Speech by Mr. Chatvichai Promadhattavedi, Board Member and Secretary, BACC, Bangkok Art and Culture Centre Foundation at the Vernissage and Book Launch in the frame of Romania 100.


Ladies and Gentlemen,

I wish to thank Mr. Dieter Topp, the President of the Kulturforum Europa and his colleague Mr. Christian Bauer for connecting the BACC with the Cultural Association Entheos, for making this first tentative step of the cultural exchange between the art world of Romania and Thailand possible.

The picture of the BACC is, we have a place, and art infrastructure that allows art to happen. We set up a place for the art dialogue process and exchange in the hope that art will become the means to share contemporary cultural values amongst people which is a process vital to contemporary, democratic society.

And hopefully as well, that many people will come and fill this place with art so that the people of Bangkok will benefit from this, that they get to see things and in the process open the window onto a wider cultural landscape.

So far we have had a lot of participation from artists from the various fields showing their works and freely expressing their views, and visitors in turn get pot-luck experience when they visit us, and it is up to them what to make of it. This is the kind of activities that have been happening here for the last ten years. We ended up with some 120 exhibitions last year, and adding to that some 440 events such as theatre, film, music, and meetings. Not all the events of the latter have to do with art, but they serve to bring people from all walks of life and all professions to come and be here, ending up in a cultural centre after all.

And suddenly into this art melting pot we have a glimpse of Romania in the form of psychological drama by Mr. Radu Afrim, the famed Romanian theatre director and visual artist, promising of more things to come. And how appropriate it is that the BACC is also having its performing art fes' right now right in the black box right behind these walls. So there are going to be a lot of theatre people seeing Mr. Radu's photographs.

I can only hope that there will be more exchanges. Curiously Romania and Thailand have had similar political developments in the countries' modern history, and that similar experience can perhaps be potentially explored. I certainly look forward for more comings and goings between the two countries!

Chatvichai Promadhattavedi

Board Member and Secretary,
Bangkok Art and Culture Centre Foundation.


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