Page 58 - La Biennale di Venezia issue of World of Art Magazine

LA BIENNALE DI VENEZIA
58TH INTERNATIONAL ART EXHIBITION

THAIL AND
The Revolving World

SOMSAK CHOWTADAPONG: LOVE Commissioner: Vimolluck Chuchat, Office of Contemporary Art and Culture, Ministry of Culture, Thailand.
STORY 1767, 2019 ACRYLIC ON Curator: Tawatchai Somkong.
CANVAS, LIGHT BOX 100×100×10 CM Exhibitors: Somsak Chowtadapong, Panya Vijinthanasarn, Krit Ngamsom.
©SOMSAK CHOWTADAPONG Venue: In Paradiso 1260, Castello
COURTESY SOMSAK CHOWTADAPONG

Stories, truth and history are inventions related to reality. They
are inseparable and interconnected. This art exhibition presents
stories, truth and history related to the Kingdom of Thailand, on the
interpretation of the three aforementioned creations. At its base are
the social and cultural contexts, national discourse and dynamics of
the relationship between Thailand and other countries.
Panya Vijinthanasarn installs a small room in the exhibition area. On
the walls are Thai traditional paintings, duplicated from the murals
of the Scripture Hall in Wat Bang Khae Yai, Samut Songkhram.
The murals depict stories from the life of Buddha. It is the space
of meditation, created from Buddhist stories and the social and
political context of the contemporary.
Somsak Chowtadapong presents stories passed on through
generations in Thai society. ‘Mae Nak Phra Khanong’ is a tragedy
widely believed to be true, and happened in the reign of King Rama
III. The story is reinterpreted and presented in an abstract painting
placed in a light box. Chowtadapong reinterprets stories and history
with an artistic perspective; and through tragedies that occurred at
different time, and to different group of people who suffer the loss.
However, they are connected by the truth of life. (excerpt)

TURKEY

We, Elsewhere
INCI EVINER, Commissioner: IKSV.
SKETCH FROM WE, Curator: Zeynep Öz.
ELSEWHERE, 2019. Exhibitor: Inci Eviner.
Venue: Arsenale

We, Elsewhere is created as a site-specific installation for
the Pavilion of Turkey at the 58th International Art Exhibition
- La Biennale di Venezia and makes use of elements such
as reconfigured objects as well as drawings, video, sound,
and performance. It is an investigation into the spaces that
we create, and are created for us as a result of collective
displacement. The exhibition ruminates on how subjects who
find themselves in these spaces react and interact with one
another and with their memories. Various elements of sound,
reconfigured objects and characters crafted by Eviner evoke the
sense of a search for the missing, the erased and that which is
elsewhere. A certain aggression and abruptness comes out in
the characters’ everyday behavior informing their identities in
transition. The space itself, in which visitors are invited to walk
along the ramps, courtyards and edges, displays permeability,
allowing views through cuts and cracks along the walls. The
paths punctuated by the objects suggest the way in which
memory eases conflicts. Together, the characters, the space
and the paths tell a story akin to Hannah Arendt’s narrative of
struggles in We Refugees. (excerpt)

58 WORLD of ART