Bangkok | Venice | The Bangkok Art Biennale Foundation presents the Collateral Event The Spirits of Maritime Crossing 2026, an international group exhibition curated by Prof. Dr. Apinan Poshyananda, Chief Executive and Artistic Director of Bangkok Art Biennale. Supported by Thai Beverage Public Company Limited (ThaiBev) and One Bangkok, the exhibition will be held from 9 May to 2 August 2026 at Palazzo Rocca Contarini Corfù, Venice.
Bringing together 20 artists from Southeast Asia, as well as artists from Ireland, Serbia, and beyond, the exhibition explores themes of identity, displacement, diaspora, memory, and spiritual resilience in a world shaped by migration and global transformation. Participating artists include Marina Abramović, Pichet Klunchun, Martha Atienza, Ong Kian Peng, Nadiah Bamadhaj, Le Hien Minh, Wasinburee Supanichvoraparch, Sornchai Phongsa, and more. Spanning performance, film, installation, painting, and sculpture, the exhibition reflects on how artists transform shared experiences of loss, rupture, and transition into poetic forms of connection. Highlights include new collaborative works and a short film created especially for the exhibition, directed by Prof. Dr. Apinan Poshyananda.
Prof. Dr. Apinan Poshyananda, Curator, explains: “I am deeply honoured that The Spirits of Maritime Crossing 2026 returns to Venice as one of the Collateral Events of the 61st International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia. In this edition, 20 artists from Southeast Asia, Serbia, and Ireland examine cultural flows through migration, diaspora, and dislocation as a result of colonization, war, and environmental detriment. The hum in minor keys of the voiceless from distant places are brought to Venice. Shifting a slower gear with meditative deep breaths, viewers experience through film, performance, sound, painting, and installation multiple interpretations of spirits of maritime crossing."
At the heart of the presentation is Marina Abramović’s performance Sea Punishing, staged with hundreds of participants whipping the sea in reference to King Xerxes’s act of punishing destructive waters—a poignant remembrance of the Andaman Sea tsunami. The new film The Spirits of Maritime Crossing Part II follows Abramović alongside Pichet Klunchun, Mutmee Pimdao Panichsamai, Aleksandar Timotić, and Amanda Coogan on a spiritual journey between Venice and Bangkok, tracing themes of suffering, solitude and transcendence.
Marina Abramović shares: “I am delighted to participate in The Spirits of Maritime Crossing 2026 on the theme of spiritual journey through maritime crossing that explores painful journeys of colonization, diaspora, migration and slavery. As I performed in the film with choreographer Pichet Klunchun in temples and many sites in Bangkok the experience was most challenging and contemplative. For the 2026 edition, the film takes on a new painful journey with myself, Klunchun, and performers Amanda Coogan, Aleksandar Timotić and Mutmee Pimdao Panichsamai who struggle in desire, torment and karma. Additionally, my video Sea Punishing (2005) inspired by the tsunami that destroyed thousands of lives on the Andaman Seas will be shown with works related to trauma and dislocation by emerging artists from Southeast Asia.”
A major theme throughout the exhibition is the navigation of personal mythologies and collective memories: Martha Atienza’s underwater film merges Catholic rituals with maritime processions; Ong Kian Peng envisions Singapore submerged by rising currents through disruptive AI imagery; Tcheu Siong stitches Hmong cosmologies into monumental embroideries; and Sornchai Phongsa’s paintings confront Mon ancestral rituals and queer identity. Across the exhibition, artists reflect on migration, spirituality, environmental fragility and cultural inheritance: from Nadiah Bamadhaj’s reinterpretation of Calon Arang to Le Hien Minh’s paper sculptures of post-war memories, Soe Yu Nwe’s surreal ceramics of hybrid creatures, and Parada Wiratsawee’s haunting sculptures of sea life in distress.
Ong Kian Peng notes: “In my work, I examine how water acts as an oscillating force between present realities and possible futures shaped by rising seas and engineered resilience. This movement between the known and what is imagined echoes the exhibition’s inquiries into journeys, memory, and the porous connections between places—how coastlines shift, how histories traverse oceans, and how bodies navigate uncertain horizons. The shared vulnerabilities of Singapore and Venice show how island cities live in a constant state of ecological anxiety, suspended between adaptation and fragility.”
Themes of ecological collapse and ancestral resilience reverberate throughout The Spirits of Maritime Crossing 2026, with Ruangsak Anuwatwimon’s fragile floating soil diorama and Wasinburee Supanichvoraparch’s ceramic residues of ancient trade routes, while Torlarp Larpjaroen’s Spiritual Spaceships evoke nostalgic vessels arriving in Venice. Arahmaiani’s participatory Flag Project and Yasmin Jaidin’s soil-based works engage communities and universities in sustainable artmaking. Contrastingly, in Ode to Joy – Thai Sign Language (2024), Amanda Coogan performed the piece in collaboration with Thai youths with hearing disabilities, where they participated in the silent choir at the concert led by Coogan at the historic white stupa at Prayurawongsawat Temple in Thonburi, offering a breath of hope. Throughout the vernissage and opening weeks, live performances by artists intertwining Italian-Slav opera, Irish ballads, Thai mask dance and spiritual chants form a shared vocabulary of minor tones and minor care. Through layered narratives of faith, race, migration and neo-colonial realities, The Spirits of Maritime Crossing 2026 reflects on a world in flux, offering moments of quiet resistance and poetic resilience.
