show “More Or Less“ by MAISMENOS (Miguel Januário) at WTF Gallery. The opening reception will be held on Friday 14 December 2018, 7pm at WTF Gallery.
The concept of art “intervention” suggests breaking down the fixed and known into particles of the unknown from which a new public consciousness may emerge. Grass-roots interaction exploits the city as site and medium for critique. Art interventions in urban spaces are of many kinds, which collectively symbolize how many different ways there are of understanding, visualizing and materializing the issues of society. They are all intended as agents of change that operate or exist to subvert, resist and continually destabilize the tangible, fixed and known perceptions of public spaces.
In Thailand, art intervention is a relatively new phenomenon, often carried out clandestinely by shadowy collectives who respond provocatively and fleetingly with micro-actions to the systems and structures of control and knowledge, for example with the street stencil works of Black Panther and Watch using the faces of Thailand’s leaders to subject them to often comical critiques.
More or Less exhibition showcases MAISMENOS//MIGUEL Januário’s works to Thai audiences to show up remarkable parallels in the practices of Thai and Portuguese street artists and the obstacles they resist: constraint of freedom of media, nationalism, the over-exercise of authority and the fragility of democracy. The artist intends to showcase the manifestations of art intervention in urban spaces between the two countries.
±MaisMenos± is a project by Portuguese visual artist and graphic designer Miguel Januário (b. 1981) that began as an academic thesis in 2005 and later took on a life of its own. It offers a critical reflection rather than a model of political, social and economic organisation inherent to contemporary urban societies. Conducting a clinical dissection of reality that plays with the dualities intrinsic to the Western Ideological edifice, the project’s programmatic expression is reduced to the greatest possible simplicity and seemingly mutually exclusive opposites: more/less, positive/negative, black/white.
Under the ±MaisMenos± banner, Januário has been producing thought-provoking, cutting-edge work both indoors and outdoors in a variety of media – from video to sculptural installations, from painting to performance. Besides numerous illegal public art intervention in several countries, the project has also been showcased in solemn solo and group exhibitions in various institutional contexts, including at Vera Cortes Gallery (Lisbon, 2010), MACE-Museu de Arte Contemporanea de Elvas (Elvas, 2011,2014), Underdogs Gallery (Lisbon, 2013,2014,2015), Caixa Cultural (Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo, and Brasilia, 2014), Museu do Coa (Vila Nova de Foz Coa, 2015), Centro de Arte Contemporanea Graga Morais (Braganga, 2015), MUDE-Museu do Design e da Moda (Lisbon, 2016), MACRO-Museo d’Arte Contemporanea di Roma (Rome, 2016), and leading art festivals and events such as Walk & Talk Festival (Sao Miguel, Azores, 2011), Guimaraes European Capital of Culture (Guimaraes, 2012), La Tour Paris13 (Paris, 2013), Nuart Festival (Stavanger, 2014), and Forgotten Project (Rome, 2016). ±MaisMemos± has also been the subject of two TED talks, at TEDxLuanda (Luanda, 2014) and TEDxPorto (Porto, 2015), and other public lectures. The project is also the focus of Miguel Januário’s ongoing PhD research at the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Porto.
Visitor information
WTF Café & Gallery
7 Sukhumvit Soi 51, Wattana, Klongton-Nua, Bangkok 10110
www.wtfbangkok.com
BTS: Thonglor Opening times: Tuesday – Sunday, 4-10pm
Free Admission
Varsha Nair: Shifts
October 31st, 2018November 3 – December 2, 2018
Opening Reception 3 November 2018, 6pm
The contemporary landscape is constantly changing and being re-defined. As towns and cities become gentrified it increases displacement and heightens a sense of isolation in the population. As long as a nation can portray a happy and glittering image while glitches in its society remain concealed, on surface all seems to be in control.
In Shifts, Varsha Nair presents her own, and collaborative and curated works that include mixed media, multimedia, and a site-specific installation, spanning from 2000 until the present. Like layered palimpsests, the video projections, drawings and photographs address the illusive “/” space, the space in-between that bridges and separates, acting as a divider but simultaneously as a connecting point. Tracing flux, loss and uncertainty, the works presented here deconstruct, reconstruct and map different realities both tangible and abstract, private and communal.
