Skip to main content
Research
Publications
Projects
Articles
Events
Support
About
Contact
Search
Start of main content
Explore: Independent Art Festivals in Chiang Mai 1992-98
Vasan Sitthiket, The Thai Smile.
Publish date:
20 apr 2018
This article is part of
Exhibition Histories series
01/13
Work by Sarawoot Tongchampa, Wat Suan Dok as part of ‘Chiang Mai Social Installation: Second Art Festival’. The installation lasted just one day before the pieces disappeared overnight, The Nation, 29 November 1993. Courtesy Uthit Atimana and Gridthiya Gaweewong
02/13
Part of the second CMSI Festival. Navin Rawanchaikul, There is No Voice, 1993, United States Information Service (USIS) library. Courtesy Uthit Atimana and Gridthiya Gaweewong
03/13
Part of the second CMSI Festival. Navin Rawanchaikul, There is No Voice, 1993, United States Information Service (USIS) library. Courtesy Uthit Atimana and Gridthiya Gaweewong
04/13
On the final day of the festival featured talks and performances at the Buddhasathan, also known as the Chiang Mai Religion Practice Centre, the artist Mit Jai Inn attached audience members together with a length of rope, in preparation for a ‘participatory walkabout’. He recalled, ‘Everyone who joined the tour was made to carry a large object and participants were bound together for the duration of the walk by a rope. We walked from the Buddhasathan to the night bazaar, a short distance away. There were about seventy to one hundred of us. We walked past a luxury hotel where a wedding celebration was taking place. We then walked past the red-light district and solicitous bar girls. We proceeded through the slum where many Cambodian refugees were trying to rebuild their lives, and then through the various neighbourhoods that make up Chiang Mai. We finally ended our walk at the municipal abattoir, where pigs and cows are slaughtered. We stayed on and observed the scene. It was a narrative of great suffering – from dancing and celebration to death.’ Courtesy Uthit Atimana and Gridthiya Gaweewong
05/13
Vasan Sitthiket, The Thai Smile.
06/13
Work by Ben Patterson in the Chiang Mai Social Installation: Fourth Art and Cultural Festival: Temples, Cemeteries, Private-Residencies, Public Buildings, Streets, Bridges, Walls, Rivers and Canals, Open Spaces’ held between Dec 1997 to Jan 1998. Rolf Hinterecker recalls: ‘He bought ten one-way cameras and then he asked ten rickshaw drivers to document their day driving and waiting in their job. After one day they all brought the cameras back and he developed the pictures and [hung] them in an installation on ropes in the open tent.’ Courtesy Uthit Atimana and Gridthiya Gaweewong
07/13
Beauty Contest, a performance by Liz Miller and friends. Courtesy Uthit Atimana and Gridthiya Gaweewong
08/13
Performances and happenings as part of the Week of Cooperative Suffering that took place between 1-7 January 1996. Courtesy Uthit Atimana and Gridthiya Gaweewong
09/13
Performance by Jian Jun Xi. Courtesy Uthit Atimana and Gridthiya Gaweewong
10/13
An installation as part of performances and happenings during the initial Week of Cooperative Suffering that took place at Tha Pae Gate over the first nights of 1995, in between the second and third editions of CMSI. Courtesy Uthit Atimana and Gridthiya Gaweewong
11/13
Kost Juntaratip, Where There is Love, a performance as part of the Week of Cooperative Suffering 1-7 January 1997. Courtesy Uthit Atimana and Gridthiya Gaweewong
12/13
A performance during the Week of Cooperative Suffering held between 1-7 January 1997. Courtesy Uthit Atimana and Gridthiya Gaweewong
13/13
Signs with information about the third ‘Chiang Mai Social Installation: Art and Cultural Festival’ were placed around the city. Courtesy Uthit Atimana and Gridthiya Gaweewong
Research
Publications
Projects
Articles
Events
Support
About
Contact
Search