Reconstructing landscapes

JAPANESE, CHINESE and Thai artists, architects, urban landscape designers and city planners are teaming up to interpret the current situation of urbanisation and sociological changes in Asia and the world in the interactive touring exhibition “Real Estate/Landscape”.
After the show’s debut at Kitakyushu in Japan last month, Bangkok’s version is opening on June 12 at 6.30pm at BUG, the Bangkok University Gallery at Kluay Namthai.
“Real Estate/Landscape” is a collaborative project between artists and various professionals based in Kitakyushu, Chongqing, China and Bangkok. Taking real estate as the key perspective, it aims to reconstruct landscapes that surround us. This project will translate a certain moment in daily life and a distorted landscape of the global economy and politics into art pieces.
Selected by Thai new wave curator Manipa Jayawan, Bangkok’s version features video art, installations, photography and sound installations by Wang Haichuan, Engine Group, Eiji Sumi, Miti Ruangkritya, Chulayarnnon Siriphol, Keiichi Miyagawa and Gen Sasaki.
The tour will wrap at LP Art Space in Chongqing, China. Curated by Ni Kun, China’s version features Wang Haichuan, Engine Group, Eiji Sumi, Pisitakun Kuntalang, Gen Sasaki and Keiichi Miyagawa.
Real estate came about when society was formed and has strong historical links with the powers of possession, occupation and control. Having gone through various periods such as modernisation and globalisation, nations and global firms are still scrambling for land with natural resources.
The same structure can be seen in suburban housing projects and urban development with skyscrapers. At the same time, real estate including the land itself, the houses or buildings on it and the natural resources underneath it, is being traded as a kind of financial commodity in a global market.
Information about such real estate deals comes through various media – TV, magazines, the Internet and so on. In most cases the information is delivered with attractive messages that seduce us to consent or obey the system of possession, occupation and control.
However, seen from another viewpoint, any information such as company advertisements or propaganda from a nation or state, reflects a different landscape.
For example, the Nazi propaganda film “Olympia” (1938) can serve as anti-fascist propaganda film if it is re-edited with another perspective.
This is demonstrated through the project in which various issues related to real estate from Internet or any mass media are researched and then re-mixed, cut up and reconstructed to present another landscape of the world we live in.
The touring exhibition is presented by the Hotel Asia Project, a platform for international collaborative art projects launched in 2011 by Keiichi Miyagawa, a director of Gallery Soap, Yoshitaka Mouri, sociologist and professor of Tokyo University of Fine Arts and the Japanese artist Gen Sasaki, Japanese artist.
The first project, a two-day symposium and an exhibition, was held in Gallery Soap and involved artists, researchers, curators, a journalist and architects from Japan and Korea.
In 2012, an exhibition title the “Theme Park” was hold at Organhaus in Chongqing. The exhibition consisted of re-mixed fragments of information from various media such as TV programmes, newspapers and the Internet and works were developed in collaboration with artists and curators from China, Korea, Norway and Japan.
Hotel Asia Project has also organised various curatorial projects, exhibitions, film screenings and music events, and has also participated in international programmes.
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- “Real Estate/Landscape” runs until June 27 at Bangkok University Gallery (BUG), Khuay Namthai, Rama IV Road. It’s open from 10am to 7pm Tuesday to Saturday .
- For more information, call (02) 350 3626 or visit Facebook.com/Bangkok|UniversityGallery and HotelAsia.cc.