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A Proposal for Art Project Bangkok , March 2005 Bangkok has gone through so many changes during the past decade through globalisation and capitalisation and the changes even more so significant as Bangkok is now on the brink of reorganising the space of the entire city. The organisation of space has become a significant mean for the government to reorganise the society such as the attempt to use the zoning system to organise the economics and social structure of Bangkok and the attempt to move away the long-established housing and slums out of the center to increase the economical space and governmental buildings, the construction of new underground, etc. Not only through the government policies but also through several factors such as the new development of tenchnology and means of transportation, the increase number of the foreigners or the free movements of labor forces between regions and neighboring countries, the increase number of homosexuality in public space, and etc. that brought about the changes in the organisation of space as well as the relationship between the space and its inhabitants. The old boundaries are no longer there and function in the same way as it used to be. We are now needed to redefine the boundaries of self/other, public/private, inside/outside, center/periphery, and so on that are now unstable regarding to these changes. Amidst the rapid changes of Bangkok landscapes, as it also happening elsewhere in the region, we are in urgent need to response and to realise how they might effects us as an individual as well as to realise the significant of the organisation of space that we have been subjected to for so long in our everyday existence. It is the intention of this project to set up an exploration of an alternative kind of geography, of mapping, of reading, of dealing with the weary subject of self versus other. The project is aided by the term lak-ka-pid-lak-ka-perd, literally means sometimes close-sometimes open, a kind of sexualised spatial term that often used to refer to Thai homosexuals in which it signifies the unsettling process to arrange themselves in any particular side of the binary. It also suggests a manner that characterise Thai people in dealing with subject matter that may provide the beginning point to embark on the quest for alternative approach. The alternative approach, which might work to the extent in helping building an alternative ground, an in-between space, we badly need today. It can also be views as an on-going open-ended process that tirelessly attempts to deconstruct the boundaries of binary opposition. The “Lak-ka-pid-lak-ka-perd: the Bangkok Invisible Landscapes” is an art project which illustrates and questions the transformation of the spaces in urban life. The exhibition will concentrate on the way in which the space and its relationship to its inhabitants has been re-imagined in the new invisible landscapes of bangkok through the changes in perception towards sexuality due to the increase visibility of homosexual and other social and techonological transformations.Objective The project aims to provide the understanding of the invisible landscapes that has now become the conditions of our everyday existence through the transformations of social, techonological development, and sexuality in Bangkok. Details of the Project 1. The art exhibition – by inviting 11 artists both Thai and foreigner to interpret and working on the term “lak-ka-pid-lak-ka-perd” in urban landscape of Bangkok to be showed in the exhibition hall and public spaces of Bangkok. The following artists are to be included in the exhibition.
2. The seminars – the seminars aim to provide the public with important information and thinking which will further the understanding of the space and its relationship with all the others as well as to use this project as a starting point to rethink arts as a production of knowledge for the public.
Lak-ka-pid-lak-ka-perd: the urban conditions: - “Cultural Underground” will focus on the urban landscape of Bangkok and its relation to various sub-cultures. - “Sexual Underground” will focus on the relationship of sexuality and space. How the understanding and function of some particular spaces that we have known have been changed and multiplied due to the increase visibility of diverse sexuality (such as park, 2 nd class theatre, etc.). - “Mapping Underground” will provide the information and further discussion on the new plan of the government such as the new underground and how it may concern the various groups of people in the society. - “The Technological landscape” will focus on the way in which the development of technology effect on daily life and the boundary between spaces such as public/private. (Notes: the seminar topics are subjected to change) 3. The internet archive and further participation – to provide the public with the information and knowledge that the exhibition and seminars have provided as well as use as a space for the public to explore further. It is also a share space by using the data that has been collected throughout the exhibitions as a starting point. Date/Time 11 th March – 15 th April 2005 Faculty of Communication Arts, Chulalongkorn University (Seminars) Exhibitions: 7 th Floor, Center for Academic Resource, Chulalongkorn University House Rama Theatre |