Pratchaya Phinthong, Who will guard the guards themselves, 2015

Light box, duratrans and steel frame
Edition of 1 (+ 1 A.P.)
161 x 200 x 9 cm
Collection: Musée National d’art Moderne, Paris

Who will guard the guards themselves? targets the distance that separates an exhibition in Paris by the artist from his home back in Bangkok as a kind of filter in order to energize the space and time which separates reality from its representation.

Who will guard the guards themselves? is a photograph taken at night by the artist after a military coup on 22 May 2014 and three weeks of army imposed curfew in the Bangkok.

The image is of the storefront of a 7-Eleven-an indicator of global commerce doing business 24/7- which here is seen deserted and, though lit up, closed for business, becoming a symbol of the devastation of daily life brought on by repression.
By replicating the exhibition space of a private Parisian gallery in the public arena in Bangkok, and through the use of copying to emphasize the separation between a situation, its interpretation and its transmission, the artist has created a temporary monument which is under surveillance and that explores the capacity of art to play a role in public debate.

When the piece was originally shown for the first time as a large lightbox presented in the gallery, the first impression of the work came via images from a surveillance camera shown on an iPad attached to the wall at the entrance of the room.

This mechanism for control also turned out to be ambiguous. The live images were in fact not those of the gallery, but of its 8:10 scale replica that the artist constructed and placed in the very heart of Bangkok, almost exactly a year after the 2014 coup and the imposition of martial law.

Positioned in front of the Bangkok Art and Culture Centre on a square that has become a place for protests and rallies, and an area that is also prone to confrontations and arrests, the replica, sealed from the public offers passersby a glimpse through a glass partition of the light box containing the photograph shown in Paris. While at first inaccessible, this half-real, half-fictional display installed where official institution and public space come together, will subsequently become a mobile exhibition space for university students in Bangkok.

By replicating the exhibition space of a private Parisian gallery in the public arena in Bangkok, and through the use of copying to emphasize the separation between a situation, its interpretation and its transmission, the artist has created a temporary monument which is under surveillance and that explores the capacity of art to play a role in public debate.

Pratchaya Phinthong, Who will guard the guards themselves, 2015

Light box, duratrans and steel frame
Edition of 1 (+ 1 A.P.)
161 x 200 x 9 cm
Collection: Musée National d’art Moderne, Paris

Who will guard the guards themselves? targets the distance that separates an exhibition in Paris by the artist from his home back in Bangkok as a kind of filter in order to energize the space and time which separates reality from its representation.

Who will guard the guards themselves? is a photograph taken at night by the artist after a military coup on 22 May 2014 and three weeks of army imposed curfew in the Bangkok.

The image is of the storefront of a 7-Eleven-an indicator of global commerce doing business 24/7- which here is seen deserted and, though lit up, closed for business, becoming a symbol of the devastation of daily life brought on by repression.
By replicating the exhibition space of a private Parisian gallery in the public arena in Bangkok, and through the use of copying to emphasize the separation between a situation, its interpretation and its transmission, the artist has created a temporary monument which is under surveillance and that explores the capacity of art to play a role in public debate.

When the piece was originally shown for the first time as a large lightbox presented in the gallery, the first impression of the work came via images from a surveillance camera shown on an iPad attached to the wall at the entrance of the room.

This mechanism for control also turned out to be ambiguous. The live images were in fact not those of the gallery, but of its 8:10 scale replica that the artist constructed and placed in the very heart of Bangkok, almost exactly a year after the 2014 coup and the imposition of martial law.

Positioned in front of the Bangkok Art and Culture Centre on a square that has become a place for protests and rallies, and an area that is also prone to confrontations and arrests, the replica, sealed from the public offers passersby a glimpse through a glass partition of the light box containing the photograph shown in Paris. While at first inaccessible, this half-real, half-fictional display installed where official institution and public space come together, will subsequently become a mobile exhibition space for university students in Bangkok.

By replicating the exhibition space of a private Parisian gallery in the public arena in Bangkok, and through the use of copying to emphasize the separation between a situation, its interpretation and its transmission, the artist has created a temporary monument which is under surveillance and that explores the capacity of art to play a role in public debate.

Pratchaya Phinthong, Who will guard the guards themselves, 2015

Light box, duratrans and steel frame
Edition of 1 (+ 1 A.P.)
161 x 200 x 9 cm
Collection: Musée National d’art Moderne, Paris

Who will guard the guards themselves? targets the distance that separates an exhibition in Paris by the artist from his home back in Bangkok as a kind of filter in order to energize the space and time which separates reality from its representation.

Who will guard the guards themselves? is a photograph taken at night by the artist after a military coup on 22 May 2014 and three weeks of army imposed curfew in the Bangkok.

The image is of the storefront of a 7-Eleven-an indicator of global commerce doing business 24/7- which here is seen deserted and, though lit up, closed for business, becoming a symbol of the devastation of daily life brought on by repression.
By replicating the exhibition space of a private Parisian gallery in the public arena in Bangkok, and through the use of copying to emphasize the separation between a situation, its interpretation and its transmission, the artist has created a temporary monument which is under surveillance and that explores the capacity of art to play a role in public debate.

