Article
Thai consumer society
The Thai installation artist Surasi Kusolwong is portraying modern consumer society. With his installations about modern life style she keeps asking critical questions.
Is there any freedom left for modern art beside the global capitalism´s movements across nation and culture borders?
In his installations and performance works the Thai artist Surasi Kusolwong creates ironic reflections of the modern consumer society. In works like Minimal Factory ($1 Market), everything the Same Price on Floating Air Market (one Euro) Kusolwong is changing the gallery-room to a typical Thai street market. Here, among the profusion of the market, all kinds of publicity signs and accompanied by Thai pop songs, played on a small stereo apparatus, it´s all about buying small kitsch things for small money.
Trivial, but magical things to collect and place in private memory shelves.
On the day of the fernissage the artist places himself in the centre of the event and speed up the buying by megaphone.
When the deal is made, the customers can have a drink in the small bar, which
Kusolwong has built in a corner of the gallery.
The fact that everything has the same price is an important part of the aesthetics behind Surasi Kusolwongs work. So the hierarchies are removed, art and product markets are combined and turn out to be a mixture of a museum and a shop.
This is a modern version of the Paris passages from mid 19th Century, which Walter Benjamin was so thrilled by.
The entire world is there at the same time. And when all the products are sold, the gallery room stands back with its minimalist atmosphere of emptiness.
In his installations and performance works the Thai artist Surasi Kusolwong creates ironic reflections of the modern consumer society. In works like Minimal Factory ($1 Market), everything the Same Price on Floating Air Market (one Euro) Kusolwong is changing the gallery-room to a typical Thai street market. Here, among the profusion of the market, all kinds of publicity signs and accompanied by Thai pop songs, played on a small stereo apparatus, it´s all about buying small kitsch things for small money.
Trivial, but magical things to collect and place in private memory shelves.
On the day of the fernissage the artist places himself in the centre of the event and speed up the buying by megaphone.
When the deal is made, the customers can have a drink in the small bar, which
Kusolwong has built in a corner of the gallery.
The fact that everything has the same price is an important part of the aesthetics behind Surasi Kusolwongs work. So the hierarchies are removed, art and product markets are combined and turn out to be a mixture of a museum and a shop.
This is a modern version of the Paris passages from mid 19th Century, which Walter Benjamin was so thrilled by.
The entire world is there at the same time. And when all the products are sold, the gallery room stands back with its minimalist atmosphere of emptiness.
Author: Karin Bergquist
Bio
1965: Surasi Kusolwong was born in Ayutthaya, Thailand. Lives and works in Bangkok, Thailand
Selected Recent Solo Exhibitions:
2002: Minimal Factory ($1 Market), Red Bull Party (with D.J.), ArtPace, San Antonio, USA
Floating Air Market (one Euro), Museum Folkswang in the RWE Tower, Essen, Germany
2001: Everything 2.- sFr. (Money-Minimal), Fri-Art Centre, Art Contemporain Kunsthalle,
Fribourg, Switzerland
Everything the same price>>2.- sFr.<<, Art & Public, Geneva, Switzerland
New York Night Market (chaos minimal), Lombard-Freid Fine Arts, New York, USA
Pay Less for the Best (1 $), Institution of Visual Arts (INOVA), Milwaukee, USA
1,000 Lire Market (La vita continua), Casole, Elsa, progetto per Arte all, Arte - associazone Arte Continua, San Gimignano, Italy
2000: Air de Paris with Thai Music, Glassbox, Paris, France
1999: Smells Like Art, About Studio / About Café, Bangkok, Thailand
Selected Recent Group Exhibitions:
2002: Urgent Painting, Musée d´Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, France
