The Bangkok Art Biennale is rejuvenated

Bangkok (Thailand). The 4th edition of the Bangkok Art Biennale (October 24, 2024-February 25, 2025), which brings together 76 artists from 39 countries in eleven locations, deepens its dialogue, initiated since its launch in 2018, between ancient and even ancient art and contemporary art. It thus emphasizes maternal and feminine representations of nature over the ages, like Gaia, the goddess of Greek mythology. The curatorial text also refers to the“Gaia hypothesis” by the English thinker and scientist James Lovelock (1919-2022), who postulated that the Earth would be a “superorganism”.

At BACC (Bangkok Art and Culture Centre), the visitor is welcomed by Golden Girl (2024), curved and mobile figure more than 5 meters high. Suspended in the heart of the building’s atrium, the work of Korean Choi Jeong Hwa (born 1961) recalls the voluptuous forms of the Venus of Willendorf, transmuted into a monumental and aerial version of the goddess of fertility from the Upper Paleolithic.

From nature to the body

Painted in bright red, the adjoining galleries are distinguished by the presence of sculptures by Louise Bourgeois (1911-2010), the result of the biennial’s collaboration with the Easton Foundation (New York), which has managed the artist’s work since his disappearance. Janus in Leather Jacket (1968) is suspended near a yoni stone from the 15th century, stylized female genital organ symbolizing feminine energy in the Hindu tradition, and two lingaphallic representations of the god Shiva often associated with yoni. This dialogue with historical pieces, from the public collections of Thai national museums, contextualizes the question of gender and its ambiguity in Bourgeois’ work. Bronze sculptures Women (1960) and Nature Study (1984) presented in the following gallery, as well as eyes (1995), exhibited in one of the gardens of the Wat Pho temple, completes these original juxtapositions.

Included for the first time in the eleven sites of the Biennale, the National Museum of Bangkok exhibits another major figure of the 20th century: Joseph Beuys (1921-1986). The German artist’s deep interest in non-Western civilizations and Eurasia is thus revived thanks to the joint presentation, alongside his works, of antiquity objects from Southeast Asia. A comparable dialogue is established for several contemporary artists, including the Thai Dusadee Huntrakul (born in 1978), who were able to draw on the museum’s antique collections.

At the Queen Sirikit National Convention Centre, the approach is more contemporary, including Like mother, like son (2008, [voir illustration]), monumental installation by Adel Abdessemed constructed from airplane wrecks. On the same site, Walk on Clouds (2019), video by Abraham Poincheval, and at the BACC, Very tired (2013), video by Camille Henrot who received the Silver Lion at the 55th Venice Biennale in 2013, complete this French presence.

At the heart of the curatorial system of the Biennale since its creation, performance finds its place at the BACC, but on a reduced scale. That of Aleksandar Timotic, entitled Are you hungry? (2023) is out of the ordinary: visitors can join him around a table to peel potatoes and listen to him when he interrupts his task to sing in his powerful countertenor voice. The performances of Dante Buu, Amanda Coogan and Moe Satt also stand out for their originality.

At the National Gallery in Bangkok, the Biennale presents a complementary section on gender fluidity and gender equality, with works by George K., Guerreiro do Divino Amor, Chitra Ganesh and Agnes Arellano, among others. In this regard, “Gaïa” also corresponds phonetically to the Thai word kayaderived from Sanskrit and meaning “body”. This homophony reinforces the vernacular and organic dimension of the biennial, echoing the regenerative force of nature and unifying force of culture.