Thailand’s New Contemporary Art Museum to open this year

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From Culture.org

Thailand will soon have its first large museum for international contemporary art called Dib Bangkok, which will open in December 2025 in the Rama IV area of downtown Bangkok.

The museum, the first of its kind in the country, will exhibit modern art from all over the world.

Located in a 71,000-square-foot warehouse that was first built in the 1980s, it has now been changed into a three-story art museum by Kulapat Yantrasast and his company, WHY Architecture.

This same firm is also working on a major project at the Louvre Museum in Paris, one of the most famous museums in the world.

The name Dib means “raw” or “natural, real state” in Thai, which matches both the design of the building and the museum’s goal to show true, honest art that speaks to people from different places.

 

A Museum Built on One Man’s Dream

The idea for Dib Bangkok came from Petch Osathanugrah, a well-known Thai businessman and art collector who was the CEO of his family’s company, Osotspa, until 2022 and was known for his strong support of modern Thai art.

He believed that Thai artists deserved more attention and collected many works by both Thai and global artists.

After Petch Osathanugrah passed away in 2023, his son, Purat “Chang” Osathanugrah, decided to create Dib Bangkok using his father’s collection, which now forms the main part of the museum’s art displays.

This collection includes over 1,000 artworks by more than 200 artists from different countries. Most of the pieces were made from the 1990s to today and include paintings, sculptures, photos, large art setups, and digital art.

The museum will feature famous Thai artists like Montien Boonma, Rirkrit Tiravanija, and Kawita Vatanajyankur, as well as world-famous artists such as Damien Hirst, Frank Stella, and Takashi Murakami, creating a full picture of modern art today with both local and international work.

A Unique Building for Art and Community

The three-story building keeps some of its original industrial look, with bare concrete walls on the ground floor. The second floor has a special Thai-Chinese window grille from the building’s past that gives a sense of history and culture.

The top floor has white gallery rooms lit by natural light from the sawtooth-shaped roof, which makes the space feel open and bright for visitors.

In the center of the museum is a 15,000-square-foot courtyard that gives people a place to relax and gather, along with an outdoor sculpture garden and a cone-shaped gallery called The Chapel, which is covered with mosaic tiles and designed for quiet, deep thinking with large, immersive artworks.

The museum also has a penthouse area for special events, helping it become a place for art and community gatherings.

First Exhibition and Leaders of Dib Bangkok

When Dib Bangkok opens, the first show will be called “Invisible Presence,” which will honor Petch Osathanugrah’s vision and show how hidden forces and ideas shape the world of art and life.

The exhibition will include works by Montien Boonma, Lee Bul, Anselm Kiefer, and Alicja Kwade, with more artists to be announced.

The museum will be led by Dr. Miwako Tezuka, who has worked in New York at the Japan Society and the Asia Society Museum and also at the Reversible Destiny Foundation.

She will work with Ariana Chaivaranon, the museum’s curator, who has experience at the Harvard Art Museums and the UCCA Center for Contemporary Art in Beijing.

Together, they want Dib Bangkok to become a global center for sharing and learning through art, not just a place to look at it.

Continues at

https://culture.org/art-and-culture/dib-bangkok-art-museum-opening/

 

[PeterRS]

The problem with new Museums is always obtaining enough exhibits or merit. The fact that the core of the Museum will be Khun Petch's collection is a huge boost that should give the Museum regional if not worldwide status. That along with the experience of the curators surely bodes well for the Museum's future.

Now if only someone would do something to get music in all its various forms more professionally developed in Thaiand, as it is in most other Asian countries, I for one would be delighted.