Inauguration of Palais de Tokyo, Site de création contemporaine, Paris, France
P_A_U_S_E, Kwangju Biennale 2002, Kwangju, Korea
Kunststo(f)f, Broelmuseum, Kortrijk, Belgium
Tutto Normale, Villa Medici, Rome, Italy
TokyoTV, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France
2001: ARS 01, Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma, Helsinki, Finland
2nd Berlin Biennale, Berlin biennale für zeitgenössische Kunst e.v., Berlin, Germany
Previous Opening Event Vol. 11: Dreaming Field@Tatemachi, 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, Japan
Poëziesomer 2001: Een lege plek om te blijven, Poëziesomer Watou, Belgium
2000: Kwangju Biennale 2000: Man + Space, The Kwangju Biennale Foundation, Korea
Transfert: Kunst im urbanen Raum, Biel-Bienne, Switzerland
La Ville, le Jardin, la Memoire, Academie de France a Rome, Villa Medici, Italy
2000 Taipei Biennale: The Sky is the Limit, Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taiwan
My Home is Yours, Your Home is Mine, Rodin Gallery, Samsung Museum of Modern Art,
Seoul, Korea; Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery, Japan
The Gift of Hope, Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, Japan
1999: Plug In, Salon 3, London, United Kingdom (catalogue)
The Third Asia-Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art: Beyond the Future, Queensland Art Gallery Brisbane, Australia (catalogue)
Selected Recent Solo Exhibitions:
2002: Minimal Factory ($1 Market), Red Bull Party (with D.J.), ArtPace, San Antonio, USA
Floating Air Market (one Euro), Museum Folkswang in the RWE Tower, Essen, Germany
2001: Everything 2.- sFr. (Money-Minimal), Fri-Art Centre, Art Contemporain Kunsthalle,
Fribourg, Switzerland
Everything the same price>>2.- sFr.<<, Art & Public, Geneva, Switzerland
New York Night Market (chaos minimal), Lombard-Freid Fine Arts, New York, USA
Pay Less for the Best (1 $), Institution of Visual Arts (INOVA), Milwaukee, USA
1,000 Lire Market (La vita continua), Casole, Elsa, progetto per Arte all, Arte - associazone Arte Continua, San Gimignano, Italy
2000: Air de Paris with Thai Music, Glassbox, Paris, France
1999: Smells Like Art, About Studio / About Café, Bangkok, Thailand
Selected Recent Group Exhibitions:
2002: Urgent Painting, Musée d´Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, France
Inauguration of Palais de Tokyo, Site de création contemporaine, Paris, France
P_A_U_S_E, Kwangju Biennale 2002, Kwangju, Korea
Kunststo(f)f, Broelmuseum, Kortrijk, Belgium
Tutto Normale, Villa Medici, Rome, Italy
TokyoTV, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France
2001: ARS 01, Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma, Helsinki, Finland
2nd Berlin Biennale, Berlin biennale für zeitgenössische Kunst e.v., Berlin, Germany
Previous Opening Event Vol. 11: Dreaming Field@Tatemachi, 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, Japan
Poëziesomer 2001: Een lege plek om te blijven, Poëziesomer Watou, Belgium
2000: Kwangju Biennale 2000: Man + Space, The Kwangju Biennale Foundation, Korea
Transfert: Kunst im urbanen Raum, Biel-Bienne, Switzerland
La Ville, le Jardin, la Memoire, Academie de France a Rome, Villa Medici, Italy
2000 Taipei Biennale: The Sky is the Limit, Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taiwan
My Home is Yours, Your Home is Mine, Rodin Gallery, Samsung Museum of Modern Art,
Seoul, Korea; Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery, Japan
The Gift of Hope, Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, Japan
1999: Plug In, Salon 3, London, United Kingdom (catalogue)
The Third Asia-Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art: Beyond the Future, Queensland Art Gallery Brisbane, Australia (catalogue)
Works
A FLOATING AIR MARKET
Exhibition / Installation,
2002
Projects
This artist took part in the following project(s) organized/funded by the culturebase.net partner institutions.
Images of Asia
(08 August 03 - 26 September 03)
