The Royal Thai Navy, in conjunction with Iconsiam and representatives of the public and private sectors, will hold the “Art Afloat”, exhibition which honours the occasion of the Royal Coronation Ceremony of King Rama X.

This multimedia exhibition in three languages (Thai, English and Chinese) shares the history of how battle vessels evolved into exquisitely crafted barges used in royal ceremonies, each barge elaborately ornate as befitting a vessel for the monarch.

The exhibition features a gallery of photographs as well as models of the 52 vessels that form the royal barge procession in its traditional formation, as well as the history of each vessel. Visitors will also witness up close the beauty of the decorative elements of four royal barges – the Suphannahong Royal Barge, the Anantanakkharat Royal Barge, the Narai Song Suban Rama IX Royal Barge and the Anekkachatphuchong Royal Barge – via panorama hologram technology.

The engaging approach aims to encourage youth to learn about the rich cultural heritage and royal traditions of the Kingdom of Siam so as to heighten their nationalistic pride. In order to offer convenience and accessibility to the exhibition for visitors who are visually impaired or blind, the exhibition will also feature stucco relief patterns taken from the four royal barges that they can touch as a testament to the artistic skills of Thai artisans in the past who created such masterpieces.

The exhibit leads up to the actual Royal Barge Procession on October 24, which forms part of the Royal Coronation Ceremony 2019.

Visitors will also receive a programme booklet that contains information about the Royal Barge Procession. Virtual images of the procession can also be viewed through augmented reality (AR) technology in 3-D form, together with all the exhibits via mobile phone cameras.

“Art Afloat” exhibition opens to the public free of charge on M Floor and 1st Floor of the Iconsiam shopping complex.

Globally acclaimed opera troupes from Russia’s Ekaterinburg Opera Theatre performed the impressive classical opera, “Turandot”.

Ekaterinburg Opera Theatre performed two classical works — “Turandot” and “Rusalka” — as part of the dance and music festival.

The first offering on September 11 was the two-act “Turandot”. Giacomo Puccini’s opera, sung in Italian, is set in China. The story revolves around Prince Calaf, who has fallen in love with the man-hating Princess Turandot of Peking. Her intention is to kill anyone who wants to marry her. Calaf passes the test, but Turandot still refuses to marry him. This was Puccini’s final opera and unfinished at his death. It is also considered his most adventurous. Gongs and xylophones in the score give it an Asian touch.

Leading Italian tenor Paolo Lardinzzone plays Prince Calaf. A veteran of the stage, Lardinzzone has performed in leading opera theatres including La Scala of Milan and has been recognised with several awards. Singing Turandot was accomplished soprano Zoya Tsererina from St Petersburg.

On Friday night (September 13), Ekaterinburg Theatre performed Antonin Dvorak’s “Rusalka”, an opera in three acts, sung in Czech, based on a Slavic fairy tale.

Of Dvorak’s 10 operas, “Rusalka” is the most popular. Based on the Little Mermaid, it tells the simple story of a mermaid who falls in love with a prince and yearns to become human. It’s a dark but romantic tale of love. “Rusalka” was performed perfectly by Elena Pavlova while the prince was played by Ilgam Valiev, an honoured artist of the Republic of Tatarstan and winner of the Golden Mask jury Special Award.

For both operas the orchestra was conducted by Konstantin Chudovsky.

More shows are scheduled at the festival. The highlights on Monday (September 16) and Tuesday (September 17) are ballet as satire, as espoused by the storied Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo from New York. This company of professional male dancers, performing classical ballet and modern dance, has enjoyed decades of success thanks to its satirical take on the dance form.

On September 21 and 22, Switzerland’s Compagnia Finzi Pasca brings to the Bangkok stage La Verita, an electrifying performance that has been developed over 35 years. Inspired by surrealism, the performance is a combination of acrobatics, theatre, dance and music with multi-talented singers, dancers, and acrobats. On September 26 and 27, the Imperial Ice Stars from the United Kingdom will take to their massive frozen stage at the Thailand Cultural Centre for Swan Lake on Ice, while on September 28 and 29 it will be the turn of Cinderella on Ice.

The festival continues until October 23. Tickets are priced from Bt1,500 to Bt5,000 and are now on sale at Thai Ticket Major counters, online at www.thaiticketmajor.com and by calling the hotline at (02) 262 3191. Find out more at www.bangkokfestivals.com

The first exhibition of the emblematic ancient Terracotta Warriors will deepen both cultural and economic cooperation between China and Thailand, China’s ambassador to Thailand Lyu Jian said.

