Bangkok Art Biennale to stage Spirits of Maritime Crossing 2026 in Venice

The Bangkok Art Biennale Foundation, in collaboration with Thai Beverage Plc (ThaiBev) and a network of partners from across sectors, is presenting The Spirits of Maritime Crossing 2026, an international group exhibition in Venice, Italy, aimed at advancing the potential of Thai and ASEAN contemporary art on the global stage.

The exhibition is being held for a second consecutive edition following the strong success of the first showcase in April 2024. It will run from May 9 to August 2, 2026, at Palazzo Rocca Contarini Corfù in Venice, and will take place during the same period as the 61st International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia (Venice Biennale).

Bringing together 20 artists from Southeast Asia, alongside artists from Ireland, Serbia and other countries, the exhibition explores themes of identity, displacement, diaspora, memory and spiritual resilience in a world shaped by migration and global transformation.

A milestone for Southeast Asian art on the world stage

Thapana Sirivadhanabhakdi, Chief Executive Officer of ThaiBev and Chairman and Founder of the Bangkok Art Biennale Foundation, said returning to Venice for a second edition marks an important milestone for the foundation and reinforces the distinctiveness of Southeast Asian art and culture on the global stage.

He noted that this year’s La Biennale di Venezia, under the theme “In Minor Keys,” opens space for emerging artists as well as diverse works and perspectives from around the world. Against that international backdrop, the foundation is honoured and proud to present artists from Southeast Asia alongside international artists amid a city-wide celebration of global art.

Thapana added that staging the exhibition alongside the 61st Venice Biennale is not only an artistic exchange but also a continuation of the long-standing relationship between Italy and Thailand, dating back to 1897. 

Historical records from the reign of King Chulalongkorn (Rama V) note his visit to Venice to experience the beauty of its art—an important journey that fostered deep cultural exchange.

“The exhibition The Spirits of Maritime Crossing, presented at Palazzo Rocca Contarini Corfù, is both a remembrance of our shared history and a step into the future, bringing together artists from Thailand, Southeast Asia and Europe across diverse cultural contexts,” he said.

He emphasised that the project underlines the foundation’s mission to support artists, expand international networks and promote cross-cultural understanding through art, while opening doors to new collaborations and wider international recognition.

Water and sea-crossing as the exhibition’s narrative thread

Prof Dr Apinan Poshyananda, Chair and Artistic Director of the Bangkok Art Biennale and curator of the exhibition, said the foundation is ready to present The Spirits of Maritime Crossing for a second consecutive edition.

He said the exhibition showcases the creative energy of Southeast Asian artists through questions of travel, displacement and cross-cultural connection, using water currents and sea-crossing as the central narrative symbolism.

“This edition aims to reflect the spirit of a region rich in diversity, and marks an important milestone in bringing Thai and ASEAN contemporary art to the global stage with distinction,” he said.

As curator, he added, the exhibition foregrounds the region’s diversity through the perspectives of all 20 artists, who come from different ethnicities, religions, languages and lived experiences, yet remain closely connected under a shared theme.

In this edition, water is used as a key metaphor—like a force carrying memories, stories and identities from distant lands to converge in Venice, a city shaped by maritime journeys, trade and cultural exchange much like Southeast Asia.

Bangkok–Venice ties strengthen cultural exchange

Paolo Dionisi, Italy’s ambassador to Thailand, said the Thai presentation in Venice two years ago was a standout success and became one of the most visited collateral events during the Venice Biennale.

He said the pavilion reflects the spirit and “soul” of Thailand, and highlighted cultural links and similarities between Bangkok and Venice. He also noted that Bangkok’s governor has recently signed a memorandum of friendship with Venice, formalising ties between the two cities and strengthening prospects for ongoing cultural exchange.

He invited the public to visit the pavilion from May to August, describing it as more than a visit—an entire experience—and thanked the team behind the project.

Art can be healing and a tourism driver

Thapanee Kiatphaibool, Governor of the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT), said engaging with art can be deeply healing. She said the world is facing challenges, uncertainty and intense global competition, but stressed that art is an important tourism product and service that can help drive growth.

