The exhibition, organized by Ministry of Culture and Bangkok University Creative Center (BUCC), aims to emphasize on cultural exchanges between Japan & Thailand via the works of Thai artists and designers which somehow are related to Japanese cultureThe difficulty of this exhibition is to display both art and design items in the gallery space which is mainly designed for 'Modern Art'. How to put them together? Moreover, as usual, the budget and schedule are very tight -_-". We come up with the structure to define the space for design items, while leaving the art pieces in the space of the gallery in between the structure.
The main image of the exhibition is this small houses altogether composing a picture of 'a village' - could be Japanese or Thai. Each house is to house small design objects upon category. Originally we wanted to use a super common, generic tent structure used in any temporary situation here in Thailand. However, to rent for more than one month during our exhibition periods (4 March - 8 April) the tent is not cheaper than custom made one with a very light metal structure. So we did design several sizes of the houses upon the objects inside.
The rows of the houses create a kind of 'urban' space in between, where all the major art pieces are displayed.
Since the budget is extremely tight, we had to come up with a very cheap materials for the house walls. We finally end up with simple long white paper sheets which is less than 10 Bhat per sq.m. including the installing cost. Also white paper has a strong root in Japanese architecture. However the space wrapped with white paper with a very simple and light tectonic as we do here is very different from the way Japanese would do. Perhaps this is a very Thai tectonic... :)We did some experiments at all(zone) with the generic rental tent structure.
At night, the look from outside is not bad. But unfortunately the gallery space is not that dark (the 8th floor is the space with a lot of uncontrollable natural lights -_-"). So the effect did not really happen at the actual exhibition. Also at the beginning we wanted to weave the paper sheets to give more strength, but the process was too long and the paper itself got wrinkled.
We got Tanakul Workgroup, our super contractor, to do this urgent and low budget work again. Thanks to them. During the set up, to have the structures without papers are not bad too.... next time then.
Besides the super workers from Tanakul, we had to supervise and help installing a lot during those 3-4 days. Thanks to Purich and his friends Ohm, Ken and Pik for helping us too.
After the exhibition was more or less completed, someone died. :o
On the opening day, the exhibition was promoted around Pathumwan intersection where BACC is located. The overall graphic design of the exhibition is the works of Practical Studio.
At the opening party, apart from Minister of Culture, and all the big guys in the ministry, we had a very famous super classic singer, Suthep Wongkamheng and a very famous contemporary singer Pod Modern Dog, singing some Japanese & Thai songs (they work in Japan) with our 'paper houses' as a background.
At the entrance of the exhibition.
The first house of 4,000 manga books by Thai cartoonists.
The overall ambient of the exhibition.
The space out of the houses is for the art pieces. All the art pieces are handle by Supernormal Studio. It was the first time we worked with them, and they are great!
At the entrance of each house, visitors have to get through the sheets of paper, the same experience as getting through Noren (暖簾) in front of an entrance in Japan. The height of the noren define the way the interior space is displayed from outside the house.
The design objects displayed inside the 'paper houses'. The side 'doors' connecting the houses are to lead the visitors from one house to another transversally.
The installation of wHY architecture & Kulapat Yantrasast. The 2LDK in Japanese apartment system.
The installation of Kris Manopimok, a lighting designer of LD 49. He also helped us a lot for the overall lighting design of this exhibition.
The art pieces of Navin Ravanchaikul and Yuri Kensaku.
The dress from banana leaf as an art work of Chakkrit Chimnok.
The latest collection of a fashion designer 'Thirst' brand. They established this brand specifically for Japanese market. Pretty cool indeed.
Actually all(zone) also displayed our work in the exhibition too, but this will be another post then.
We had a great fun and were extremely tired of the exhibition, however, we met a lot of interesting people. Thanks to the key player BUCC for the overall exhibition too. :) Until next time.
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