Recently, it seems that Bangkok and much of Thailand have operated in a paradoxical temporality, looking both into the past and future with equal intensity. The most visible trend has been a renewed national appetite for archives and the rearticulation of Thai art history. February saw the official establishment of the archive for Project 304 by Asia Art Archive. One of Thailand’s most influential alternative art spaces from the 1990s, Project 304 was co-founded by Gridthiya Gaweewong, who received the 2025 Audrey Irmas Award for Curatorial Excellence. In the second half of the year, “Chumpon Apisuk’s Lifeworld” at the Bangkok Art and Culture Centre (BACC) presented an archive of works by the eponymous artist who pioneered performance art in Southeast Asia, introducing “happenings” to the Thai contemporary art scene in the late 1980s.

Next came “The Same Old Karma,” an exhibition at 100 Tonson Foundation, which initiated the archival documentation for works by multidisciplinary artist Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook. The show featured a timeline of Araya’s life alongside all her single-channel works, celebrating her impressive 45-year career, held in conjunction with her major solo survey, “The Bouquet and the Wreath,” at MAIIAM Contemporary Art Museum in Chiang Mai. The latter showcased the artist’s latest installation, Dog’s Palatial House, co-commissioned by MAIIAM and Ruam Samai, a new contemporary art museum set to open in Chiang Mai in 2027. “The Bouquet and the Wreath” was divided into two parts, with the second staged at the Jameel Arts Centre in Dubai, marking her first solo exhibition in the Middle East.