Exhibitions at Warin Lab Contemporary, Bangkok CityCity Gallery, and STORAGE
A SET OF EXHIBITIONS kick starting Bangkok’s monsoon season reflect on the construction and dissolution of personal, national, and collective memory the undercurrent of any metropolis through various media. In his solo exhibition at Warin Lab Contemporary, in Bang Rak District, artist Nakrob Moonmanas unpacks a chapter of Thailand’s royal history, deploying archive-based objects and moving-image works inspired by classical Thai literature to reveal glitches in the country’s nation-building. Titled “รูปสุวรรณศิวิไลซ์: Metamorphosis in Gold,” the show centers on the well known figure of Kanang, a child of Maniq ethnicity from Southern Thailand who was “adopted” by King Rama V during his process of consolidating Siam into a modern nation-state (1868–1910), which resulted in the forced assimilation of many non-Thai ethnicities into the Siamese cultural sphere.
Kanang has historically been portrayed as an exception to his people, someone seen as capable of “embracing civilization” despite his roots. At Warin Lab, Moonmanas adds another layer to Kanang’s complex identity by foregrounding his autonomy: his ability to traverse different social scenarios within the monarchy. In a triptych of digital collages printed on canvas, Kanang is depicted engaging in modern kinds of leisure, such as reading at a table or riding a bicycle, while swirling around him are distorted symbols of Western opulence, including a crystal chandelier, Greek statues, and a camera obscura. This visual assemblage repositions Kanang as playful yet adroit, navigating the requirements of the monarchy with agency. In the video รูปสุวรรณศิวิไลซ์: Metamorphosis in Gold, Act II, 2026, a dancer wearing a papier-mâché mask resembling Kanang’s facial features engages in a bodily dialogue with another dancer donning a Western influenced ball gown and holding a garland of crystal ornaments. Their choreography was inspired by a scene from the popular folktale Sang Thong (or The Prince of the Golden Conch Shell), where the titular character, born in a shell, is given a garland by a princess as a symbol of love and acceptance. But here in the video, the dance between Kanang and this imagined figure representing modernity goes on perpetually, the garland neither given nor received. Kanang’s official recognition is ambivalent, his memory merging with intricate movements that seem to fill the hidden gaps within Thai history.
Established in 2015 in the neighboring district of Sathorn, Bangkok CityCity Gallery has reimagined the gallery space as a platform for collective listening with its latest initiative, “Music Project.” At the center of the gallery’s main space, local architecture studio sp/n was invited to build an alien looking oval structure, a hybrid between a colosseum and a volcanic crater. Painted in black, the interior is lined with a grid-like scaffold on which speakers are attached. A single row of seats hugs the curvaceous wall, generating space for both moving and resting while audiences gather and listen to a curated music list from friends of the gallery’s network.
For the next three months, a series of public programs will be hosted on site, spanning live music performances, talks, and new sound compositions. “Tropical Glitch,” for instance, is a cross disciplinary talk program that features an array of Thai artists and cultural workers—among them filmmakers Tulapop Saenjaroen and Chantana Tiprachart discussing the disruptive and potentially transformative nature of sound, while “New Composition” is a series of commissioned live performances taking place every Saturday, highlighting local and regional talents such as Thai khaen instrumentalist Tawmayui and Hong Kong based post punk band David Boring. This architectural intervention aims to welcome daily routines within the gallery, asking how we can come together and carve out space for embodied listening in a metropolis like Bangkok, where visual stimuli tend to override attention to sound.
