Bangkok Art Biennale 2020 Reveals Theme, Curators, and First Artist List

The Bangkok Art Biennale (BAB) will return in October under the theme “Escape Routes,” the Bangkok Art Biennale Foundation announced on January 14. 

The festival’s chief executive and artistic director Apinan Poshyananda, who also led the inaugural edition, explained in the press release that BAB 2020 will focus on the ways that “artists create ‘escape routes’ to make us aware of the paths of sufficiency, sustainability and inclusivity” amid contemporary crises such as environmental destruction and sociopolitical unrest. The festival will “offer art practice as mind escapism where meditation, contemplation, ritualism, healing and performance become the essence of hope and optimism.” 

The members of the 2020 curatorial team include Sun Wenjie, head of exhibitions at the Red Brick Art Museum, Beijing; Dow Wasiksiri, president of the Royal Photographic Society of Thailand; Wutigorn Kongka, assistant professor at the fine arts department of King Mongkut’s Institute of Technology Ladkrabang in Bangkok; and Ong Puay Khim, former deputy director of curatorial programs at NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore. The team will be supported by international advisors including performance artist Marina Abramović; Fumio Nanjo, the former director of Tokyo’s Mori Art Museum; Alexandra Munroe, senior curator at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; and art historian David Elliott.

The second edition will be staged at various temples within the city, as well as other venues including BAB Box @ One Bangkok, the Bangkok Art and Culture Centre, Museum Siam, and Lhong 1919.

BAB2020 is scheduled to run from October 10, 2020, to February 21, 2021. The first batch of participating artists is as follows:

Thanet Aowsinsiri (Thailand)

Baatarzorig Batjargal (Mongolia)

Leandro Erlich (Argentina)

Julia Fullerton-Batten (Germany)

Ho Rui An (Singapore)

Anish Kapoor (United Kingdom)

Yuree Kensaku (Thailand)

Lu Yang (China)

Nipan Oranniwesna (Thailand)

Ana Prvački (Serbia)

Dinh Q. Lê (Vietnam)

Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook (Thailand)

Melati Suryodarmo (Indonesia)

Rirkrit Tiravanija (Thailand)

Bill Viola (United States)

Zhang Kechun (China)

Pamela Wong is ArtAsiaPacific’s assistant editor. 

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