2 contemporary arts festivals in Thailand aim to draw cultural tourists to Bangkok
- The Bangkok Art Biennale will feature artists including Antony Gormley, Marina Abramovic and Robert Mapplethorpe
- Meanwhile, the Ghost 2565 art festival will see Hong Kong chef Sam Lui, Instagram’s ‘wannabe Wokstar’, run a unique pop-up kitchen
At the heart of Ghost 2565, an upcoming art festival in Bangkok, the attraction is nothing as conventional as a drawing, painting or sculpture.
Instead, there will be a pop-up kitchen called Wendy’s Wok World. It will be run by in-demand Hong Kong chef Sam Lui, better known by her alter-ego Wendy the “wannabe Wokstar”, an Instagram sensation who is a champion of traditional Chinese wok cooking.
This performance-art-meets-restaurant event is just one of dozens of experimental cultural projects on the horizon in the Thai capital, where Ghost 2565 and the larger Bangkok Art Biennale (BAB) are both opening in October.
“Ghost 2565”, which refers to the current year according to the Buddhist calendar, will run from October 12 to November 13. The triennial series was founded four years ago by artist Korakrit Arunanondchai and gallerist Akapol “Op” Sudasna to celebrate the under-represented art forms of video and performance art, with this year’s edition originally scheduled for 2021, but delayed due to pandemic travel restrictions.
“I think Covid made me think more urgently about what it means to come together,” says Christina Li, Ghost’s curator this year. “If you watch a performance or watch a video installation, usually you’re with other people. There is an excitement in being with your community.”