How Many Worlds Are We?
Curated by Alexandre Melo
On view: July 20–October 29, 2023
The Jim Thompson Art Center, 3rd Floor, Gallery 1-2

 

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Artists
Ayrson Heráclito (Brazil)
Jonathas de Andrade (Brazil)
Pratchaya Phinthong (Thailand)
Soe Yu Nwe (Myanmar)
Tawatchai Puntusawasdi (Thailand)
Torlarp Larpjaroensook (Thailand)
Vasco Araújo (Portugal)
Vuth Lyno (Cambodia)
Wantanee Siripattananuntakul (Thailand)
Yonamine (Angola)

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Jim Thompson Art Center invites you to join the opening reception of "How Many Worlds Are We?" curated by Alexandre Melo a Lisbon-based curator and researcher. "How Many Worlds Are We?" explores and distances itself from traditional binary oppositions between notions of East and West considering the ways they can be positively articulated in contemporary artistic and cultural practices.

According to Alexander Melo’s research and reflection made during the last few years in the WEST, namely in Latin America (mainly in Brazil and in the states of Amazonas and Bahia), and in the EAST (mainly in Thailand and South East Asian countries), this exhibition arose, aiming to gather a diversity of contemporary artists active in these regions. Besides a decentering of geo-cultural perspectives, we search for the possibility of confrontation between different ways of relating to notions like nature, spirituality or humanity.

The approach is not anthropological or ecological, in a strict sense, still takes “NATURE” and “SPIRIT” – namely in relation with the “FOREST” and the entities that inhabit it, in Brazil or in Thailand – as main topics or references to help audience understand the knowledge, motivations and expectations expressed in the work of the selection of artists, namely, in the way in which they articulate an eventual affiliation to a specific cultural tradition with potential insertion in the global dynamics of popular mass culture.

The sculptures, installations, photography, and film in this exhibition investigate the ways in which we can re-imagine our relations with nature and the realm of the spiritual within a kind of poetic intelligence as it manifests itself in the work of the artists we present.

How many worlds are we?

 

Opening Reception on July 20 at the Event Space and outdoor, 2nd Floor, JTAC Building
5.30 pm Registration
6.00 pm Introduction by Curator, Alexandre Melo and Artists
7.00 pm Opening remarks by Dr Gridthiya Gaweewong, followed by snack reception