In this edition of the CFC Art Guide, we spotlight Watching Together at the Boundary curated by Sohee Park. This moving-image exhibition features works originally commissioned and presented through the Gangneung International Art Festival (GIAF), reconfigured for the spatial context of Bangkok Kunsthalle. 

Watching Together at the Boundary curated by Sohee Park

Featured artists: Hong Lee Hyunsook, Jung Yeondoo / Mackerel Safranski / Yanghee Lee / Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook
Dates: 15 July – 9 August 2026
Opening times: Wed – Sun 2 pm – 8 pm
Location: Bangkok Kunsthalle, (599 Pantachit Alley, Pom Prap, Pom Prap Sattru Phai, Bangkok 10100, Thailand)

PharmaResearch Culture Foundation and Bangkok Kunsthalle presents Watching Together at the Boundary at Bangkok Kunsthalle in Thailand from July 15 to August 9, 2026.

The exhibition brings together works originally commissioned and presented through the Gangneung International Art Festival (GIAF), reconfigured for the spatial context of Bangkok Kunsthalle in a moving-image exhibition. Participating artists include Mackerel Safranski, Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook, Yanghee Lee, Jung Yeondoo, and Hong Lee Hyunsook.

Watching Together at the Boundary focuses on the shared sense of communal recovery found in both the Gangneung Danoje Festival and Thailand’s Songkran. While rooted in different cultural traditions, both festivals have brought communities together to pray for well-being and reconnect with the rhythms of everyday life. 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 through the language of contemporary art.

The core concept of the exhibition, “watching together,” extends beyond the act of collective viewing. The exhibition proposes the experience of shared time and space as a practice of hospitality and recovery. Structured around the rhythms that emerge through ritual practice, the screening program brings together the sensibilities and temporalities of Gangneung and Bangkok.

The participating artists approach themes of boundaries, recovery, presence, and community from distinct perspectives. In What You are Touching Now – Gangneung (2025), Hong Lee Hyunsook (b. 1958, Korea) presents a work in which historic architecture, trees, mountains, and the sea in Gangneung—including Chilsadang Hall and the Main Gate of Imyeonggwan Guesthouse—appear to respond to a performer’s repeated striking gestures. The artist proposes striking as a rhythmic, ritualistic act of invocation, prayer, and connection.

Jung Yeondoo, Still from Syncopation #5, 2025, originally a 3-channel 4K digital video with a single-channel jar light installation, color, sound, mixed media, dimensions variable. Modified for this screening as a single-channel video © PharmaResearch Culture Foundation.

Syncopation #5 (2025) by Jung Yeondoo (b. 1969, Korea) captures moments in which human aspirations intersect with forces of nature beyond human control 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.

Mackerel Safranski, Still from Square Black, 2023, single-channel HD video, color, sound, 10 min. 56 sec. Commissioned by Gangneung International Art Festival 2023 (GIAF23) © PharmaResearch Culture Foundation.

Square Black (2023), Mackerel Safranski (b. 1984, Korea) visualizes the experiences of migrants and minority communities who remain excluded from broader notions of hospitality, raising questions about what hospitality at the boundary might truly mean.

Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook, Still from Dogs’ Palatial House, 2022, single-channel video, color, sound, 25 min. © PharmaResearch Culture Foundation

Dogs’ Palatial House (2022) by Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook (b. 1957, Thailand) explores possibilities for coexistence between human and non-human beings through the eyes of dogs.

Yanghee Lee, LEEYANGHEE IPCHUM, 2020_2025, single-channel video, color, stereo sound, 3 min. 3 sec. Installation view of Gangneung International Art Festival 2025. Esiza, Osiza (Small Theater Dan, Gangneung, 2025).

Yanghee Lee’s LEEYANGHEE IPCHUM (2020/2025) revisits Ipchum, a foundational form of Korean traditional dance that combines improvisation with technical discipline. The work explores how tradition can be sustained by preserving and passing on techniques that are gradually disappearing, while adapting to changing times.

The exhibition’s opening-day programs on July 15 includes a Puneori performance and an artist·curator Talk. The performance will feature Puneori, a traditional performing arts group representing the Gangneung Danoje Festival. Led by Woonseok Kim, Puneori will present a performance that brings the ritual rhythms and communal spirit of Gangneung to audiences in Bangkok. The performance will be followed by a talk featuring artist Jung Yeondoo and curator Sohee Park.

Sohee Park, curator of the exhibition and Director of PharmaResearch Culture Foundation, commented, “This exhibition is an opportunity to revisit the unique geographical and cultural conditions of Gangneung, and the narratives that have emerged through GIAF from them, within the context of another city, Bangkok. 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 Korea and Thailand, centered on a cultural complex INON (Art Space, Art Forest) currently under development 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 Korea and abroad.