Explored also is the bond between built spaces and memory of places that once were significant to people inhabiting them but now seem ghostly, covered up or completely erased and forgotten, becoming blind spots in contemporary society. Impermanence, ephemerality, and transience are evoked to tell stories, bringing places of the past into the present to remind and reclaim some of their previous integrity and keep them visible.
Varsha Nair was born in Kampala, Uganda, and studied at Faculty of Fine Arts, Maharaja Sayaji Rao University, Baroda, India. Inviting multidisciplinary collaborations, her work encompasses various approaches and genres including making, writing, and organising projects, including for Womanifesto in Thailand. Varsha has lived in Thailand since 1995 and exhibited internationally including at About Cafe/Studio, Chulalongkorn Art Centre, BACC, Khoj (New Delhi), Tate Modern (London), HKW (Berlin), Art in General (New York), Lodypop (Basel).
She is currently invited by Lucerne School of Art to mentor Masters students and set up the Masters Dialogue Program.
Exhibition venues:
>WTF Gallery
November 3 – December 2, 2018
Opening November 3rd, 6pm
7 Sukhumvit soi 51, 02 662 6246
>Bridge Art Space. November 10, 2018 – January 13, 2019 Opening November 10th, 6pm
Charoen Krung (near Soi Charoen Krung 51), 089 666 2051
www.varshanair.studio
http://monday2monday.tumblr.com/
www.ctrlp-artjournal.org
For more information and other inquiries, please contact Nim Niyomsin, nimniyomsin@gmail.com, 095 820 5995
Bombyx storytelling coming soon!
August 22nd, 2018For one night only, Bombyx will be revived and kicking with the rich and varied voices of Bangkok’s storytellers…
Stay tuned — dates and theme to be announced soon for 2019
Rainy season drink specials
August 22nd, 2018Sweet, sour, spice to fight the rainy season blues!
Todo El Mundo; tequila, mezcal, passion fruit juice, passion fruit soda, lime-salt-chili
NEW OLD CITY –The Permanent Temporary Mound by Shinya Akutagawa
August 22nd, 201824 August – 13 October 2018
Opening Reception 24 August 2018, 7pm
Shinya Akutagawa has created an elevator as a ‘non-place’ (‘Utopia’ in Greek language) with Trai Phum (Three Worlds in Thai language) as ‘Exceptional Places’ (out of modernity) as an interactive installation. His work raises the question—how can we see culture, from which perspective should the arts be shown regardless of the nationality?
The installation presents non-places (elevator, hyper-modernity or utopia) where the audience is expected to see exceptional places (the idea of Trai Phum) from the non-places.
Three Worlds of King Ruang (Trai Phum) written in 14th century is the first truly literary work by a Thai author. It is considered essential for considering the identity and culture of Thailand. While the conception of ‘world’ within the book doesn’t correspond to modern science, its philosophy will amaze contemporary thinkers. Similar to meditation practitioners who reach the stage of ‘all perception and non-perception’ or ‘nothingness,’ there is still a realm above and beyond this that cannot be described because those who reach Nibb?na do not return to tell us.
Modern cartography gave shape to Thailand since the 15th century, influencing not only geography but also Thai people’s identity as nation state. Yet this geography of modernity still could not swallow and digest the mysteries of ancient maps of Ayutthaya showing the mythical Golden mountain, Trai Phum.
The Elevator is one of the symbols of hyper-modernity located everywhere. In urban life, its function ‘must’ be perfect. As functionality is the ultimate requirement for the urban condition, there is no cultural aspect if an elevator is out of order or operates in a unique manner. However, if an audience is on a ‘symbolic’ elevator, it can be a device for rethinking contemporary society. Inside an elevator is a homogenized ‘non-place’ where one spends significant time regardless of social status. At the same time, on the elevator, passengers who must have their respective ‘culture’ stay with others temporarily, all of them deprived of their cultural identity.
Otherwise Inside by Samak Kosem
August 15th, 201819 July – 16 August 2018
Opening Reception 19 July 2018, 7pm
“Pondan under the Pondok’ is a photography series based on my anthropological field research trying to understand queerness in the Muslim society of Thailand’s Deep South, where LGBT issues are a very sensitive topic to discuss and gay people often cannot reveal their sexual identity. This series is mainly about the self and representation of being queer amidst Islamic fundamentalism. The photographs were taken during Samak’s field research in 2017.