When the piece was originally shown for the first time as a large lightbox presented in the gallery, the first impression of the work came via images from a surveillance camera shown on an iPad attached to the wall at the entrance of the room.

This mechanism for control also turned out to be ambiguous. The live images were in fact not those of the gallery, but of its 8:10 scale replica that the artist constructed and placed in the very heart of Bangkok, almost exactly a year after the 2014 coup and the imposition of martial law.

Positioned in front of the Bangkok Art and Culture Centre on a square that has become a place for protests and rallies, and an area that is also prone to confrontations and arrests, the replica, sealed from the public offers passersby a glimpse through a glass partition of the light box containing the photograph shown in Paris. While at first inaccessible, this half-real, half-fictional display installed where official institution and public space come together, will subsequently become a mobile exhibition space for university students in Bangkok.

By replicating the exhibition space of a private Parisian gallery in the public arena in Bangkok, and through the use of copying to emphasize the separation between a situation, its interpretation and its transmission, the artist has created a temporary monument which is under surveillance and that explores the capacity of art to play a role in public debate.

Pratchaya Phinthong, Who will guard the guards themselves, 2015

Light box, duratrans and steel frame
Edition of 1 (+ 1 A.P.)
161 x 200 x 9 cm
Collection: Musée National d’art Moderne, Paris

Who will guard the guards themselves? targets the distance that separates an exhibition in Paris by the artist from his home back in Bangkok as a kind of filter in order to energize the space and time which separates reality from its representation.

Who will guard the guards themselves? is a photograph taken at night by the artist after a military coup on 22 May 2014 and three weeks of army imposed curfew in the Bangkok.

The image is of the storefront of a 7-Eleven-an indicator of global commerce doing business 24/7- which here is seen deserted and, though lit up, closed for business, becoming a symbol of the devastation of daily life brought on by repression.
By replicating the exhibition space of a private Parisian gallery in the public arena in Bangkok, and through the use of copying to emphasize the separation between a situation, its interpretation and its transmission, the artist has created a temporary monument which is under surveillance and that explores the capacity of art to play a role in public debate.

When the piece was originally shown for the first time as a large lightbox presented in the gallery, the first impression of the work came via images from a surveillance camera shown on an iPad attached to the wall at the entrance of the room.

This mechanism for control also turned out to be ambiguous. The live images were in fact not those of the gallery, but of its 8:10 scale replica that the artist constructed and placed in the very heart of Bangkok, almost exactly a year after the 2014 coup and the imposition of martial law.

Positioned in front of the Bangkok Art and Culture Centre on a square that has become a place for protests and rallies, and an area that is also prone to confrontations and arrests, the replica, sealed from the public offers passersby a glimpse through a glass partition of the light box containing the photograph shown in Paris. While at first inaccessible, this half-real, half-fictional display installed where official institution and public space come together, will subsequently become a mobile exhibition space for university students in Bangkok.

By replicating the exhibition space of a private Parisian gallery in the public arena in Bangkok, and through the use of copying to emphasize the separation between a situation, its interpretation and its transmission, the artist has created a temporary monument which is under surveillance and that explores the capacity of art to play a role in public debate.

Pratchaya Phinthong, Who will guard the guards themselves, 2015

Light box, duratrans and steel frame
Edition of 1 (+ 1 A.P.)
161 x 200 x 9 cm
Collection: Musée National d’art Moderne, Paris

Who will guard the guards themselves? targets the distance that separates an exhibition in Paris by the artist from his home back in Bangkok as a kind of filter in order to energize the space and time which separates reality from its representation.

Who will guard the guards themselves? is a photograph taken at night by the artist after a military coup on 22 May 2014 and three weeks of army imposed curfew in the Bangkok.

The image is of the storefront of a 7-Eleven-an indicator of global commerce doing business 24/7- which here is seen deserted and, though lit up, closed for business, becoming a symbol of the devastation of daily life brought on by repression.
By replicating the exhibition space of a private Parisian gallery in the public arena in Bangkok, and through the use of copying to emphasize the separation between a situation, its interpretation and its transmission, the artist has created a temporary monument which is under surveillance and that explores the capacity of art to play a role in public debate.

When the piece was originally shown for the first time as a large lightbox presented in the gallery, the first impression of the work came via images from a surveillance camera shown on an iPad attached to the wall at the entrance of the room.

This mechanism for control also turned out to be ambiguous. The live images were in fact not those of the gallery, but of its 8:10 scale replica that the artist constructed and placed in the very heart of Bangkok, almost exactly a year after the 2014 coup and the imposition of martial law.

Positioned in front of the Bangkok Art and Culture Centre on a square that has become a place for protests and rallies, and an area that is also prone to confrontations and arrests, the replica, sealed from the public offers passersby a glimpse through a glass partition of the light box containing the photograph shown in Paris. While at first inaccessible, this half-real, half-fictional display installed where official institution and public space come together, will subsequently become a mobile exhibition space for university students in Bangkok.

By replicating the exhibition space of a private Parisian gallery in the public arena in Bangkok, and through the use of copying to emphasize the separation between a situation, its interpretation and its transmission, the artist has created a temporary monument which is under surveillance and that explores the capacity of art to play a role in public debate.