Mona, Tasmania’s Most Controversial Museum, to Open Outpost in Bangkok

Australia’s unconventional private Museum of Old and New Art (Mona) has announced plans to partner with a Bangkok real estate developer to establish its first international outpost as part of a major riverfront redevelopment in the Thai capital.

Founded in 2011 by professional gambler and collector David Walsh to house his collection of ancient, modern and contemporary art, Mona quickly became one of Australia’s most controversial museums. Its galleries have featured works exploring bodily functions, explicit sexuality, religion and mortality, while its annual winter festival, Dark Mofo, has courted controversy through provocative public artworks and performances. Together they have earned both international acclaim and criticism for their unapologetically confrontational approach.

Talking to The Australian, Walsh described the Bangkok partnership as an opportunity to apply what Mona has learned from more than two decades of experimenting with museum formats in “one of the great tourist centres of the world”.

Scheduled to open in 2029, Mona Bangkok will be developed in partnership with Asset World Corp (AWC). The museum will anchor AWC’s ongoing transformation of Asiatique The Riverfront, a former dockyard turned lifestyle precinct on the Chao Phraya River. The wider redevelopment includes a cross-river cable car, budgeted at more than THB 2 billion (£44.6 million), linking the museum to AWC’s mixed-use developments on the opposite bank.

Led by DarkLab, Mona’s creative production company, the Bangkok museum will present international contemporary art while collaborating with Thai artists on new commissions. According to project lead Leigh Carmichael, the inaugural programme will revolve around the theme of light, explored both as a physical phenomenon and a cultural metaphor.

The collaboration also reflects the broader involvement of AWC’s parent company, TCC Group, in contemporary art. Beyond AWC’s cultural programming across its riverfront developments, TCC-owned sites have served as venues for the Bangkok Art Biennale, while Thai Beverage president and chief executive Thapana Sirivadhanabhakdi is a co-founder of the Bangkok Art Biennale Foundation.

The announcement also comes at a moment of transition for Mona. Earlier this month, DarkLab said it would abandon the long-planned Transformer project in Tasmania’s Huon Valley after construction costs escalated, making Mona Bangkok the institution’s first major expansion beyond Hobart.