GALLERIES’ NIGHTS 10 YEARS!

Hopping for the best

Launched in Thailand in 2013 and inspired by ‘La Nuit Blanche’ in Paris, Galleries’ Nights has become a highlight of the cultural season, attracting more and more exhibition venues for an ever-growing audience.

During 2012, in search of a new event concept to embody French-style cultural soft power in the Siamese capital, Jérémy Opritesco, the Embassy’s Cooperation and Cultural Action Counsellor - COCAC for those familiar with rue de Brest - decided to take up the idea of the Parisian “Nuit Blanche”: galleries staying open late into the night and welcoming an unusual public on the move, adapting it to the local style with a free tuk-tuk service to the multiple exhibition venues.

“We spent a few days together criss-crossing Bangkok from gallery to gallery, convincing them of the project,” recalls Arnaud Nazare Aga, a pillar of Bangkok’s cultural community

“It wasn’t so easy... But once everyone was finally together at the ambassador’s residence in mid-May 2013, things lightened up and Gallery’s Night really began to take shape.”

And so it was that on June 1, 2013, the Nuit des Galeries was born, later becoming plural by spreading out over two days, then spreading out into the provinces over the years and new teams who all brought particular care and a constantly renewed stylistic imprint to it. Since 2021, the event is for instance also held in Bangsaen.

A Beacon In The Night

“We’re clearly following in the footsteps of our predecessors, and I can’t thank them enough for this fine legacy. I happen to be friends with many of them, and I’m keen to pass on their legacies,” explained Thierry Bayle, the current cultural attaché, in an interview with Latitudes in our 2021 special edition about Galleries’ Nights.

Galleries’ Nights quickly became a highlight of the cultural season at Big Mango, transforming the Thai capital into a vast playful, artistic and festive journey, in a word: Sanuk!

“I’d like visitors to take a close look at the gallery proposals,” continued Thierry Bayle, “because it’s good to lose oneself during these nights and discover artists who are perhaps less well known, but just as exciting, in the many galleries accompanying us.”

Indeed, some 80 galleries and exhibitions now take part in the great art rave every year, vying with each other with festive vernissages and visual and musical performances.

“What I enjoy so much about this event,” commented Fabian Forni, COCAC at the helm of the project in 2018, “is the incredible diversity of galleries styles we visit on this kind of journey, where exhibition venues with few resources manage to compete creatively with the most established and attract top-notch artists.”

The embassy’s stated aim is indeed to create a new dynamic by supporting the local art scene and promoting contemporary art to a wider public, convinced that it has strong development potential in Bangkok.

“La Nuit des Galeries is a network,” Fabian Forni detailed in our columns, “a network that needs to be nurtured and enriched. France’s main contribution lies in cultural engineering: we support these galleries, which retain control over their own programming, by encouraging them to work together and engage in dialogue.We are currently working with Dr. Apinan to integrate the next edition into the Bangkok Art Biennale, of which he is artistic director.What he’s most interested in, in fact, is all the networking we’ve managed to build in Bangkok and the way audiences mix during the Nuits des Galeries.”

In 2023, to celebrate its 10 th anniversary in style, Galleries’ Nights is fully part of the Year of Franco-Thai Innovation program, through a partnership with the Thai company MuvMi, which will provide free electric tuktuks to serve the open access routes in 6 districts of Bangkok.

Galleries’ Nights will also remain true to its format, with an invitation-only opening at Jim Thompson Art Center on November 9, followed by the event itself, totally open to the public, in the districts of Silom, Sathorn and Riverside on the 10th, and Ari, Pathumwan and Sukhumvit on the 11th

An afterparty organized by Latitudes Media & Events at 12 × 12 will close the event with the opening of an exhibition by our cover artist, Stephff.

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