Thailand and China kicked off the exhibition of “Qin Shi Huang: The First Emperor of China and Terracotta Warriors” at the National Museum on Sunday (September 15) where it will run until December 15.

The exhibition features 86 sets of artefacts including a battalion of terracotta soldiers, archers and charioteers, each with unique facial features, costumes, weapons and even hairstyles.

The Terracotta Warriors being exhibited in Thailand are a part of the 8,000-man clay army, made in around 250BC for the tomb of China’s first emperor, Qin Shi Huang. Chinese farmers first stumbled upon the tomb in Xian, capital of the northern province of Shaanxi. An archaeologist identified fragments of terracotta found by local farmers digging a well in 1974 .The site is among the first Unesco World Heritage sites in China, winning the  Unesco heritage listing in 1987. Since then, it has become one of major tourist destinations.

In an article about the exhibition,  Lyu Jian wrote that cultural exchange would deepen the 44 years of diplomatic relations between the two countries. The exhibition takes place this year when China is celebrating the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China and Thailand held the auspicious coronation of HM King Maha Vajiralongkorn, he wrote. He said the Thai Royal Family in the past had also supported China in conserving the ancient Terracotta Warriors.

“China-Thailand friendship is a bond of brotherhood that has been taking deep root in the heart of people on both sides, from past to present and the two governments had signed a cultural cooperation agreement in 2001..leading to other exchanges later including this Qin Shi Huang event ,” he wrote.

He added that the deepening relationship could be seen from the millions of Thai people who have studied Chinese language.

On the economic side, more than 10 million Chinese tourists visited Thailand last year and more than 40,000 Chinese studied in Thailand. China has also linked its Belt and Road Initiative with Thailand 4.0 and the Eastern Economic Corridor, he added.

The exhibition is being organised at a total cost of Bt60 million. More than 400 clay artifacts made 2,700 years ago from a national graveyard, as well as special items exclusively from 14 Chinese museums, will be on display.

Two special sessions are scheduled on Monday and Tuesday (September 16-17), before normal sessions every Sunday to Wednesday from 9am to 4 pm until December 15. Thai visitors will be charged a fee of Bt30 per person while foreigners will pay Bt200 per head.

A grand exhibition of Chinese artefacts will be held from Monday (September 16) until December 15 at the National Museum near Sanam Luang in Bangkok.

The exhibition “Qin Shi Huang: The First Emperor of China and Terracotta Warriors” is being organised at a total cost of Bt60 million. More than 400 clay artefacts made 2,700 years ago, as well as special items exclusively from 14 Chinese museums, will be on display.

Two special sessions are scheduled on Monday and Tuesday (September 16-17), before normal sessions every Sunday to Wednesday from 9am to 4 pm until December 15. Thai visitors will be charged a fee of Bt30 per person while foreigners will pay Bt200 per head.

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To celebrate the 500th anniversary of the circumnavigation, the embassies of Spain and Portugal in Bangkok, Camoes – Institute for Cooperation and Language, together with The Siam Society Under Royal Patronage and with the support of the European Union Delegation in Bangkok, will organise a special talk.

Two specialists from both countries — Prof Dr Maria de Fatima Reis, from the Portuguese Academy of History, and Captain (Navy) Jose Maria Blanco from the Institute of Naval History and Culture of Spain — will speak on the “500th Anniversary of the Circumnavigation of the World by Magellan” and “Elcano: The Impossible Adventure”, on September 24 at 7pm at The Siam Society.

It has been 500 years since the adventure of Magellan and Elcano unexpectedly changed the world. Their discovery slowly became the beginning of the globalisation where everything was more interconnected.

Ferdinand Magellan started to sail westerly from the port of Seville to the Moluccas to open a new spice trade route. After Magellan’s death from a dubious skirmish in the Philippines, Juan Sebastian Elcano took the carrack from the Moluccas to Sanlucar de Barrameda in Spain in 1522 and completed the first circumnavigation of the Earth. Due to this voyage, many changes took place such as the rejection of the flat-earth theory, advances in science, commerce and communication and a renewed flow of people, plants and animals.

Professor de Fatima Reis is the secretary-general of the Portuguese Academy of History and the sub-director of the School of Arts and Humanities at the University of Lisbon. Having a PhD in Modern History, University of Lisbon, she is a part of the research group on cultural encounters and intersecting societies and uses of the past at the History Centre, School of Arts and Humanities, University of Lisbon. She is an academic at the Navy Academy.

