GHOST FOUNDATION

This edition is conceived as a song for survival within the shrinking spaces of freedom in our cities, a meeting place where longings for each other, for lost places, and erased ways of being can take form and find rest. Tracing the edges of Bangkok’s Chao Phraya river, Ghost:2568 explores the unruly and ungovernable ways we bring new worlds into being, and the messy solidarities we craft in the process.

Unfolding as a gathering of moving image, sound, performance, and community Ghost:2568 has an active programme alongside the exhibition. With performances, round tables and workshops with artists, dancers, musicians, fashion collectives and metaphysical practitioners, Ghost:2568 becomes a space for collective unlearning and experimentation.

Ghost is a methodology as much as a festival—a way of surfacing genealogies and trajectories of “ghost thinking”. Ghost 2568: Wish We Were Here offers a collective space to commune in rebellion and joy, to share heartbreak, and to imagine the fragile futures that ghosts demand we remember into being.

Ghost 2568: Wish We Were Here curated by Amal Khalaf features projects by Bhenji Ra, Don’t Follow the Wind with Chim↑Pom from Smappa!Group with Aiko Miyanaga and Kota Takeuchi, Komtouch Napattaloong with Kaisa Saarinen and Bart Seng Wen Long, Ho Tzu Nyen, John Clang, Noor Abed, Rirkrit Tiravanija, Ryan Trecartin, Shahryar Nashat, Sophia Al-Maria, Stephanie Comilang. With new commissions by Dan Lie, Jeanne Penjan Lassus, Montika Kham-on, IWANNABANGKOK©, Mekh Limbu, Paul Pfeiffer, Puangsoi Aksornsawang with Tongkwai Lulin, Liew Niyomkarn, Rhythm of Sati, Ornanong Thaisriwong and Wanlop Rungkumjad,Tarini Graham, Rosalia Namsai Engchuan, EMJA, Saeng-Fah, The Sound Nutritionist, Thairat Lim and Chao Mai Community Enterprise, Tanat Teeradakorn, and Thanapol Virulhakul and BACKROOM.

Curated by May Adadol Ingawanij and the Thai Film Archive, School for Ghost Activists Archivist, a gathering addressing themes explored in Ghost:2568 will take place at the Thai Labour Museum on November 8 and 9. Presenting moving image material from personal and official archives, the gathering asks how do we address the ghosts of what is missing: the censored, disappeared, unarchived, and those who remain unacknowledged in Thailand’s ongoing struggles for justice?

Wish We Were Songs for Ghost is a music program by Korakrit Arunanondchai, the curator for the first edition of Ghost in 2018. Arunanondchaoi invites collaborators to perform inside an installation by Dan Lie at Bangkok CityCity Gallery on October 15 (Senyawa and NUH PEACE), November 2 (Regis, Bonaventure), November 13 (Gatekeeper, Ashland Mines).

What happens when a ghost ceases to be affixed to a body? Ghost: Bodies Dispossessed presents new performance and video installations by returning artists Orawan Arunrak, Raqs Media Collective, and Koki Tanaka. Curated by Christina Li, who continues her role from the 2022 Bangkok edition and will guide future ghosting projects between these mirroring places with Hartwig Art Foundation in her home city Amsterdam.

Host:2568 is a program that redefines storytelling, collectivity and community building. Manifesting embodied experiences as companions to the exhibition, the program fosters a sharing platform for emerging cultural practitioners termed Hosts with participating artists and their contemporaries. Curated by Pongsakorn Yananissorn, Host:2568 invites us to share our stories and encounters—of what remains when the show is over.

The Co-host and Main Partner of Ghost 2568: Wish We Were Here is OPEN FIELD. Supporting partners are British Council,Colomboscope, ECCA Family Foundation, Forde,Hartwig Art Foundation, TheJapan Foundation, Bangkok, ​​The Sukhothai Bangkok and Ghost Support Circle. Venue partners are Alliance Française Bangkok, Asvin Cultural and Contemporary Art Space, Baan Thewes, Bangkok Art and Culture Centre, Bangkok CityCity Gallery, Dib26,TheJim Thompson Art Center, Min Sen Machinery, Rajadamnern Stadium, and 469 Phra Sumen Rd.

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Initiated by Korakrit Arunanondchai and Akapol Sudasna, the Ghost Foundation’s mission is to create a platform for video and performance art in Thailand. It aspires to create and foster a community around video and performance art by organising the Ghost series and activities related to it.

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OPEN FIELD is a Bangkok-based non-profit organization grounded in contemporary and everyday culture and knowledge as transformative power that can advance society. The platform undertakes research and educational programs, and aspires to sustain critical dialogue, improve access to knowledge and art experiences, and foster community.