Thai Curator Gridthiya Gaweewong: The Next Chapter of Jim Thompson Art Center Ian Tee
Born in Chiang Rai, Thailand in 1964, Gridthiya Gaweewong is one of the most prominent curators working out of Southeast Asia today. She was an English teacher and librarian at a refugee camp in Phanat Nikhom, before making a career switch to pursue her passion for art. In 1996, after receiving her Masters of Arts in Administrations and Policy from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Gridthiya co-founded the alternative art space Project 304 (1996 − 2003) with Montien Boonma and Kamol Phaosavasdi. Her key projects include the Bangkok Experimental Film Festival (1997 − 2007), ‘Politics of Fun’ (Haus der Kulturen der Welt, 2005), ‘Saigon Open City’ (2006 − 2007) and the travelling exhibition ‘Apichatpong Weerasethakul: The Serenity in Madness’ (2016 − 2020). Gridthiya was also on the curatorial team for the 12th Gwangju Biennale ‘Imagined Borders’ (2018). Currently, she is Artistic Director of the Jim Thompson Art Center (JTAC) in Bangkok, a position she held since 2007. In this conversation, Gridthiya shares her observations on shifts and challenges in the Thai art scene, as well as her plans for the new JTAC building which will be unveiled on 26 June 2021.
Could you talk about your involvement in The Alternative Art School(TAAS), an online art education initiative launched by Nato Thompson? Beyond the COVID-19 crisis, what impact do you see such alternative models of education having on the art ecosystem? Nato Thompson and I have worked together since the early 2000s. He completed an internship at Project 304, an alternative space that my friends and I started in the mid-1990s. We remained in contact throughout
Ongoing Conversations
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