PharmaResearch Culture Foundation X Bangkok Kunsthalle Open Thai & Korean Contemporary-Art Frontier in "Watching Together at the Boundary"Connecting Two Cultures Through Memory, Recovery & Communal Renewal

PharmaResearch Culture Foundation, established by Pilhyun Park, and Bangkok Kunsthalle have entered into a remarkable international collaboration to co-organize "Watching Together at the Boundary". This moving-image exhibition brings together works originally commissioned and presented through the Gangneung International Art Festival (GIAF) but reconfigured for the spatial context of Bangkok Kunsthalle. Featuring exhibits by five Thai and South Korean artists namely Mackerel Safranski, Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook, Yanghee Lee, Jung Yeondoo, and Hong Lee Hyunsook, this art event will run from 15 July to 9 August 2026 at Bangkok Kunsthalle.

From Gangneung to Bangkok: Shared Memories of Renewal and Regeneration

Watching Together at the Boundary explores the shared sense of communal renewal and regeneration by connecting two significant cultural celebrations: the Gangneung Danoje Festival, one of South Korea's most important traditional folk festivals, and Songkran, Thailand's Traditional New Year festival. Both festivals are recognized by UNESCO as Intangible Cultural Heritages.

While rooted in different cultural traditions, these two festivals have brought communities and family members together just the same for celebrants to share best wishes, pray for peace, and celebrate renewal.

Bringing together Bangkok Kunsthalle's site-specific history and Gangneung's experiences of natural disasters, including wildfires, the exhibition explores how both cities have cultivated resilience and regeneration in their different contexts through the language of contemporary art.

Watching Together: When Collective Viewing Becomes Being Together

The core concept of the exhibition, "watching together," considers collective viewing as something more than the mere coexistence of strangers in the same space. The experience of shared time and space is presented as a practice of hospitality and recovery, and art-based connections.

Structured around the "rhythms" and "temporality," this moving-image exhibition weaves together the memories, ambiences, and stories of the two cities (Gangneung and Bangkok) through the works of five artists, who explore boundaries, recovery, presence, and community from distinct perspectives.

• What You are Touching Now - Gangneung (2025): Created by Hong Lee Hyunsook(born in 1958, South Korea), this work conveys the relationship between people and place by showing historic architecture, trees, mountains, and the sea in Gangneung—including Chilsadang Hall and the Main Gate of Imyeonggwan Guesthouse—reacting to a performer's repeated striking gestures. The artist proposes striking as a rhythmic, ritualistic act of invocation and prayer.
• Syncopation #5 (2025): Created by Jung Yeondoo (born in 1969, South Korea), this work portrays the meeting points of human aspirations and forces of nature through the landscape and rituals of the Gangneung Danoje Festival. Juxtaposing an unstrung piano, silent rhythm, fermentation, and prayer, the work reflects on collective memory and the temporal rhythms of community.
• Square Black (2023): Created by Mackerel Safranski (born in 1984, South Korea), this work visualizes the experiences of migrants and minority communities who remain excluded amidst the global and ethical expression of hospitality. Portraying how they are often overlooked, forgotten or left out, this exhibit raises questions about what hospitality at the boundary might truly mean.
• LEE YANGHEE IPCHUM (2020/2025): Created by Yanghee Lee (Born 1976, South Korea), this work revisits Ipchum, a foundational form of Korean traditional dance that combines improvisation with technical discipline. This exhibit explores how tradition can be sustained by preserving and passing on techniques that are gradually disappearing, while adapting to changing times.
• Dogs' Palatial House (2022): Created by Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook (born in 1957, Thailand), this exhibit explores possibilities for coexistence between human and non-human beings through the eyes of dogs, raising the question of their relationships in this shared world.

Sohee Park, curator of the exhibition and Executive Director of PharmaResearch Culture Foundation, commented, "This exhibition presents an important opportunity to revisit the places and the narratives from Gangneung that have emerged through GIAF, within the context of another city, Bangkok, right at Bangkok Kunsthalle. Building on the shared sense of recovery found in the Gangneung Danoje Festival and Songkran, we hope to build a lasting framework for international artistic collaboration."

Through this exhibition, PharmaResearch Culture Foundation aims to lay the groundwork for long-term cultural exchange between South Korea and Thailand, centered on INON (Art Space, Art Forest), a new cultural complex in Gangneung. The Foundation will continue to explore new ways to connect local cultural resources and communities through GIAF, while expanding collaborative initiatives in contemporary art through partnerships with arts institutions in South Korea and abroad.

The Watching Together at the Boundary exhibition will begin on 15 July 2026 at Bangkok Kunsthalle. On the opening day, visitors can watch a special performance by the traditional performing arts group Puneori, led by Woonseok Kim, an artist and representative of the Gangneung Danoje Festival. The group will convey the rhythms and powerful energy of Gangneung's traditional rituals to the audience in Bangkok, who can later attend the artist-curator talk featuring artist Jung Yeondoo and the exhibition's curator, Sohee Park.

For more information and updates:

• Exhibition: Watching Together at the Boundary
• Dates: Wednesday, 15 July 2026 - Sunday, 9 August 2026
• Venue: Bangkok Kunsthalle (599 Pantachit Alley, Pom Prap Subdistrict, Pom Prap Sattru Phai District, Bangkok)
• Opening Hours: Wednesday - Sunday, 2 PM - 8 PM (closed on Monday and Tuesday)
• Special Opening Hours: On Sunday, 19 July & Sunday, 2 August: 2 PM - 5 PM & 7 PM - 8 PM

Saturday, 25 July 2026, 2 PM - 4 PM and 6 PM - 8 PM,

• Facebook: Bangkok Kunsthalle
• Instagram: @bangkok_kunsthalle
• E-mail: [email protected]

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