Bangkok Art Biennale Announces Theme for 2024 Edition

The fourth edition of the Bangkok Art Biennale (BAB), titled “Nurture Gaia,” has announced it will open in October 2024. Featuring works that engage in ecopolitics, animism, and supernatural mysticism, “Nurture Gaia” aims to create a dialogue on the intersections between debates around nature-versus-nurture, divine femininity, and environmentalism. The first 15 artists announced as participants include Thai artists Dusadee Huntrakul and Yanawit Kunchaethong as well as the late Louise Bourgeois and Joseph Beuys. The curatorial team will be led by Thai curator and art historian Apinan Poshyananda, who has served as chief executive and artistic director of three previous BAB editions since its launch in 2018, with art critic Brian Curtin; former BAB assistant curator Pojai Akratanakul; Akiko Miki, artistic director of Benesse Art Site Naoshima; Paramaporn Sirikulchayanont, former director of the Art Centre of Silpakorn University. BAB plans to display works across the city, in public venues such as the multipurpose space Bangkok Art and Culture Center, and the first phase of One Bangkok, a sustainable development project set to open in 2023. The Biennale will also juxtapose contemporary art with heritage sites such as exhibitions in the famous Temple of the Reclining Buddha (Wat Pho), and Museum Siam of Thai culture and history, in Old Bangkok.