As he grew up and studied in an Islamic school (pondok), Samak was often bullied as a ‘pondan’ (in Melayu) or ‘kratoey’ (in Thai), which are more or less derogatory terms for gay or transsexual people. Samak had a close friend called Walad who suffered the same everyday abuse but was much braver in expressing his gay identity, sometimes cross-dressing when we went to bars. Yet his parents were very devout Muslims, and as long as Walad obeyed them in certain things he was free to be he wanted. He prayed five times a day, he wore Arabic dress to the mosque, and then he changed into his going-out clothes with high-heeled boots and a leopard-print miniskirt.
People at school were forever telling them that because of their aberrations God would never accept their prayers. But they also came to their rooms for sex at night. This gave him the idea for a Muslim Prayer Book that took gay Muslims as the model for learning how to pray for other people to respect us as equals and leave the judging to God.
This also formed the basis for his field research in the Deep South Thailand in early 2017 to develop my Ph.D. proposal on homosexuality in Islam. To do that, he taught myself photography, making a first series that tried to understand young gay students, gradually winning their trust so they would allow me to capture their real selves.
Samak’s photography also focuses on the practice of many male Muslim students of “len pheuan”, a term signifying same-sex sexual activities among their peers that they do not perceive as gay. In this way they create a sense of “brotherhood” without ostensibly violating religious precepts. Young Muslim men in his view interpret religious practices on bodily principles to make them feel less guilty about their sexual desire. The photos reflect this ambiguous definition of male same-sex relationships in the paradigm of Islamic schooling.
This constructed “bromance” highlights the fluidity of sexuality and its diverse dynamics. This photograph employ a reflexive ethnographic approach, drawing on his own experience from when he was twelve years old to approach sensitive questions of Muslim homosexuality through the experiences of rebellion, atonement, hidden desire and losing the self in religious discourse and textual interpretation focused on concepts of the body and sexuality in the Qur’an and Islamic morality. The photos, therefore, aim to understand socio-cultural and sexual relations by opening a space for gay Muslim voices that have long been hidden and blanked out by Islamic fundamentalism in Thailand.
Samak Kosem
Born 1984, Bangkok, Thailand
Samak Kosem works in the field of visual anthropology and his recent research in the Deep South focuses on Muslim culture and and nonhuman subjects. He uses photography and art ethnography as a methodology to reflect aspects of his studies. Samak is interested in queer studies, focusing on homosexuality in Islam to understand the limits of gender perspective in the region. He holds a BS and MA in cultural anthropology from Chiang Mai University. Most of his work has been published in books and academic journals.
Queer Muslim will be Samak’s first solo photography exhibition. His other set or works are recently selected to participate in the first Bangkok Art Biennale 2018 in October 2018.
His latest interview (In Thai): https://prachatai.com/journal/2018/04/76449
Visitor information
WTF Café & Gallery
7 Sukhumvit Soi 51, Wattana, Klongton-Nua, Bangkok 10110
www.wtfbangkok.com
BTS: Thonglor Opening times: Tuesday – Sunday, 4-10pm
Free Admission
For further information please contact:
Somrak Sila, Christopher Wise
Tel: +66 (0)2 662 6246, +66 (0)89 926 5474, +66 (0)89 926 5159
Coal: The dirty business Cleansing through art and performance & Talks
June 14th, 20189 June – 7 July 2018
Opening reception & Talk: 9 June 2018, 19.00
ARTISTS:
Jittima Pholsawek
Sompong Tawee
Chitava Muninto
Satit Raksasri
Vichukorn Tangpaiboon
Wichai Juntavaro
Chumpon Apisuk
WTF Gallery in Partnership with Greenpeace South East Asia and co-ordinated by Community Art Project are delighted to invite you to a group exhibition “Coal: The dirty business, cleansing through art and performance” at WTF Gallery and Café on Friday 9 June 2018.
