Protest against Siam Cement Foundation
Submitted by Gregoire Glachant on October 22, 2007 - 1:15pm.
Just had Manit Sriwanichpoom on the phone to interview him on the 9 Days on the Kingdom book among other things. That should be in BK Magazine on Nov 2. Meanwhile, he had a few things to tell me:
"I have a protest on Wednesday at the Siam Cement Foundation at 2pm.
The foundation has been very good in the past promoting young Thai artists with its award but this year the winner's [Wathit Sambutr] painting is not being shown.
It represents a group of five, six people including three monks and all are buying and inspecting amulets at the market. But the tone and the feeling is dark and the monks look abnormal--too fat or too skinny, their faces distorted.
For this reason, the foundation chose to not show the work. But this is very bad for the award because now it means young Thai artists have to practice self-censorship. For us [artists] it's like, wow! What are artists going to do now? Only flowers and landscapes? Nothing that can create debate?
This work depicts how people look at monks! You can't deny it. Monks are engaged in this kind of activity in the market.
Now the artist wants to return the scolarship and award."
We're going to try to talk to the artist now. Stay tuned.
Protest is on Wednesday 24 October, 2pm at:
The Siam Cement Public Company Limited (Headquarter)
1 Siam Cement Road, Bangsue, Bangkok 10800 Thailand
Tel. 66 2586 4444, HomeMart Call Center Tel. 66 2586 2222
UPDATE:
Our intern, Sirinuch Borsub, went to the exhibit at Esplanade:
"I went to the show and there was just a big blank space with the artist's name, profile and picture. The PR told me that the whole panel of judges loved the painting but they didn't want to show it because they were afraid a group would come protest. They don't want chaos at the exhibition. But the irony is that its the same judges who gave the prize and who decided to not show the painting. There was no explanation at the exhibition though, just a blank space."
.jpg "Escape Routes: Nov14, 2008")
