Thailand 2017

An abstract artist whose work is widely recognized by the local and international art scene, Somboon Hormtientong presents “Krung Thep Bangkok”, curated by Numthong Sae Tang, with the support of the Thai Office of Contemporary Art and Culture (OCAC).

The exhibition presents Hormtientong’s installation, sculpture, drawings, and videos.
Hormtientong’s Bangkok differs from the perception commonly held by tourists or those unfamiliar with the city. Seeing beyond the surface of urbanization and the capital’s skyscrapers, the artist looks deeply into the narratives in the ordinary people’s social life. He examines their ways of life through mundane items of different functions and backgrounds, which underline the beauty disguised in each object in his installation.
One of the challenges facing the artist while working on the exhibition at the Thai Pavilion was to deal with the space that was once a busy restaurant and not originally designed for exhibition. Through his installation, Hormtientong creates inside the space the calmness in which the audience could find and experience aesthetics in their own subjective ways, from their interaction with his work. Such calmness, which clashes with the hectic surroundings around the Pavilion, would entice the audience to enter a peaceful state where they could analyze and interpret, ask questions and seek answers, or even connect their own experience with the stories in Hormtientong’s work.