Programme:
1900-late: Opening reception
1930-2030: Talk & Discussion on “Coal: The Dirty Business”
Speakers:
>Akradej Chakjinda, Activist against Coal Fired Power Plant in Krabi
>Diao Thaleluek, Urak Rawai villager
>Chariya Senpong, Thailand Climate & Energy Campaigner, Greenpeace South East Asia
Moderator: Jittima Pholsawek, Artist, Community Art Project
2030-2300: Live performances by Jittima Pholsawek, Sompong Tawee, Chitava Muninto, Satit Raksasri, Vichukorn Tangpaiboon and Chumpon Apisuk
(All performances will be spontaneous and occur all over WTF cafe and gallery throughout the night without fixed programme)
The exhibition is co-ordinated by the Community Art Project after a group of seven artists and photographers who came together last year, uresearching materials and information in Krabi from locals and activists who oppose the construction of the coal-fired power plant projects in Krabi and Thepa by the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT).
Research has shown that the areas where EGAT intends to build the plant and the route of coal transport from Indonesia lie at the heart of the southern Andaman sea’s marine ecosystem. Affected areas cover the provinces of Ranong, Nakorn Srithammarat, Phang Nga, Krabi, Trang, Satun as well as most of the islands in the Andaman sea including Malaysia’s Langawi.
The marine ecosystem consists of the basic constituents of saltwater habitats like tidal flats, mangroves, sea grass, coral, and rock formations that provide food and shelter for one of the world’s highest concentrations of marine diversity for over 360 species of fish and sea life. The exhibition will focus on the lives of local villagers from Urak Lawoi who will feel the most negative impact of the coal-fired power plant on their economy and culture — not to mention the locals’ belief in the sanctity of the land which may be entirely destroyed.
The two coal-fired power plant projects in Thepa and Krabi have met with stiff resistance from locals and NGOs, who say it will threaten the environment and ruin their livelihood, which depends largely on fishing in the case of Thepa and on tourism in the case of Krabi. As a result, the Ministry of Energy has decided to put construction on hold for three years pending additional environmental and health impact assessment. However, despite this small victory, the local communities and NGOs feel this is merely an attempt to stall the inevitable as the j of the project still yield great political power. The artists therefore believe it is vital to continue raising awareness and keep the debate alive.
From the field research by the artists and their experiences in previous art community projects, they have concluded that the most important factor for success in battling the authorities is for locals to protect themselves from being exploited by politicians and capitalism by standing united. The local communities and their leaders must remain impregnable to external stakeholders and arm themselves with knowledge and understanding of the long-term impact.
Artwork in this exhibition includes video, installation, painting, photography, poetry, mixed media and live performance.
About the artists
Since the political turmoil against the government of Thaksin Shinawatra led to the 2006 coup, contemporary art in Thailand had seen a rise in politically charged work. After the 2014 coup, however, a number of art and cultural professionals have struggled with self-censorship, the junta ban on cultural activities and a climate of fear.
After the 2014 coup Thailand’s art scene changed its function dramatically due to self-censorship. Polarization in Thailand raised tensions within the art world as much as in any other social sectors. But that has also added a healthy debate and much-needed criticism in and of Thai art.
The exhibition is a project, co-ordinated by Community Art Project, involving seven Thai artists/activists. Some of them were pioneers in raising awareness of pressing political and social issues in Thailand. Group members became known for their radical work in various media and collaborations with other socially engaged artists. Using performance art, poetry, installation, mixed media, literature, VDO and photography, they were identified with the changes in society since the 1970s, when several of them formed associations including Asiatopia. Some of them took part in rallies and called for public monuments to the uprisings against dictatorship and brought social and political issues into the realm of art.
The social and advocacy project they have highlighted include environmental issues, the rights of sex workers, capitalism, cultural change, the impact of development and urbanisation on indigenous and minority groups, corruption and many other issues.
