Arts Network Exhibitions

“What do you see?”

“What do you see?”
Exhibition By students from Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Paris, France in collaboration with students from Silpakorn University

At the begining of the month, Jean-Luc Vilmouth and ten students from the Paris Beaux-Arts School arrived in Bangkok with the project of creating an exhibition inspired by the discovery of local culture and their experience within the city. Looking for a meaningful exchange with Thai people, the Beaux-Arts students associated with art students from the Silpakorn University in Bangkok. This workshop became a part of Surasi Kusolwong's Invisible Academy. At his invitation, the L floor of the BACC became the space that would host their joined reflections.

After long lasting discussions about what the starting point of the exhibition would be, Jean-Luc Vilmouth and the students decided to consult a Thai fortune teller and ask him what he sees in the exhibition space in the near future. The following day, the group met by chance Rina, an attractive young woman who was introduced to them as "the dancing queen of Bangkok". She kindly offered to introduce them to her favorite fortune teller and to translate the conversation.

Back at the BACC, the fortune teller applied his numerology methods to the space and to the group leader, and gave the following indications, as translated by Rina :

– Respect Thai tradition and act according to Thai habits during the preparation of this project. (Later on, the group underwent a small ritual in order to pay respect to the spirits located in the BACC space.)
– Create a Yin Yang sign in the middle of the exhibition space.
– As of the existence of 4 columns in the space, recreate the 4 fundamental elements: fire, earth, air and water.
– Consider the conflict between traditional and contemporary culture.
– Work together and help each other in conceiving the art objects.

The present exhibition is an accumulation of the different interpretations emerged from the fortune teller's indications and from this entire experience. Although the students and artists come from such different backgrounds (mainly French and Thai, but also Japanese, Chinese, Korean and Romanian), it appears that they managed to find a common ground by using contemporary art language.