My artwork ‘Great Soul’ will be on display as part of the Field Trip Project Asia: Thailand exhibitions and activities at Bangkok Art and Culture Centre this April and May 2019.

Japanese Elementary School backpacks from relief effort turned into artworks by Thai and International artists (Bangkok – April 19th 2019)

Tentacles in collaboration with Bangkok Arts and Culture Centre (BACC) will open a showcase exhibition, Field Trip Project Asia – Thailand on April 30th, 2019, featuring 80 ‘backpack’ artworks by Thai artists; Lee Anantawat, Ruangsak Anuwatwimon, Chumpon Apisuk, Eakchayong Pornkajornkijkul, Sareena Sattapon, Chulayarnnon Siriphol, Wilawan Wiangthong, Yingyod Yenarkarn, alongside with many International artists.

This project was subtitled as “Mid Exhibition Reception” will showcase some performance art presentations by Thai artists and remarks by some key personals to celebrate Thai artists’ involvements in both local and global concerns, and also to remind us that this project will continue its trip across Asian countries in order to bring as many social awareness by using arts. The transformed Japanese elementary school backpacks, originally donated as relief supplies of the Great East Japan Earth Quake in 2011 became surplus and never used as intended, thus the will of support was disconnected. We have recycled them to continue connecting the original thoughts of support. The project has started in 2012 in Onagawa, Japan where is one of the most devastated areas of the Great East Japan Earth Quake and traveled to 20 destinations in Japan, and crossed the Pacific in 2013 to Canada.

Field Trip Project Asia, formed in 2014 by Asian and Asia based or related artists, has been traveling in Asia up to the present date. The main characteristic is that its programs at each destination have been designed and customised by local co-curators to meet specific local contexts and interests. Destinations in Asia include; Singapore’s National Institute of Education (NIE) Art Gallery, Philippines’ UP Vargas Museum in Manila and Baguio and Leyte both affected by natural disasters, Indonesia’s Aceh Tsunami Museum in Banda Aceh and Ruangrupa in Jakarta, Hong Kong’s Oil Street Art Space, and participated in the inaugural Kuala Lumpur Biennale at Malaysia’s National Art Gallery. After the BACC, the project is scheduled to travel to Myanmar’s the Japan Foundation, Yangon. Co-curated by Tentacles, Thai artists with their original artwork will join in the middle of the exhibition period with their specific local contexts.

Great Soul (2014) is a travelling sculpture created within a randoseru (a traditional Japanese children's backpack). It has travelled to exhibitions in Hong Kong, Manila, Aceh, Jakarta, Singapore and Tokyo. As part of the travelling process, it is worn by local individuals who journey with it to its next exhibited location.

The piece responds to the trauma of environmental and social disaster in the areas affected by the 2011 earthquake in Japan. The artwork is inspired by Japanese folk tales, and the art of Kintsugi (金継ぎ, きんつぎ, "golden joinery"), also known as Kintsukuroi (金繕い, きんつくろい, "golden repair"). This is the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery with lacquer dusted or mixed with powdered gold, silver, or platinum. As a philosophy, it treats breakage and repair as part of the history of an object, rather than something to disguise.

Find about more about the artwork here

Exhibitions and activities at Bangkok Art and Culture Centre: Tuesday, 9th April – Sunday, 5th May

Mid Exhibition Reception: with remarks and performance art presentations by Chulayarnnon Siriphol and Wilawang Wiangthong : Tuesday, 30th April 2019 18.00 – 20.00

Public Discussion: “Thailand Public and Cultural Policy in the Age of Artificial Intelligence”: Tuesday, 30th April 2019 16.45 – 17.45 

Click here for moreInformation about the exhibition

Field Trip Project is a mobile/ participatory/ interactive art exhibition installed within Japanese elementary school backpacks. Traveling to various locations, it connects people and bridges communities. Remote from the white cubes of art galleries and museums, literally everywhere is its venue; from an empty field in the disaster-affected areas to shopping streets and residential neighbourhoods. Every interaction with the project becomes a memory towards the future.

Click here if you would like to get involved.

Field Trip Project Asia – Thailand is made possible with the support from the Japan Foundation, Bangkok and the BACC, and Co-curated by Tentacles and Daisuke Takeya