NOTES TO EDITORS
CURATOR
Prof. Dr. Apinan Poshyananda has curated and directed international art exhibitions across Asia, Europe, USA and Oceania including Traditions/Tensions, New York; Thai and Australian sections, Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art; Asian section, São Paulo Biennial; Thai section, Istanbul Biennial; Commissioner, Thai Pavilion, the 50st, 51st and 52st International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia; Tout à Fait Thai, Paris; as well as five editions of the Bangkok Art Biennale (2018–2026), and the first chapter of The Spirits of Maritime Crossing at the 60th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia (2024).
ARTISTS
The Spirits of Maritime Crossing 2026 presents artists from Southeast Asia and beyond, including Marina Abramović (Serbia), Ruangsak Anuwatwimon (Thailand), Arahmaiani (Indonesia), Martha Atienza (the Philippines), Nadiah Bamadhaj (Malaysia), Amanda Coogan (Ireland), Yasmin Jaidin (Brunei), Pichet Klunchun (Thailand), Torlarp Larpjaroensook (Thailand), Le Hien Minh (Vietnam), Soe Yu Nwe (Myanmar), Ong Kian Peng (Singapore), Mutmee Pimdao Panichsamai (Thailand), Sornchai Phongsa (Thailand), Tcheu Siong (Laos), Wasinburee Supanichvoraparch (Thailand), Swannie (Myanmar), Aleksandar Timotić (Serbia), Samboleap Tol (Cambodia/The Netherlands), and Parada Wiratsawee (Thailand).
VENUE
Palazzo Rocca Contarini Corfù, overlooking Venice’s Grand Canal near the Accademia, is one of the city’s most striking examples of Venetian Gothic and 17th-century architecture. Originally built by the illustrious Contarini family — who produced eight doges of Venice — the palace embodies centuries of history and cultural grandeur. Expanded in the 17th century by architect Vincenzo Scamozzi to unite Gothic and Baroque styles, it later became the residence of the Rocca family, hosting royal figures, artists, and intellectuals. Carefully preserved to this day, the palazzo remains a living testament to Venice’s architectural and social legacy. Today, the palazzo will be hosting the Collateral Event The Spirits of Maritime Crossing 2026, transforming its historic chambers into a space of artistic encounter between past and present, East and West.
THE BANGKOK ART BIENNALE FOUNDATION (BAB)
Founded in 2017, the Bangkok Art Biennale Foundation (BABF) is dedicated to fostering cross-cultural exchange among artists and creative practitioners worldwide. Through its diverse programs, the Foundation creates opportunities for artists to develop their practices, produce new work, and gain greater visibility on the international stage. The Foundation’s activities encompass a rich program of public engagement, including conferences and symposiums, artist talks, workshops, guided visits, publications, and digital initiatives. Among its key educational initiatives are BAB Academy, which supports learning and professional development for art students and practitioners, and Dek BAB, a program that enables students and emerging cultural workers to gain hands-on experience by working alongside Thai and international artists.
The Bangkok Art Biennale Foundation (BABF) was founded by Thai Beverage Public Company Limited (ThaiBev) with the support of public and private sector partners. Established under the patronage of Thapana Sirivadhanabhakdi, Director and Group CEO of Thai Beverage Public Company Limited, the current Board of BABF comprises Thapana Sirivadhanabhakdi, Nitikorn Kravixien, Director of Arts and Culture at Thai Beverage Public Company Limited, Prof. Dr. Apinan Poshyananda, pioneering curator of Asian art, Wiruch Maksumpun, Managing Director of Bangkok Art Biennale and Dhospaak Company Limited, and Pattaya Changsriyawong, Advisor to the CEO and President of Thai Beverage Public Company Limited.
The project is supported by key public sector partners including the Bangkok Metropolitan Authority (BMA), alongside leading private sector partners Bangkok Expressway and Metro Public Company Limited (BEM), CH. Karnchang Public Company Limited, Siam Piwat, Siam Paragon, Icon Siam, and Amarin Group. Artist participation is further made possible through the generous support of regional partners: Fraser and Neave, Limited (F&NL), exclusive sponsor for artists from Singapore; Fraser & Neave Holdings Bhd (F&NHB), exclusive sponsor for artists from Malaysia; and Saigon Beer-Alcohol-Beverage Corporation (SABECO), exclusive sponsor for artists from Vietnam. Ong Kian Peng and Wasinburee Supanichvoraparch developed their installations in collaboration with Ca’ Foscari University in Venice, engaging with research on art and sustainability.
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