This month at VS Gallery in Bangkok, Apiwat Apimukmongkon is staging a completely new exhibition every day, with each one lasting just a single day. The project is titled Everyday I Solo, and today’s incarnation is Paper Monument, marking the anniversary of the 14th October 1973 protest that led to the collapse of a military government.
For Paper Monument, Apitwat wrote the names of seventy protesters who died in 1973, each on a different sheet of paper. He then scrunched up each sheet, and placed it on the gallery floor. The medium of paper is a deliberate contrast to more traditional stone momuments, as the fragility of paper highlights the precarious nature of Thai democracy and society’s fading memory of the victims.
The daily exhibition for 18th October will be Thainism (ไทยนิยม), including a work inspired by Mauricio Cattelan’s infamous work Comedian. (Cattelan taped a real banana to a gallery wall, provoking a debate about the limits of conceptual art.)
Thainism is one of a handful of new ‘isms’ created by Thai artists. Pan Pan Narkprasert’s 2011 Gagasmicism exhibition was inspired by Lady Gaga. Noshpash Chaturongkagul’s exhibition Roboticlism From Unconscious Mind was held in 2016. Three young artists showed their work at the Neo Thaiism group exhibition in 2020. Earlier this year, Kant Kantawat held an exhibition showcasing his Cu(te)bism paintings.
Thainism is one of a handful of new ‘isms’ created by Thai artists. Pan Pan Narkprasert’s 2011 Gagasmicism exhibition was inspired by Lady Gaga. Noshpash Chaturongkagul’s exhibition Roboticlism From Unconscious Mind was held in 2016. Three young artists showed their work at the Neo Thaiism group exhibition in 2020. Earlier this year, Kant Kantawat held an exhibition showcasing his Cu(te)bism paintings.
