Press Release: Surasi Kusolwong

New Works: 02.1
03.14.02

New Works: 02.1

March 14, 2002 ?y 12, 2002

Candice Breitz - Brooklyn, NY

Surasi Kusolwong - Bangkok, Thailand

Chuck Ramirez - San Antonio, TX

Selected by JŽr™me Sans

About the Artist

Surasi Kusolwong was born in 1965 in Ayutthaya, Thailand. In 1987 he received
his BFA from Silpakorn University, Bangkok, Thailand, and in 1993 he received
his MFA from Hochshule fÃ¼r Bildender KÃ¼nst, Braunshweig, Germany.
Kusolwong's artistic practice includes installation and performance-based work
and, since 1996, he has concocted variations on market settings where
inexpensive, mass-produced, Thai-manufactured goods are sold for a nominal
fee.

The artist has shown widely in Europe, America, Asia, and Australia. Solo
exhibitions include Institute of Visual Arts (INOVA), Milwaukee, WI; Arte all'Arte
(Arte Continua project), Casole d'Elsa, Italy; Fri-Art Centre D'Art Contemporain
Kunsthalle, Fribourg, and Art & Public Gallery, Geneva, Switzerland. Group
exhibitions include P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, Long Island City, NY;
Hayward Gallery, London, England; Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art,
Helsinki, Finland; Academia de Francia/Villa MŽdicis, Rome, Italy; 21st Century
Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo,
Japan; Pusan Metropolitan Museum of Art, Samsung Museum of Modern Art,
Seoul, Korea; Edsvik Art & Culture Center, Sollentuna, Sweden. Kusolwong has
exhibited in many biennales including the 2001 Berlin Biennale, Germany;
Transfert, 2001 Swiss Sculpture Exhibition, Biel, Switzerland; Kwangju
Biennale 2000, Korea; Taipei Biennale 2000, Taiwan; Third Asia-Pacific Triennial
of Contemporary Art, Brisbane, 11th Biennale of Sydney, Australia; and the 1997
Vienna Secession, Austria.

Kusolwong was selected for his ArtPace residency by JŽr™me Sans,
Independent Curator and Co-Director of the Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France.
Sans is co-founder of the Palais de Tokyo, an innovative contemporary art
exhibition space. He is also an adjunct curator at INOVA, the Institute of Visual
Arts in Milwaukee, WI.

The artist lives and works in Bangkok, Thailand.

About the Project

Surasi Kusolwong possesses the unique ability to ignite an audience's attention
and engage their participation in his makeshift market installations. Toying with
notions of cultural and economic values and the interplay between people, art,
and consumer products, the artist blurs boundaries between public and private
spaces?nsforming the intimate exchange between visitor and artwork into an
exploration of the post-modern economy.

Using the concept of art as commodity, Kusolwong highlights the relationship
between people, art and consumerism. Stressing cultural exchange instead of
money, the artist intends for his market environments to be a place of social
interaction. Kusolwong's concept of the street market is ironically juxtaposed
with the notion of the art market, shifting the level of domestic objects to a
museum or gallery commodity.

For his ArtPace project, entitled Minimal Factory ($1 Market)/Red Bull
Party (with D.J.), the artist recreates a typical Thai street market in his
upstairs gallery space. The room is dimly lit and reminiscent of a factory-like
atmosphere. In addition to Thai consumer packaging labels, the walls are
adorned with four inkjet prints presented in the style of a window display. Thai
music plays from a stereo and on the opening night the artist animates and
encourages spectators with a megaphone. Merchandise is arranged atop
cardboard piano boxes covered with velvet, reminiscent of Donald Judd's box-
like sculptures. For $1 each, Kusolwong sells Thai-manufactured objects related
to art, history, popular culture, the state of Texas, and trinkets personal to the
artist.

Part performance and part installation, Kusolwong's art is truly interactive.
His keen aesthetic for the arrangement of the objects and the display structure
further plays with the idea of art as commodity as well as emotional and aesthetic
gratification. The artist often finds amusement in observing Western
shoppers/audiences appease their desire for the exotic by quickly buying
inexpensive imported items that tend to clash with their designer-label lifestyles,
taking the gallery-goer from spectator to spectacle. The intense fervor for
collecting and accumulating desirable objects produces a chaotic, frenzied scene
among the shoppers that lasts until everything is sold. After the merchandise is
dispersed, a calm minimalist aesthetic remains in the almost empty gallery
space.

In one corner of the gallery space, Kusolwong has created a bar-style setting,
serving Red Bull, an energy drink produced in Thailand and popular in Asia and
Europe. While the market frenzy continues, a bartender mixes Red Bull with an
alcoholic beverage of choice and serves drinks to patrons. The Red Bull cans
and other beverages are housed in wall-mounted Donald Judd-style shelving.
The Red Bull bar takes the artist's notion of the market environment to another
level, highlighting the mixing and interaction that commonly occurs among people
of various cultures and backgrounds in markets, bars, parties and factories.
Adjacent to the Red Bull bar is a lounge with stools from Thailand and a bed
inspired by Judd sculptures to encourage people to mingle and relax beside the
market chaos.

Exhibition Dates

March 14, 2002 ?y 12, 2002

Opening Reception

Thursday, March 14, 6:30-8:30 PM

Artists' Dialogue

Friday, March 15, 6:30-8:00 PM

Featuring Candice Breitz, Surasi Kusolwong, and Chuck Ramirez. Moderated by
JŽr™me Sans, Independent Curator and Co-Director of the Palais de Tokyo,
Paris, France.

Brown Bag Lunch

Wednesday, April 10, 2002, 12:00-1:00 PM

Join us for a tour of New Works: 02.1 and a brown bag lunch provided by
Pecan Street Deli. Please call ArtPace to make reservations.

Event Locations

All events held at ArtPace, 445 N. Main Avenue. Free parking at Flores Street
and Savings. ArtPace is open to the public Wednesday thru Sunday, 12-5 PM,
Thursday until 8 PM and by appointment. There is no charge for admission.

445 North Main Avenue San Antonio TX 78205 t 210 212 4900 f 210 212 4990 www.artpace.org