Timeless Present Moment

Saturday 28 January 2017, 03:00 - 05:00 PM

Venue: MAIIAM Contemporary Art Museum For Kamin Lertchaiprasert, his life mission has always been the pursuit of values and meanings of life. As an artist, he seeks to share his experience acquired from the dedication and the understanding developed through art creation process. Kamin’s sole focus has been the quest to understand and be free from everything. He has discovered that the answer lies within the understanding of the smallest and closest entity to us, which is, in fact, ourselves. If we truly understand ourselves and know what are the most valuable things to us, such awareness can help us in the conversation with others. Each and every moment of life is always intertwined with one’s experience and tacit knowledge. For instance, at one point in life, we may be especially interested in meditation, reading, or creating art. When we carry on doing these activities to a certain stage, the issues of our interest will change in accordance with a better understanding of different perspectives and approaches to life.

What gives values to the quest to understand life? That is the first question the artist seeks to answer when approaching all kinds of activity. Currently, Kamin is interested in the concept of Spiritual Aesthetics. For him, this concept goes beyond physical manifestation, and is rather regarded as a medium to explain nature—a door between the physical and the abstract worlds. Therefore, within the realm of spiritual aesthetics, basic understanding is reduced to only an intent and serves as a record of the actual experience of reality.

You are cordially invited to join us in finding the conclusion of this exhibition through the Panel Discussion on Spiritual Aesthetics in Contemporary Context. How useful is the spiritual work to the contemporary world? How can we apply these understandings to our lives? Feel free to attend the lecture and share your opinions with the artist. We are also honored by the presence of Ajarn Uthit Atimana, founder of the 1st Chiang Mai Social Installation in 1993, and Zoe Butt, former executive director and curator of Sàn Art who will soon assume a role as artistic director of the Factory Contemporary Arts Centre in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Both of our special guests will join us in exchanging their personal and professional experience and expressing their opinions towards the issues of spiritual aesthetics in contemporary context to reflect various perceptions and different understandings of this concept. The event, moderated by Vipash Purichanont, an independent curator, will feature a launch of the exhibition catalogue of the Timeless Present Moment Exhibition, containing photographs of all works of art on display and selected texts on Saturday 28 January 2017 at 03:00-05:00 PM.

This panel discussion is part of the Timeless Present Moment Exhibition which curates the artist’s various forms of artworks created over a span of 36 years. The exhibition is open to the general public until 6 February 2017.

About Artist

Kamin Lertchaiprasert was born in 1964, in Lop Buri, he currently lives and works in Chiang Mai, Thailand. He completed a BFA in Printmaking Department of Printmaking Painting and Sculpture Faculty of Fine Arts, at Silpakorn University, Bangkok and attended the Art Students League in
New York City from 1989 -1992. Lertchaiprasert returned to live in Bangkok in 1992 and movedto Chiang Mai, Thailand, in 1996 . Two years later, he co-founded, with Rirkrit Tiravanija, the land project (now the land foundation).

This involved the conversion of rice fields into a destination
for site-specific art and architectural projects, creative residencies, and agricultural and artisanal workshops. Lertchaiprasert’s interest in collaborative art led to the establishment of the 31st Century Museum of Contemporary Spirit in 2008—an initiative inspired by his participation in
the “Stimulating Cities with Art” symposium at the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, Japan. The 31st Century Museum has since materialized in various forms in ChiangMai (as a temporary structure made of refurbished shipping containers in 2010),

Chicago (as a workshop and exhibition at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2011), and Japan (as a book project for the Niigata Art Festival in 2012).