Thailand Biennale Phuket: Eternal [Kalpa]
29 November 2025 – 30 April 2026
Thailand’s Office of Contemporary Art and Culture (OCAC) is proud to announce the fourth edition of its roving Thailand Biennale. Eternal [Kalpa] invokes a Hindu-Buddhist conception of time—the lifetime of the universe. The exhibition will feature some 65 artists from Asia and beyond, many living and working on islands and coasts, exploring the contradictions and sheer diversity of temporal experience.
The itinerant Thailand Biennale was initiated by the OCAC to decentralize contemporary art in Thailand and engage new audiences, revitalising and reimagining provincial destinations for visitors and locals alike. After the inaugural biennale in Krabi (2018) and a second in Korat (2021), its third edition took place in Chiang Rai (2023) in the country’s north. In late 2025, the fourth Thailand Biennale will be launched in the idyllic and culturally rich resort island of Phuket.
Blessed with a balmy climate and famed for its hospitality, Phuket has always harboured diversity: a haven for people and other species coming from every direction, a transit point between worlds. For centuries its bays welcomed pilgrims, traders, nomads and pirates, alongside migrants seeking new rhythms and opportunities, bringing with them different beliefs, technologies and stories. The largest island on Thailand’s Andaman coast, Phuket was a critical site for tin mining, timber and agriculture through the colonial era. In the mid-1980s, its economy pivoted from extractive industries to the tourism that prevails today. In 2015, it became the first city in Southeast Asia to be named a UNESCO City of Gastronomy.
Eternal [Kalpa] opens up the dynamic interplay between humans and non-humans and their fraught interdependence, across a range of sites taking in historic, post-industrial and civic venues, and the island’s stunning natural environments. Rather than familiar postcards of a languid tropical paradise, Eternal [Kalpa] proposes a multiplicity of tempos, cycles and timelines, inspired by the enduring relationships between people and places. Artists are gathering in Phuket to learn from its ecology and hear about its layered history. In dialogue with park rangers, rubber trees, musicians and dancers, storytellers, frogs, free-divers, textile producers, herb merchants, shrine deities, mangrove roots and sea grasses, mine deposits, hospitality experts, beach scavengers and more, the biennale will amplify the manifold rhythms of the island, from the quotidian to the cosmic.
More than 40 new commissions will be realised in partnership with a range of institutions, government agencies and private foundations from around the world. The list of participating artists includes: Aleksandra Domanović, Alex Monteith and Maree Sheehan, Andrew Thomas Huang, Ayoung Kim, bani haykal, Chantana Tiprachart, Eiji Sumi, Haig Aivazian, Ibrahim Mahama, Imhathai Suwatthanaslip, Kamol Phaosavasdi, Koneksi Tamalanrea, Lek Kiatsirikajorn, Luana Vitra, Megan Cope, Melati Suryodarmo, Nathalie Muchamad, Nirmala Dutt, Niwat Manatpiyalert, Nguyen Thuy Tien, Nolan Oswald Dennis, Oliver Laric, Pitupong Chaowakul, Pauline Curnier Jardin & Feel Good Cooperative, Pratchaya Phinthong, Riar Rizaldi, Robert Zhao Renhui, Rossella Biscotti, Rungruang Sittirerk, Santi Lawrachawee, Saroot Supasuthivech, Serene Hui, Supapong Laodheerasiri, Supitcha Tovivich, Taiki Sakpisit, Taloi Havini, Tomiyama Taeko, TOQA, Tsai Ming-Liang, Wilawan Wiangthong, Wu Chi-Yu, Wu Tsang, Yim Maline, Zhao Yao and Zheng Mahler.
Eternal [Kalpa] is conceived and realised by Artistic Directors Arin Rungjang and David Teh, and curators Hera Chan and Marisa Phandharakrajadej. Thailand Biennale is organized by the Office of Contemporary Art and Culture, Thai Ministry of Culture, and the provincial government of Phuket.