“No. 60”: Klunchun unmasks the Khon
By Katrina Stuart Santiago (936 words, 6-minute read) The past as a point of reference for contemporary cultural work is not new, and neither is the need to rethink it, reconsider it, or respond to it. Anyone who works in…
Thanapol Virulhakul’s “The Retreat”: Dance, Uncontained
By Amitha Amranand (1,350 words, 5-minute read) Thai dancer-choreographer Thanapol Virulhakul is certainly not the first artist to wonder whether art could become more of a part of our daily life nor to attempt through his art to make it…
International Women’s Day: Inspiring Women
By ArtsEquator For International Women’s Day, ArtsEquator asked 11 women arts leaders in SEA to tell us about a woman who has inspired, supported or mentored them on their arts journey. Their stories recall mothers, bosses, Hollywood directors and an…
20 Arts and Cultural Festivals to Visit in Southeast Asia in 2020
It’s the year 2020 and the world is rife with new Instagram filters, hashtag 2020vision (yes, we get it) and the perennial “new year, new me” declarations. Well, if you’ve got travelling and #jetsetter on your new year’s resolution list,…
Progress at work: “Forward Shift” at da:ns festival
By Bernice Lee (1,507 words, 7-minute read) Forward Shift, a new platform for works-in-progress within Esplanade’s da:ns festival, begins with much fanfare. Members of the public were treated to three performance experiments featuring artists whose artistic and audience development have…
BACC: Whose art centre is it anyway?
By Siriwat Pokrajen (1,180 words, 6-minute read) Anyone following the news about the Thai art scene must have already known about all the rough storms the Bangkok Art and Culture Centre (BACC) has been sailing through in the past couple…
Podcast 61: The Media Landscape in Thailand
Duration: 20 min In our latest podcast, Thai theatre critic Amitha Amranand gives a comprehensive overview of the media landscape in Thailand, discussing the impact of the political and legal system on the arts and the paradoxical freedom that arts…
Asian Arts Media Roundtable 2019: When Asian Critics Meet
By Akanksha Raja and Ke Weiliang (1,444 words, 6-minute read) The inaugural Asian Arts Media Roundtable (AAMR) took place between 24 to 25 May 2019 at LASALLE College of the Arts, Singapore. Organised by ArtsEquator, the two-day gathering of over…
ArtsEquator’s Top 10 Picks at the Performing Arts Meeting 2019
Established in 1995, the Tokyo Performing Arts Market (TPAM) was created to be a platform to network Japanese artists with producers and funders. 24 years later, TPAM has expanded in scope and purpose, to include live performance, panel discussions and…
Padmini Chettur’s “Varnam” and Pichet Klunchun’s “I Am A Demon”: An Instructive Contrast
By Bilqis Hijjas (975 words, four-minute read) If you have ever felt that classical Indian dance is too melodramatic – if you have ever rolled your eyes at a dancer’s fervid abhinaya, or a poem narrator’s extravagant diction – or…
On The Level with Theatre Students of Taiwan and Thailand (via The Nation)
A new Taiwan-Thailand drama school collaboration is as delectable as pineapple tarts. One of the joys of attending a student theatre work – when it’s not the typical graduation project for which many of the aspiring artists have to do…
Biennale seen posing challenges for artists (via The Nation)
The Bangkok Art Biennale beginning on October 19 will have as its theme “Beyond Bliss”. The event puts the Thai capital along cities around the world, from Berlin to Beijing, that host biennials, bringing together creative minds to construct their…
Cambodian FB users rage over dance ownership (via The Nation)
August 31, 2018 18:20 United Nations’ cultural agency Unesco’s Facebook page has hosted a heated debate between Cambodians and Thais over Bangkok’s proposal for the inclusion of “khon” masked dance on the agency’s Intangible Cultural Heritage list. Social network users…
“Pratthana: A Portrait of Possession”: Of Politics and Desire
By Amitha Amranand (1225 words, six-minute read) Everyone is always watching and being watched in Pratthana: A Portrait of Possession, the latest play by Japanese director Toshiki Okada. The play begins with a Narcissus-like image—a young man gazes into the…
Who pays for art? (via Bangkok Post)
Should museums be funded by the state or by private sponsors? The question looms large with the current problems at Bangkok Art and Culture Centre (BACC), the largest publicly-funded art gallery in the country — and with the rise of many…
Cash-strapped BACC counts on friends in deed (via The Nation)
The Bangkok Art and Culture Centre (BACC) Foundation is about to raise its profile as vice chairperson Panya Vijinthanasarn and committee secretary Chatvichai Promadhattavedi seek a meeting with the city’s unimpressed governor, Aswin Kwanmuang, about funding support and sustainable management….
