All the art in Asean

Next month's Asean Arts Festival at the Bangkok Art and Culture Centre should certainly whet Thai interest in getting to know our neighbours better. Once the Asean Economic Community is established in just over a year, we should have a solid perception of what the rest of Southeast Asia has to offer, culturally as well as financially.
Going by the sights and sounds of the Arts Festival, the region churns with rousing music – an Arab-Malaysian rhythm here, turntable remixes of classical Balinese airs there – and much outstanding visual work on screen, on canvas and on the printed page.
As for homegrown stuff, wait until you see the photograph of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra facing down opposition leader Abhisit Vejjajiva.
The multimillion-baht festival continues a seven-month series of events at the centre designed to show us what we have in common with – and how we’re different from – the people of the other nine Southeast Asian nations. Japanese and Chinese culture, so influential in the region, has its role in the exhibition too.
In terms of visual art, there are nearly 50 works by 40-odd celebrated artists who are known beyond Southeast Asia. Curators Iola Lenzi, Agung Hujatnikajennong and Vipash Purichanont have called the show “Concept Context Contestation”, the last word a recent coinage borrowed from European Union squabbling. In struggling to reach consensus, Asean members “contestate” as well, of course, and Vipash says compromise was needed when he and his colleagues were choosing artworks, seeking to represent the typical conceptual approaches and issues addressed in the region.
“It’s been an interesting collaboration so far,” Vipash says, noting that the curators have in common only a love of Southeast Asian contemporary art. “The fact that we’ve been engaging in a conversation with different generations of artists makes this collaboration unusual. We overlap geographically, but our contributions are variable due to our knowledge and networks, which make the exchange fruitful.”
Singaporean Amanda Heng will be performing her interactive piece “Let’s chat” at the festival’s opening, and Indonesia’s FX Harsono has brought his installation assailing the Suharto regime of the 1970s.
There will be photographs by Malaysian Simrym Gill that comment on post-colonial times. Controversial Thai artist Vasan Sittihiket will show works from the 1990s, and his compatriot Manit Sriwanichapoom will have new photos reflecting the current political upheaval.
Another Singaporean, Lee Wen, will set up “Ping-Pong”, in which he plays against anyone who’s willing. Tintin Wulia of Indonesia and Thailand’s Orawan Arunrak have put together a mapping game.
“For my part,” says Vipash, “I work mostly with new commissions from emerging Thai, Vietnamese and Filipino artists. Among the Thais I’ve attempted to indicate a certain shift in conceptual framework they’re undergoing. I argue that they tend to focus on critiquing the socio-political structure rather than focusing on any individuals or social groups, like the previous generation did.
“Their work might generate a different set of questions. For example, Paphonsak La-or’s installation explores the connection between law and everyday life. Prapat Jiwarangsan questions the social hierarchy in language and memory. Pisitakun Kuntalang antagonises a grand historical narrative by using Internet-based images. And Tulapop Saenjaroen is organising a performance that underlines gossiping as a form of social domination.
“The Vietnamese artists I work with tend to tackle these issues from a different direction. They’re more concerned about social and environmental problem brought on by hyper-consumerism.”
“Asean Nights: Asean Beyond Frontier” is the segment of the festival with the music and movies.
The Bangkok Muslim band Baby Arabia will play their unique blend of Arab-Malaysian folk rock while the Paradise Bangkok Molum International Band and Thai DJ Maft Dai will mosh up tunes from across Southeast Asia.
Outdoor film screenings will feature the Indonesian childhood drama “The Rainbow Troops”, Laos’ first horror film “Chanthaly”, the documentary “Golden Slumbers” on Cambodia’s golden age of cinema, the Thai teenage drama “Tang Wong” and the hit ghost comedy “Pee Mak Phra Khanong”.
The multimedia art will be presented in “Media/Art Kitchen: Reality Distortion Field”, organised by Hattori Hiroyuki, Okamura Keiko and Aida Daiya from Japan and Thais Pichaya Suphavanij and Nikan Wasinondh.
Co-hosted by the Japan Foundation, the show commemorates 40 years of friendship with Asean and has more than 20 artists and art collectives demonstrating how new technology transforms sound and art.
They were told to give visitors a chance to spontaneously produce their own content, the better to understand media and art and how they can be utilised to build a better society. A performance event called “Physical 3.0” will incorporate the surrounding environment. Japanese and Thai artists will together present “New Media/New Aesthetics”. And the urban wilds come into play in “Hacktivism”.
Led by veteran Thai media artist Kamol Phaosavasdi, more than 30 artists, DJs, filmmakers and dancers from across the region will present interactive projects throughout the art centre.

MEDIA MASSAGE
The Asean Arts Festival opens on December 12 at the Bangkok Art and Culture Centre.
Among the events is “Asean Nights: Asean Beyond Frontier”, an outdoor music-and-film series. Here’s the schedule:

December 13
5pm: Music – Baby Arabia
6.30pm: Film – “The Rainbow Troops” (Indonesia)

December 14
5pm: Music – The Paradise Bangkok Molum International Band
6.30pm: Films – “Chanthaly” (Laos) and “Pee Mak Phra Khanong” (Thailand)

December 15
5pm: Music – DJ Maft Dai
6.30pm: Films – “Golden Slumbers” (Cambodia) and “Tang Wong” (Thailand)

 “Concept Context Contestation: Art and the Collective in Southeast Asia” opens on December 12 at 6.30pm and runs until March 2 on the BACC’s eighth floor.
“Media/Art Kitchen: Reality Distortion Field (Bangkok Version)!” runs from December 20 to February 16 on the third through seventh floors.