Art Events as Commons: The Bangkok Biennial as Counter-Strategy to Appropriation

The art biennial is one of the prime podia through which people encounter contemporary art today. While applauded as sites of experimentation, in recent years they have come to be criticised as sites for the appropriation of art by states and corporations. Criticism especially targets a certain type of biennial, organised with financial support of entrepreneurial governments and corporations, and meant to promote the economy of cities and regions, or the corporate interests of their sponsors. However, next to state-funded and corporate-funded biennials, there are ‘other’ biennials that represent a third model of commons-oriented art events. The Bangkok Biennial – an artist-led bottom up initiative, organised for the first time in 2018 in stark contrast to the corporate funded Bangkok Art Biennale and state-funded Thailand Biennale – is one such event. In this paper we aim to analyse this Bangkok Biennial – as well as commons-oriented art events elsewhere in Thailand (e.g. Womanifesto and the Chiang Mai Social Installation) and the Southeast Asian region (e.g. Viva Excon and Biennale Jogja) against the background of an emerging literature on commoning as a mode of resistance against market and state. More specifically, we will address the following questions: What type of art is produced and exhibited, and how is this different from other events? What motivates the organisers and participants? Which formats of organisation and co-production exist, and which strategies are used to resist appropriation? How does this biennial engage with the wider spatial context of the city?