Haegue Yang and Korakrit Arunanondchai are participating in the Thailand Biennale Chiang Rai 2023: The Open World. Held across multiple locations in Chiang Rai, including museums, temples, and historic sites, the biennale showcases works by 60 contemporary artists from around the world that celebrate the city's complex history and distinctive ecosystem and highlight marginalized narratives. The biennale sheds particular light on the locality of Chiang Rai, a city that has developed into a multicultural arena following its history of colonialism and the Cold War and now serves as a bridge connecting Thailand to the global stage, attempting to approach contemporary global issues with a more "open-minded” perspective.

As this year’s biennale celebrates the city’s vibrant diversity and unique identity while seeking cultural reconstruction, its main theme resonates deeply with Haegue Yang’s practice, which delves into migration, diaspora, and cultural identity. Yang’s works are featured across two venues in Chiang Rai: Mae Fah Luang Art and Cultural Park and Chiang Rai International Art Museum. Displayed at Mae Fah Luang Art and Cultural Park is Yang’s newly commissioned work from her hanji collage series, Mesmerizing Mesh. For this new body of work, Yang drew inspiration from the paper altars of the Hmong people, an indigenous group living in China, Laos, Vietnam, and Thailand. Here, Yang continues her exploration of domesticity as she utilizes the notion of ‘home’ as a site for religious practices and a representation of the cosmos. At the same time, the work emphasizes the universality of the papercraft tradition, which, while used as various forms across different cultures, embodies common themes of soul, spirit, and way of life.

Meanwhile, on view at Chiang Rai International Art Museum are four works from Yang's Intermediates series, comprising sculptures created with artificial straws that evoke hybrid creatures. Surrounding the sculptures is a wallpaper installation on which pinwheels are attached to an unpredictable, eclectic array of elements such as metallic bells, tree branches, and coral reefs.

Korakrit Arunanondchai presents paintings and video installations. Among them is Painting with history in a room filled with men with funny names 2 (2557) (2014), which was filmed at Wat Rong Khun (White Temple), where it is currently displayed. Featuring young men dressed in denim, which symbolizes the history of labor and Western forces of globalization in Arunanondchai’s work, the video explores the boundaries between the East and the West, fiction and reality, and the ultimate role of art in life. The third edition of the Thailand Biennale continues until April 30, 2024.