Sitting at the Air Asia Shop near Kosan Road. “Can we extend our luggage to India, from 15 kg to 20 kg? How mutch does it cost?” Depending on this, we can start to design the next BANYAN TREE exhibition at BHU in Varanasi, India, 26 February – 4 March 2011. An asian looking guy is druming with his fingertips on the desk. “Please, stop it. I have my own drum maschne in my head…” i say. “Oh, sorry, i am still jetlagged, coming from the US yesterday.”
View into the exhibition PATTERN & SIGNS
The exhibition project “Pattern & Signs – A language Inbetween” was a big success, an artists exhibition for artists, as many people say. But again, it was very difficult and self eaching, to get everything done in the right way and right in time. The Chualongkorn University is conservative space for the arts, normally they show landscape painting from the elder generations. But, mayb this aesthetical conflict is a special quality of our show. In Bangkok, every day, new galleries come up with new styles and ideas, and the “official” and “classic” artspaces turn into “limboland”. I think, it would be better, not to give up these spaces…
New artcenter "d Kunst" in Ratchaburi
We take the bus to Ratchaburi, 80 km southwest of Bangkok. Wasinburee Supanichvoraparch, director of the Ceramics Manufakture Tao Hong Tai, and self artists, opens his new Artcenter “d Kunst”, a gallery and Arist recidency for ceramic Artists. A great evening! It is chinese new year, a temple party at the old Wat, celebrations on the streets along the river, with dragon dances, fire works. And we meet many old artist friends. Chalit, Sakarin, Ge and Gin, and Buree, of cause. He studied ceramics art at GH Kassel in Germany, speaks very good german, and it is allway a pleasure to meet him. His life work is the modernisation of the ceramics factory, he took over from his parents. They produce all kinds of traditional pottery, even for the King of Thailand, but they start more and more to develope products in an artistic direction. The new Artcenter, directly oppesite of the Ratchaburi Town Museum is a big step in this direction. Buree has a vision: beside the old cultural centers Bangkok and Chiang Mai, it is time to start new cultural centers. Ratchaburi with its old traditions in ceramics would be a perfect place for that. The Silpakorn University of Bangkok has a campus in Nakon Pathom, only 20 km north of Ratchaburi, a second place in the region.
