Interested people are invited to learn about performance art in Thailand through the work of a pioneering performance artist during “Chumpon Apisuk’s Lifeworld: An Archival”, which is running at Friends of BACC, 6th floor of Bangkok Art and Culture Centre, until Sept 6.
Held in collaboration with the Office of Contemporary Art and Culture’s Contemporary Art Promotion Fund, the exhibition is part of the broader research-based initiative, “Archiving the Performance Art and Lifeworld of Chumpon Apisuk”, dedicated to preserving and activating the legacy of Chumpon, who played a key role in shaping the foundation of performance art in Thailand.
For over six decades, he has used his body as a medium to challenge artistic conventions, create experimental spaces and foster dialogue between art, life and society.
The project aims to collect, classify and create an archive of Chumpon’s body of work while encouraging engagement with his art through a bilingual online database, a board game and a variety of public programmes.
It seeks to promote knowledge exchange, learning and the development of regional networks within the context of performance art. It also offers a model for creating archives of performance art and shared imagination in Southeast Asia.
Chumpon’s archive reflects the broader landscape of performance art in Thailand, the formation of artist collectives, the development of independent art spaces and the establishment of performance art festivals, while also mapping regional and transnational networks, particularly within Southeast Asia, that have shaped performance art as a critical and socially engaged practice.
Bangkok Art and Culture Centre is on Pathumwan intersection and opens daily from 10am to 8pm except Monday.