Captain Jose Maria Blanco, Captain of the Spanish Navy, is a historian who has published many books on the Spanish fleet, including La Diversion de Tolon, La Armada Espanola en la Primera Mitad del Siglo XVIII, and La Armada Espanola en la Segunda Mitad del Siglo XVIII, as well as a correspondent for the Real Academia de la Historia and a frequent collaborator of the Revista General de Marina. He was a professor at the Higher Centre for National Defence Studies.

This event is free. A reception will be held at 6.30pm before the lecture begins. For more information and RSVP, please contact Nichakorn at nichakorn@siam-society.org or call (02) 661 6470-3 ext 305.

Titled “Imagination Sanctuary”, the artist will present six recent oil on canvas works.

“Imagination Sanctuary” is Phuthip Chantaraksa’s latest series of works in which is framed within art writer, Walter Schurian’s emphatic declaration, “A place of imagination is at the edge of truth”, published in his 2005 book entitled; “Arte Fantastico”.

It passionately discusses the notions of ‘truth’ in art and its various levels of acceptance. In this body of work, Phuthip pursues this notion through his reinterpretation of ‘reality’ via his visual constructs, pushing through the comfort zones of psychological familiarity within the human mind.

If the concept of truth is regarded as a human construct, then what is deemed as truth? Are there social perimeters that dictate truth? In “Imagination Sanctuary”, Phuthip investigates the boundaries of this debate via the mechanics of imagination in artmaking. By extension, the works in this exhibition invite viewers to ponder if ‘truth’ lies within the canvas or in the recesses of the human mind.

Forms in his pictorial plane are at times both familiar and foreign, derived from his immediacy of varied brush stroke techniques, capturing the mental state of his execution. Colour also plays an important role in his artmaking and is employed to depict certain notions of ‘truth’ and in particular, bold and bright colours are utilised to activate the ‘imaginative nerves’ of viewers. These conceptual underpinnings manifest themselves into a stylistic form of semi-abstraction that is unique to Phuthip’s art practice.

Stylistically, Phuthip is much informed by the artistic characteristics of American Abstract Expressionism, and in particular, Jackson Pollock’s canonised action paintings. Phuthip is strongly drawn to the manner in which the works are spontaneously produced and seemingly derived from a point of the unconscious. In tandem, Phuthip is also influenced by the Irish-born figurative painter, Francis Bacon, emotionally charged raw imagery and pursuit of ‘movement’ in painting. Both artists are highly influential in Phuthip’s formative years as an emerging artist developing his own voice.

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“Imaginary Sanctuary” is on display at Richard Koh Projects, Unit A, 3rd Floor, N22 Art Warehouse, 2198/10-11 Narathiwas Road Soi 22, Chong Nonsi, Bangkok.

Recognised as the father of modern art in Thailand, the event is to commemorate the great Italian artist Silpa Bhirasri, who was born Corrado Feroci 127 years ago in Tuscan on September 15, 1892.

The organising committee will hold an exhibition and highlight the life of Silpa through storytelling by Italian film director Valerio Morini in collaboration with ML Chittawadi Chitrabongs, Sawet Thesdharma, National Artist, visual arts (sculpture), Songkas Bunyasai, Piemsuk Rhienrungrueang and Wichit Aphichatkriangkrai. There will also be a rendition of Santa Lucia by assistant professor Pongsak Arayangkura. These activities will be held on the second floor of Baan Ajarn Farang from 3pm-5pm.

In addition, international products with food and beverages will be sold at “reasonable prices”. There will also be a zone for children’s activities.

Those interested in displaying/selling their products at the event can call (02) 255 8695 extn 106, or email membership@thaitch.org, or contact Orn at Baan Ajarn Farang via (085) 055 8511.

“The people’s love is worth more than anything in this world,” she is quoted as telling well-wishers on her birthday in 1982 at Dusit Palace’s Dusidalai Hall.

At a private preview of the new permanent exhibition, Thanpuying Charungjit Teekara, private secretary to the Queen Mother, spoke of Her Majesty’s devotion to the country and its people.

Museum director Piyavara Teekara Natenoi outlined the purpose and intent of the facility housed in the Ratsadakorn-Bhibhathana Building at the Grand Palace, and curator Alisa Saisavetvaree described the research that went into “The Power of Love”.

On hand were many people who have worked with Her Majesty on various projects, such as clothing designers Tirapan Wannarat and Pichitra Boonyarataphan.

Her Majesty’s dressmaker Noi Kritiporn was present, along with her daughters Preedarat and Jintana, plus models Apasiri Nitibhon and Bussakorn Wongpuapan and floral artist Sakul Intakul.

