February nears, and with it comes one of Bangkok’s best opportunities to show off its cool and cultured side.
Expanding outside its usual riverside haunts to spill out across the city, Bangkok Design Week will also go beyond furniture and community preservation to apply creative design thinking to something everyone could use a boost with: mental health.
The weeklong event starting Saturday is about finding design solutions to unexpected problems ranging from mental health, recycling, old building renovation to digital crypto assets.
After two years of pandemic hurt, the folks behind visual design firm Eyedropper Fill attempted to tackle mental health issues with their new project Mental-verse, which will include an exhibition, documentary, art installation, and workshop at River City Bangkok in Talat Noi.
It would not be a good design week if it skipped last year’s creative fad of the NFT (non-fungible tokens). This year’s design week includes an NFT Art Festival showing works by 50 NFT creators in various formats including Augmented Reality, physical pieces, music, and more.
Inspired by the Thai south’s folk shadow puppetry Nang Talung, Spanish artist Jaime Hayon will present an immersive experience inside the Chaipattanasilp Building on Charoen Krung Road.
Up in the Ari zone, residents are invited to bring their recyclable rubbish – from plastic bottles and aluminum cans to secondhand books – in exchange for their own community memecoin, the AriCoin, which can be spent on plants, snacks, groceries, and a chance to participate in a local art project.
Other highlights include ‘The Wall’ urban lighting decoration around the Phadung Krung Kasem Canal, an audiovisual installation inside the abandoned New World shopping mall, and a shophouse renovation showcase.
Bangkok Design Week 2022 will run Saturday through Feb. 13 at venues throughout Bangkok. A full program is available online.
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