The Artist-Curator’s Eye: Manit Sriwanichpoom’s “Rediscovering Forgotten Thai Masters of Photography”
By Elaine Chiew (1,600 words, eight-minute read) Art historian Patrick Flores first addressed the phenomenon of the artist-curator in his seminal essay Turns in Tropics [1] as someone who holds a certain power and who has become a key figure…
Art is for everyone: Aree Soothipunt (via Bangkok Post)
‘Some people asked me why I didn’t paint Lord Rama [Phra Ram from the Ramakien epic] green,” said 88-year-old Aree Soothipunt in his husky voice, pointing to his abstract painting from the late 70s of a blue-skinned Rama. “The literature never…
Thai street artists send political messages against corruption and military rule with spray and stencils (via SCMP)
A growing number of Thai street artists are turning political and getting their anti-corruption messages across with spray paint. Most keep their identity secret for fear of reprisals from the authorities. South China Morning Post speaks with three artists. There…
Mayfly Docus: “Die Tomorrow” and “14 Apples” at SIFA’s “Singular Screens”
By Dan Koh (1,715 words, 15-minute read) At this year’s Singapore International Festival of Arts (SIFA), the two films from Southeast Asia are documentaries, or hybrid-documentaries—just like last year’s three, curiously. Despite the glaring gaps that remain in the funding,…
Myanmar Artists’ Works Tackling Identity, Displacement on Show in Chiang Mai (via The Irrawady)
CHIANG MAI, Thailand – Works by 18 established and emerging artists from Southeast Asia offering their personal experiences of global migration, notions of identity and ongoing humanitarian crises in Myanmar are on currently on display in a group exhibition in…
“Talk to me and I slap you”: confronting intimacy and violence
By Chloe Chotrani (1,040 words, five-minute read) The one who loves you hits you. The one who hits you loves you. The one who loves you hurts you. This is a piece about relationships, unfortunately. (We can’t get away from…
One Man, Stand Alone: On the trail of the old movie theaters (via Asiola)
“After nearly 10 years of documenting the vanishing stand-alone movie theaters in Southeast Asia, I’d like to invite the public into my world, to experience exactly what it is that I experience when doing this work.” Philip Jablon is a cultural…
Creating ‘Hedonistic Sustainability’ With Wonderfruit’s Founder ‘Pete’ Phornprapha (via VICE)
There’s something inherently sneaky about Thailand’s annual music festival Wonderfruit. The fest, which is fast becoming one of the best in Southeast Asia, is about so much more than music. Sure, those festival memories may have started in the Quarry, but…
Rantau Reviews: “Something Missing” & “Plan B” in Bangkok
By Alfian Sa’at (1500 words, 7-minute read) We can tell a few things about a theatre scene from the categories in its awards shows. In the International Association of Theatre Critics-Thailand (IACT-T) annual nominations list, there is one particular category…
Rantau Reviews: “Co/exist” & “Private Conversation” in Bangkok
By Alfian Sa’at (1395 words, 10-minute read) In the middle of the black box studio of the Bangkok Art and Culture Centre there is a white rectangle placed on the floor. Above it, a rectangular box is mounted, casting fluorescent…
Rantau Reviews: “Bangkok Notes”
By Alfian Sa’at (1248 words, 10-minute read) Tokyo Notes, a 1994 play by Oriza Hirata, was inspired by the 1953 film Tokyo Story by Yasujiro Ozu. The shift from ‘story’ to ‘notes’ forms what could be described as the play’s…
Regional Forum on Creative Hubs: Connecting Creative Communities
By Akanksha Raja (900 words, 8-minute read) The Regional Forum on Creative Hubs and Cities, organised by the British Council, took place at the Thailand Creative & Design Center (TCDC) on 10 October 2017. It was an extension of a…
ArtsEquator’s Picks: Southeast Asian films at SGIFF 2017
By Meta Setiawan Singapore International Film Festival (SGIFF) returns this year from 23 November to 3 December 2017, presenting an exciting array of films from Singapore, the region and all other corners of the world. ArtsEquator.com is excited to see…
Tikam-Tikam Japan: Site-Specific Monkeys by Pichet Klunchun
By Leow Puay Tin (911 words, 6-minute read) Pichet Klunchun was invited to create an outdoor performance at Minami Ikebukuro Park, a popular hang-out place for families and young people in Tokyo, by the Festival Tokyo 2017. It was an…