Piyavara said the exhibition was mounted in time for the Queen Mother’s 87th birthday and takes its title from the area of the show dedicated to the love she shared with His Majesty the late King Bhumibol.

One of his portraits of her is among the wonderful photos lining the walls, others showing the fabulous dresses she’s worn, including an evening gown in silk ikat that the House of Balmain in Paris designed for her in 1985.

More outfits Her Majesty wore while touring the country with the late King are set out in a way that mimicks travel by train, ending with the Thai Ruean Ton dress created in 1975 by Noi Kritiporn, who was looking on cheerfully, age 92.

Another stunning outfit is the 21st Infantry Regiment uniform she wore in 1981 while accompanying King Bhumibol as he received pledges of allegiance from the royal guards.

Thus, the exhibition presents history as much as royal culture, each outfit complemented by photos of the event where it was seen. A two-piece ensemble dates to a 2000 dinner reception in Beijing hosted by China’s then-president Jiang Zemin for Her Majesty and Princess Sirindhorn.

Ten years before the quote cited above, on her birthday in 1972, Her Majesty expressed similar emotion for the kindness and affection shown her and her husband by the people, for the power of their love.

“Every time we visit people, we are both fulfilled and profoundly touched by their warm hearts,” she said. “Such first-hand experience has shaped our determination to do everything we can to return the gratitude and benevolence that people have for us and our family.”

“The Power of Love” will occupy Exhibition Halls 1-2 at the Queen Sirikit Museum of Textiles within the Grand Palace into 2022. It’s open daily from 9am-4.30pm, with the last visitors admitted at 3.30.

Admission is Bt150, Bt80 for seniors, Bt50 for students age 12-18 and free for children under 12.

Organised by the Italian Embassy in collaboration with the public broadcaster RaiCom, the show will run from September 4 to October 7 on the third floor of River City Bangkok.

The exhibition consists of 17 of da Vinci’s most prominent masterpieces, reproduced in digital form and in the exact dimensions of the original artworks. They include: “Mona Lisa”, “L’Annunciazione” and the rarely seen “The Last Supper”, the art piece found in the church of Santa Maria delle Grazie, Milano.

Thanks to the use of sophisticated digital techniques, the visitor is able to examine and enjoy the great master’s most famous works of art like never before. The backlighting system adjusts the light intensity and the colour temperature, the first time these works have been presented with these enhancements, providing a truly unique experience.

The exhibition is the collaboration of a number of highly regarded professional photographers whose skill in reproducing the artwork in high resolution is evident.

In addition to the exhibition, two lectures will be given by Professor Paolo Euron from the University of Bologna. “Leonardo : Art, science, and the image of the modern human being” take place this Friday (August 23) from 4 to 5.30 pm and the second, “Art and nature in Michelangelo” on Saturday (August 24) from 2 pm to 3.30 pm

Both lectures are in English with Thai translation in Thai. Admission is free but registration is preferred. Log on to Facebook: River City Bangkok.

ChangChui Creative Park, which was named by Time magazine as one of the World’s Greatest Places 2018, was founded by renowned Thai designer Somchai Songwattana and created from discarded materials on the concept of “Nothing is Useless”. Under his guidance, an abandoned area has metamorphosed into a large-scale creative hub in the Thon Buri area.

Born in the same generation as Somchai, Fuji has long been angry at the way products made of plastic have mushroomed in our daily lives since the 1970s. In 1997, he started to keep and collect discarded plastic products and toys at home, resulting in the creation of his long-running project “Kaekko Bazar,” a platform where kids can exchange their unwanted toys with the other second-hand toys.

Through the project, Fuji has learned that while attractive second-hand toys are always immediately taken by kids, broken plastic toys and bonus toys distributed by fast-food chains are left and un-exchanged. Fuji has now collected more than 50,000 of these unwanted toys, mostly made of plastic, and says that it is just the tip of the iceberg. Fuji stresses that over-produced and consumed plastic products are thrown away in terrifying large quantities. They flow into rivers by floods and spread widely in the ocean, which causes a great negative impact on marine life.

In “Jurassic Plastic,” Fuji will create a dazzling large-scale installation and sculptures of dinosaurs and animals using unwanted plastic toys collected from both Japan and Thailand.

A series of workshops for both kids and grown-ups will be conducted throughout the exhibition. The organisers also welcome donations of unwanted toys, which will be used for the exhibition. Supporters can either bring them or send them by mail to ChangChui Creative Park, 460/8 Sirhindhon Road, Bang Phlat, Bangkok 10700.

Admission to the exhibition is free. Find out more at Facebook.com/ChangChuiBKK/