She expects TAT’s Amazing Thailand campaign and The Spirits of Maritime Crossing 2026 to give travellers from around the world more opportunities to restore and heal through art.

Artists and highlights

Participating artists include Marina Abramović, Pichet Klunchun, Martha Atienza, Ong Kian Peng, Nadiah Bamadhaj, Le Hien Minh, Wasinburee Supanichvoraparch, Sornchai Phongsa, and more. 

At the heart of the presentation is Marina Abramović’s performance Sea Punishing, staged with hundreds of participants whipping the sea in reference to King Xerxes’s act of punishing destructive waters—a poignant remembrance of the Andaman Sea tsunami. 

The new film The Spirits of Maritime Crossing Part II follows Abramović alongside Pichet Klunchun, Mutmee Pimdao Panichsamai, Aleksandar Timotić, and Amanda Coogan on a spiritual journey between Venice and Bangkok, tracing themes of suffering, solitude and transcendence.

Marina Abramović shares: “I am delighted to participate in The Spirits of Maritime Crossing 2026 on the theme of spiritual journey through maritime crossing that explores painful journeys of colonization, diaspora, migration and slavery. As I performed in the film with choreographer Pichet Klunchun in temples and many sites in Bangkok the experience was most challenging and contemplative. For the 2026 edition, the film takes on a new painful journey with myself, Klunchun, and performers Amanda Coogan, Aleksandar Timotić and Mutmee Pimdao Panichsamai who struggle in desire, torment and karma. Additionally, my video Sea Punishing (2005) inspired by the tsunami that destroyed thousands of lives on the Andaman Seas will be shown with works related to trauma and dislocation by emerging artists from Southeast Asia.”

A major theme throughout the exhibition is the navigation of personal mythologies and collective memories: Martha Atienza’s underwater film merges Catholic rituals with maritime processions; Ong Kian Peng envisions Singapore submerged by rising currents through disruptive AI imagery; Tcheu Siong stitches Hmong cosmologies into monumental embroideries; and Sornchai Phongsa’s paintings confront Mon ancestral rituals and queer identity. 

Across the exhibition, artists reflect on migration, spirituality, environmental fragility and cultural inheritance: from Nadiah Bamadhaj’s reinterpretation of Calon Arang to Le Hien Minh’s paper sculptures of post-war memories, Soe Yu Nwe’s surreal ceramics of hybrid creatures, and Parada Wiratsawee’s haunting sculptures of sea life in distress.

Ong Kian Peng notes: “In my work, I examine how water acts as an oscillating force between present realities and possible futures shaped by rising seas and engineered resilience. This movement between the known and what is imagined echoes the exhibition’s inquiries into journeys, memory, and the porous connections between places—how coastlines shift, how histories traverse oceans, and how bodies navigate uncertain horizons. The shared vulnerabilities of Singapore and Venice show how island cities live in a constant state of ecological anxiety, suspended between adaptation and fragility.”

Themes of ecological collapse and ancestral resilience reverberate throughout The Spirits of Maritime Crossing 2026, with Ruangsak Anuwatwimon’s fragile floating soil diorama and Wasinburee Supanichvoraparch’s ceramic residues of ancient trade routes, while Torlarp Larpjaroen’s Spiritual Spaceships evoke nostalgic vessels arriving in Venice.

Arahmaiani’s participatory Flag Project and Yasmin Jaidin’s soil-based works engage communities and universities in sustainable artmaking.

Contrastingly, in Ode to Joy – Thai Sign Language (2024), Amanda Coogan performed the piece in collaboration with Thai youths with hearing disabilities, where they participated in the silent choir at the concert led by Coogan at the historic white stupa at Prayurawongsawat Temple in Thonburi, offering a breath of hope.

Throughout the vernissage and opening weeks, live performances by artists intertwining Italian-Slav opera, Irish ballads, Thai mask dance and spiritual chants form a shared vocabulary of minor tones and minor care.

Through layered narratives of faith, race, migration and neo-colonial realities, The Spirits of Maritime Crossing 2026 reflects on a world in flux, offering moments of quiet resistance and poetic resilience.