Bangkok (Thailand). Open to the public since December 21, 2025, the new “Dib Bangkok” museum presents more than 80 works by around forty artists from the collection of Petch Osathanugrah (1960-2023). The sudden disappearance of this entrepreneur and major figure on the Thai cultural scene did not hinder the success of his museum project, now carried out by his son, Purat Osathanugrah, at the head of the family economic empire.
The contribution of Kulapat Yantrasast, founder of the WHY agency and member of the museum’s advisory board, proved essential. The architect transformed the original site, a former industrial warehouse, by structuring the whole thing around an interior courtyard, like a cloister. Embellished with bodies of water and a beveled conical “chapel” covered in ceramic, the place favors a mineral aesthetic in its colors and materials. This “introverted” and geometric architecture creates a break as clear as its lines with the urban bustle that surrounds it.
This spiritual imprint continues in the inaugural exhibition, “(In)visible Presence”, designed by the artist Ariana Chaivaranon associated with Miwako Tezuka, director of the museum. Drawing inspiration from the Buddhist concept of sunyatawhich can be translated as “empty”, the curators have favored works in dialogue with sacred heritage, both tangible and intangible, offering the visitor an experience that is both artistic and introspective.
To the sound of the gong
The route opens with Constellations (2015-2025) by Marco Fusinato, an installation consisting of a baseball bat chained to a long white wall built diagonally in the first gallery. The visitor is invited to strike the wall, like a gong in a temple. The telluric sound thus produced propagates powerfully throughout the museum, amplified by a speaker system hidden in the wall itself.
In the following gallery, Pleasure Dome (2013), by Jean-Luc Moulène, resembles an architectural ruin, evoking the dome of a religious building constructed of miniature bricks. Suspended, the structure allows the viewer to stand under the dome, isolating their field of vision, their head as if cloistered. In the same space, Untitled Threshold (2019), directed by Hugh Hayden, appears as a narrow wooden porch of Gothic style, reminiscent of security porticos; the work refers to waves of violence targeting places of worship.
The upper floor displays a more contemplative and poetic display, made possible by galleries with low ceilings and subdued lighting. Dreamlikeness permeates all of the works, from the metal bed frame decorated with mechanical butterflies by Rebecca Horn to the textile sculpture made up of cushions by Louise Bourgeois, including the light installation by Cerith Wyn Evans evoking the incandescence of candles. A dreamlike quality sometimes reinforced by sensory correspondences, as in Pae White’s installation, between candlestick and censer, strewn with rose petals.
Thai artists are in the same vein. Emerald (2007), a video installation by Apichatpong Weerasethakul, shows an empty room progressively saturated with pale and volatile elements, revealing ghostly faces intermittently on the beds. The Unheard Voice (1995), by Somboon Hormtientong, composed of fourteen columns recovered after the demolition of a temple in the province, is presented in a room designed to its size. The work thus evokes a fiery chapel, where the pillars rest horizontally under the diffuse glow of a constellation of small lamps. A ceremony involving Buddhist monks was also organized there on the morning of Dib’s inauguration.
Aesthetics of impermanence
The top floor is distinguished by two galleries entirely dedicated to Montien Boonma (1953-2000), considered one of the fathers of conceptual art in Thailand. We discover several major works there, including Arokayasala: Temple of the Mind (1996), an arched and olfactory structure directly referring to the hospices of the Khmer Empire. Deeply affected by illness throughout his life, the artist made meditation on the body and mind the common thread of his work. Like Hormtientong, Boonma powerfully embodies an aesthetic of impermanence, inherited from Buddhism.
Works are also presented outdoors. On the terrace are Breast Stupa Topiary (2013), by Pinaree Sanpitak, are openwork metal structures evoking Buddhist stupas with breast shapes, as well as Straight Up (2025) by James Turrell, a gazebo dedicated to sunlight, strangely reminiscent of a minbar with its steep staircase and right-angled triangular profile. In the center of the interior courtyard, Alicja Kwade’s recognizable stone spheres (see ill.) underline this cosmic dimension with a playful touch, like a game of marbles on a monumental scale.
