Thailand’s Ministry of Culture has appointed the artist duo jiradej-pornpilai meemalai: BAAN NOORG as artistic directors of the fifth Thailand Biennale, which is slated to open in Rayong in December 2027. The upcoming edition focuses on relationships and interconnection, considered through both local and global frames. Working alongside the duo on the curatorial team are Emily Chin-Jie Lee, Gesyada Siregar, and Tyuki Imamura. Together, they will present Sin-Samudr, Turning Currents, an exhibition that looks at how art and place shape one another.
The duo’s practice and trajectory
Jiradej and Pornpilai Meemalai work in mixed media, spanning sculpture, video, photography, and installation. Their work mines the pleasures and challenges of their own marriage to investigate wider questions of human connection and the ways those ties register across society and history. Their exhibitions include solo and group presentations in Taiwan, Germany, the US, and the UK, alongside residencies at the Headlands Center for the Arts (Sausalito, 2010), Lichtenberg Studios (Berlin, 2013), and the Civitella Ranieri Center (Umbria, 2013). They have previously participated in the 2019 Asian Art Biennial in Taichung, the 2021 Busan Sea Art Festival, and Documenta 15 in Kassel in 2022.
The biennale will be directed through Baan Noorg Collaborative Arts and Culture, the nonprofit artist collective the duo founded in 2011 in the Nongpo community of Ratchaburi province. Over the years, Baan Noorg has organized residencies, workshops, exhibitions, and community programs, and has mounted biennales of its own.
Rayong as site and the biennale’s format
Established in 2018, the Thailand Biennale rotates locations, with each edition hosted by a different province. Rayong, on Thailand’s eastern seaboard, is known for fishing and fish-sauce production, and also serves as a hub for chemical and automotive manufacturing. The selection of Rayong underscores a government push to build arts and cultural infrastructure beyond the country’s largest cities.
With Sin-Samudr, Turning Currents set to consider how context and creativity move through one another, the curatorial team brings together on-the-ground knowledge from Baan Noorg and the duo’s international experience. As the fifth iteration takes shape, the biennale’s provincial framework and Rayong’s specific profile promise a dialogue between place and practice that is intrinsic to this edition’s aims.
