Immerse Yourself in ArtDib Bangkok - IKAP

By Ayush Madan

Driving into DIB Bangkok, felt like going to a billionaires secret mansion. The gates opened, and I ominously began my descent into the parking garage. On both sides of me were black asphalt submerged in shallow pools of glistening water. Above me, I could see large cement columns overhead with grey walls overgrown with greenery. It was clear from the very beginning that this would be unlike any other museum I had been to.

As we went up the spiral staircase, the space gives way to an expansive courtyard with large spherical marbles colored like different planets. Along the far end, there is a cafe and a gift shop for patrons of the museum. Right next to it is the ticket office where I went to collect my reserved tickets.

The modern industrial architecture beautifully contrast the vibrant moving images and physical art the building holds. Each installation has a large amount of room to breathe, with some taking up several walls or giant rooms all to themselves. This allows the viewer a level of immersion to the art that few other spaces can offer.

You start your journey at the constellations, where you swing a large wooden baseball bat tied to a chain against a white plaster wall. The wall reverberates like a gong,  welcoming you to the space, and setting an auditory and tactile first impression. The first floor is large and features large open windows throughout showing you the courtyard outside. Following the constellations is the “art povre” or poor art movement from Italy, which uses everyday items like dirt, fabric, and twigs to make art. This section included hanging hollow brick structures and a large metallic blimp made of a hollow aluminum material. 

A highlight for me on this first floor was the work of Subodh Gupta titled Incubate, 2010. Crystal chandeliers incubate eggs made of empty steel lunch tins, or dabbas, common throughout India. Mumbai's dabbawalas deliver these lunchboxes, bringing freshly cooked meals from workers homes to their workplaces through a precise, cooperative system. Gupta entangles symbols of Western opulence with these everyday objects, evoking the contrast between family rituals and tradition as well as the wider forces of modernization, consumerism, and postcolonial identity.

There were many more pieces I enjoyed on the first floor, like the deconstructed volkswagen swing which used every element of the car in an expansive visual exhibition. The car itself was inverted, with a bed installed in the roof of the car — now the bottom —  with a TV playing footage from the artist’s travels to Scandinavia. It was a really unique experience taking my shoes off to get into a hanging car. It was a cozy first experience. Surrounding the car are different wheels, cushions, and other spare car parts artfully arranged and laid out. The whole exhibit uses a calming green color which made me feel at peace and at ease.

As we walk up to second floor, the space opens up into the more intimate, ethereal, and evocative pieces. Here, the natural light is mostly gone, and the art has light incorporated into it or its own source of illumination. We saw bare bed frames with beautiful glowing mechanical butterflies. There was a glowing table with film strips laid upon it, telling the stories of the artists life: food, laundry, parking cones, renaissance art, the human body, and light streaks. As you walk along the hallway, you will find the chapel balcony showing you a birds eye view of the Subodh Gupta piece on the first floor. Here you can see the intricate chandeliers much more closely. As you keep going, you will come across various different projection art. A painted vinyl disc with AI recreation of sound. There is even a pitch black room you can walk into where there is a liminal short film playing on a loop.

Another highlight of the second floor was the pillar room. This room is filled with large columns which were once used in Thai temples. Here, they are laid along the floor, wrapped in cloth and red twine. Above them, small round lightbulbs hang, illuminating the room slightly. Behind the pillars is a large open window showing you the trees swaying outside. On the foot of the pillars is a filled glass of water —an offering to the spirits. This piece is another example of the sheer scale of DIB. Many art galleries I have been to could fit in this one room, whereas here, its just one piece in a tapestry of art.

The last artist I want to briefly talk about is Montien Boonma. On the third floor of DIB, there is an entire section of the space dedicated to him, with his artwork gracing every wall and surface in the area. Of not is one called Inside-Outside Pots — a meditative practice where the artist drew bowls to calm his mind. It reflects the Buddhist concept of sunyata (being empty or non-self). For the artist, he says the bowls represent an invisible awareness. “I stared into the bowls, and they stared back at me.”

Around the room are other fixtures done by the artist, like a visceral representation of human lungs, and beautifully symmetrical hollow structures you can peer inside. As you walk into the room, there are the artist’s handprints quite literally etched into mud and attached to the wall above you. In both literal and figurative terms, his fingerprints are all over this third floor. 

For all my best abilities to describe this stunning museum, words and pictures simply fall short. It has been long since I have been to a museum of this caliber — especially in Bangkok. It evokes the same scale and freedom for each work to breathe as museums in New York or San Francisco. If you love art, sculptures, lights, or simply want to be moved for the day, I highly recommend a visit to DIB. I promise you won’t see the world the same way.

DIB Bangkok

111 Soi Sukhumvit 40, Phra Khanong, Khlong Toei, Bangkok 10110