Korakrit Arunanondchai’s Bangkok

Immerse yourself in Korakrit Arunanondchai’s Bangkok, as the artist reflects on his hometown, where he co-founded the non-profit foundation GHOST in 2018 with Akapol Op Sudasna.

From 2018 to 2025, GHOST staged an experimental triennial video and performance art festival, starting with Ghost:2561 in 2018, which Arunanondchai curated, followed by Ghost 2565: Live Without Dead Time in 2022, curated by Christina Li, and culminating with Ghost 2568: Wish We Were Here in 2025, curated by Amal Khalaf.

Can you share a secret place in Bangkok where you escape to be alone, regroup, reset and recharge? 

I usually recharge in my own home but there are certain places I have visited to have space outside of my normal life, that I recommend visitors to Bangkok. One of them is Wat Don Cemetery. There’s a park there and people go exercising and practice dance routines. Another place I haven’t visited for a while, but I always tell people to go, is the Dhammakaya Temple. It’s a controversial place; you can watch the documentary Come and See to learn about it. Wear all white and just spend a Sunday there. It can be interesting. 

Which 5 songs would you include in a soundtrack to Bangkok and why? 

1. I’m going to plug my own song, since it’s called ‘Bangkok City City’. I made it for a video installation ten years ago. 
   
2. Next is Yellow Fang’s ‘True Blue’. You should come to Bangkok to be a bit emo. A bit wet on the outside and inside. Feel the humidity, take the sky train and listen to this song. It’s about drying your laundry in this humid air. 
   
3. I knew Petch Osathanugrah’s song 'เพียงชายคนนี้' before I knew him. I learned to play it when I was 15. One day I was on a beach in Krabi, exactly one week before the 2004 tsunami, and saw a man with a guitar. I asked to borrow his guitar, played him this song, and he started singing it with me. Later he said he was the one that wrote this song. Years later, he became one of my biggest art collectors. He passed away two years ago, and his museum Dib opened in Bangkok at the end of 2025. 
   
4. Moderndog is one of the greatest Thai rock bands. Everyone loves Moderndog.
   
5. ‘Rainy day’ by JPBS. Because it rains a lot here. Also, they are one of the coolest bands in Bangkok now. 

What is your favourite food to eat in Bangkok, and who cooks it best? 

My favourite genre of Thai food is Thai seafood. If you are willing to go a little bit outside the centre of the city it can be cheaper. I recommend ObAroi Kaset-Nawamin. If you want something more convenient, near all the galleries, then Pen Restaurant is also good. 

I like grilled prawn or steamed mud crab with Thai seafood sauce. 

Do you prefer walking, driving, taking the subway or the bus? Share a route that you love.  

I prefer to take the sky train and then get on a motorbike to get to where I need to be. It’s not the safest way, but it’s the fastest. 

Are there any artists living in Bangkok that you particularly admire? What is it about their work that resonates with you and reveals something unknown about where you live?  

Pratchaya Phinthong. Close to 14 years ago, my university professor, Rirkrit Tiravanija, told me to go visit an artist in Bangkok named 'Toh'. I contacted him and went to meet him at Jatujak market. He was showing me documentation of his work in an analogue photo album. Back then I remember he talked to me a lot about exchanges and micro-economies and how his art practice can link and make these systems interact with each other. I've been a follower of his work since then.

His last show at Bangkok CityCity was really memorable. He took out all the windows of the gallery and constructed a fish tank out of it. Me and my girlfriend went to see it at midnight on the very last day as the gallery was open 24 hours a day. It was such a beautiful experience.

Then there’s Kage Mulvilai and members of B-Floor Theatre group. The collective works in the form of experimental theatre collaboration with other people and the community. There is something about their movement-based work and the conversations they have through their work that really speaks to the time and concerns we share in Bangkok and Thailand today.

I respect the Duckunit collective and their values a lot. From lighting, environmental installation, concerts, ceremonies, experimental theatre, and kinetic art, the collective does it all and collaborates with artists from multiple fields to create some of the most experimental work by Thai artists. 

What recurring events – perhaps a natural phenomenon, a cultural festival, or an unusual tradition – feel the most unique here? 

The Hindu festival on Silom Road feels special to me. Thai Animism and rituals in certain ways feel almost more Hindu than Buddhist to me. This festival becomes the most visible version of that in the city centre. 

I know this is a touristy one, but I have to mention Songkran, or Thai New Year. 

Describe a local superstition. How does it affect people’s daily lives? Do you subscribe to this yourself? 

I think here, spirits are in everything. Some people are more aware than others. Beliefs get readapted or invented constantly, based on people’s current desires. Most of the time, superstition here follows the trajectory of late capitalism, either as an antidote or even sometimes supportive. The spirits exist in technology and seamlessly can affect almost anything. There’s a really great book on this called Capitalism Magic Thailand: Modernity with Enchantment, by Peter A. Jackson. I highly recommend it.