“Thailand is no stranger to biennials. With the state-funded Thailand Biennale currently running, and the privately endowed Bangkok Art Biennale set for the end of this year, the country is quickly orbiting the biennial cosmos, radiating both local and international impact.”
“When we arrived at the former Nongpho Community Hospital, the first stop on our biennial route, the moon was already hanging high above the champak tree in the courtyard. We were joined by jiandyin (Jiradej and Pornpilai Meemalai), the artist couple and founders of the collaborative, who generously assumed the role of our guides. Along with other members of Baan Noorg, jiandyin had transformed this abandoned hospital into a pop-up museum centering the diasporic history of their Tai-Yuan community, who settled into Nongpho more than two hundred years ago, with archival texts and images printed on tarpaulins that covered three walls of the museum’s Chandelier Hall.”
“After exploring the pavilions and chatting with jiandyin about how Sai-Fon had grown to be a community gathering spot, we all returned to their house, had pizza and Singha beer under the giant trees in the garden, discussed a litany of topics from art infrastructures in Southeast Asia to the challenges of mutual understanding and cross-cultural coexistence, and cheered to the glowing lune.”
“The next morning, after a breakfast of milk coffee and yogurt made from the local dairy farms, jiandyin brought us to their community-run workshop and residency space, where we bought soap made from cow’s milk—an original recipe developed by OAD, a Thai artists and designers group, in collaboration with Baan Noorg. For the last leg, we drove around the small alleys of Nongpho to see its coruscating murals, part of the biennial’s effort to embrace the community’s cultural identity through accessible art.”
“Some biennials require days to finish. Others trade length and grandeur for modest immersion, proving equally impactful despite their brevity.”
Read the full review at Artforum.
