Well fed on art

The crowds at the Venice Biennale, one of the world’s premier art events, know they can always count on being astonished at the Thailand Pavilion, and we won’t let them down this year.
From June through November they’ll be gaping at a chandelier made of thousands of tiny bronze teardrops and sampling the Portuguese-Thai “golden teardrop” dessert, thong yod. They’ll be amused by a fibreglass buffalo and a huge stack of “bricks” wrapped in colourful yarn.
Young artists Arin Rungjang and Wasingburee Supanichvoraparch teamed up with equally young curators Worathep Akkabootara and Penwadee Nophaket Manont to prepare the exhibition “Poperomia/Golden Teardrop”.
The Culture Ministry’s Office of Contemporary Art Department commissioned Arin and Wasingburee to create art with a “Thai cuisine” theme to match the government’s “Bringing the Thai Kitchen to the World Kitchen” campaign. It’s the first time in Thailand’s 10-year involvement at the biennale that the ministry has given its Venice delegation a specific concept.
Normally the Thai Pavilion adheres to the event’s overall theme, which this year is “Encyclopaedic Palace”. More than 150 artists from 37 countries and a wealth of classic art will fill the Central Pavilion in the Giardini’s parkland and the historic Arsenale on the shoreline.
Thailand will again be off on its own, commandeering an abandoned warehouse in Santa Croce, opposite the Venice Railway Station. But Arin’s “Golden Teardrop” inter-plays with the Biennale’s main theme, delving into the history of sugarcane, Siamese craftsmanship and the traditional sweet thong yod.
“I’ve explored how history shaped our lives today,” Arin, 38, told the press after plans for Venice were unveiled on Wednesday. He’s melded 2,000 pieces of bronze into a massive, teardrop-shaped chandelier and a video installation explaining much of Thai history.
Thais today thank the Portuguese for inspiring thong yod back in the 17th century. The explorers called their sweet made from egg yolk – a Catholic nun’s invention – “ovos moles”. In old Ayutthaya a Catholic woman of mixed Japanese-Portuguese-Bengali heritage reformulated the recipe into the dessert we know today.
Arin’s 30-minute-video revisits the ancient capital in a blend of documentary and fiction. It shows a Japanese making thong yod in a modern kitchen, Thai goldsmiths creating his teardrop sculptures. Also on display will be photos of a skeleton unearthed in the six-century-old Portuguese settlement in Ayutthaya.
Wasinburee’s interactive installation “Poperomia” gets literally to the roots of Thai cuisine – agriculture – examining cultural traits that are gradually disseminated by social mobility.
“In the title, ‘pop’ refers to popular culture. Peperomia is a plant that can quickly absorb liquid,” said Wasingburee, 42, who received a Silapathorn mid-career award in 2010. “I wanted to reflect that, although our culture is complex, nowadays it adsorbs a lot more pop culture.”
More than 5,000 red ceramic bricks made in the traditional manner at his factory in Ratchaburi will be on view, along with his 1976 a semi-documentary video about Tong Pan, a northeastern peasant whose livelihood was threatened by construction of the Pa-Mong Dam.
Ratchaburi residents including Wasingburee’s parent wrapped the bricks in coloured yarn that he said symbolise pop trends encircling the traditions of weaving and brick-making. In Venice, people will be able to play with the bricks while they admire his fibreglass sculpture of a water buffalo representing Thailand’s continuing reliance on farming.
The Thai Pavilion will demonstrate that there is more to our cuisine than delicious sweets and jasmine rice.

Make plans

The Thai Pavilion – at Santa Croce No 556, 30135, opposite the city’s railway station, opens on May 30, the day before the Venice Biennale itself.
The 55th International Art Exhibition (La Biennale di Venezia) runs from June 1 to November 24.
Learn more at www.LaBiennale.org.