Visitor information
WTF Café & Gallery
7 Sukhumvit Soi 51, Wattana, Klongton-Nua, Bangkok 10110
www.wtfbangkok.com
BTS: Thonglor Opening times: Tuesday – Sunday, 4-10pm
Free Admission
For further information please contact:
Somrak Sila, Christopher Wise
Tel: +66 (0)2 662 6246, +66 (0)89 926 5474, +66 (0)89 926 5159
Email: somrak@wtfbangkok.com, cw@wtfbangkok.com
85-140 dB : Sound & Media Installation Exhibition
April 23rd, 201824 April – 22 May 2018
Opening Reception: Tuesday, 24 April 2018, 6 pm. onward
A Contemporary Sound & Media Installation Exhibition
About Imaginary Silence
[R]Ejecting Mantra – Chapter 2
Organized by Rai.D Collective
Supported by Goethe-Institut Thailand and WTF Gallery
Curator: Penwadee Nophaket Manont
Co-curator: Soifa Saenkhamkon and Supphakarn Wongkaew
Artist:
Albrecht Pischel
Arnont Nongyao
Paphonsak La-or
Pisitakun Kuntalang
Sompot Chidgasornpongse
In physics, the sound intensity level reaches 85 decibels (dB) or stronger can cause a permanent damage to auditory system. Though it may seem the quieter the sound, the longer you can listen to without causing any hazard; hearing duration is nevertheless one important factor contributing to such derogation. Hence, exposure to any common sounds for a long period of time can cause permanent hearing loss, for some common sounds may be louder than we realize.
85-140 dB art exhibition presents contemporary sound and media installation works about imaginary silence, to explore the concept of how vibration-induced energy travels through the transmission medium to the brain in terms of both physiology and psychology, and possibly be restricted or tackled from various forms of exposure, emission and communication in each individual or society. The works have been intentionally selected as a challenge upon the ability to break free from these fetters inhibit and impair our ability to access, perceive, understand, analyze, investigate, question, suspect, or even differentiate between reality and illusion around us.
The work by Albrecht Pischel brings the audience to a state of delusion between hearing and visual perception. It also takes us to interrogate upon the outcome of surveillance system operation, which creates restriction in everyday life that visualization alone cannot properly represent.
Arnont Nongyao deliberately presents a space of variation occurred through time via his experiments with intervention in the quality of audio transmission. Such disturbance results in new dimension of hearing. But each receiver can perceive the details of sound wave and frequency with different sense.
While the painting of Paphonsak La-or implies between hearing limitation and result of voicing the taboo, through the overlap between past and present as well as interaction of people living in different place and status. But, they try to utter something conjointly on the virtual world.
The work by Pisitakun Kuntalang takes us across the trap of our complicated and fatigued perception of reality into the virtual world he’s experienced, to query the sense of existence, exiting and fleeing strategy from a society full of suppression. Discovering space within the senses may help us move on.
The interesting thing about the work by Sompot Chidgasornpongse is the familiar image we’ve seen everyday for a long time. The music Gymnopédies No.1 the artist uses in the work also has repeated melodies, seeming to deliberately create familiarity upon human senses and give rise to some value.
** 85-140 dB is part of a research and archive based exhibition project [R]Ejecting Mantra. **
Miti Ruangkritya (+ Dhyan Ho): Two men look out through the same bars: one sees the mud, and one the stars
March 13th, 201817 March – 8 April 2018
The opening reception Saturday 17 March 2018, 6 pm
Two men look out through the same bars : one sees the mud, and one the stars is our 6/6 show with Miti Ruangkritya (+ Dhyan Ho). The opening reception is on Saturday 17 February 2018, 6 pm.
Miti Ruangkritya the one of our 6 artists selected for the exposed : up-and-coming artists project of the Art Centre, Silpakorn University. In this exhibition, he invited an emarging artist – Dhyan Ho to showcase together. Exposed : up-and-coming artists project aim at supporting young emerging artists whose works show interesting perspective towards social issues.
(Please follow up the exhibitions by all 6 artists at FB : Art Centre Silpakorn University)
Visitor informationWTF Café & Gallery
7 Sukhumvit Soi 51, Wattana, Klongton-Nua, Bangkok 10110
www.wtfbangkok.com
BTS: Thonglor Opening times: Tuesday – Sunday, 4-10pm
Free Admission
For further information please contact:
Somrak Sila, Christopher Wise
Tel: +66 (0)2 662 6246, +66 (0)89 926 5474, +66 (0)89 926 5159
Email: somrak@wtfbangkok.com, cw@wtfbangkok.com