Paris’s Jeu de Paume is currently showing a major work by Thai artist Arin Rungjang, Thailand’s representative at the 55th Venice Biennale in 2013, at Maison d’Art Bernard Anthonioz. Titled “Mongkut,” the video installation and sculpture explores Franco-Thai relations during the parallel reigns of King Rama IV (1851–68) and Napoleon III (1852–70).Rungjang’s point of departure is a little-known but significant event in Thai history concerning the relative sovereignty of Siam. Rama IV, known in the West as King Mongkut (meaning “crown” in Thai), twice copied his inherited royal crown. In 1861 the second replica was offered to Napoleon III by the Siamese ambassador at the Château de Fontainebleau.At the centre of Rungjang’s installation is a replica of the 1861 replica of the original 1782 Chakri Royal Crown of Siam. The replica was made by Woralak Sooksawasdi na Ayutthaya, King Mongkut’s great, great, great, granddaughter and a master craftswoman of theater crowns.The first of the two videos is an interview with Pierre Baptiste, renowned curator of Southeast Asian Art at the Musée Guimet, who discusses a range of topics from the history of Franco-Thai inter-court relations to the legitimacy of diplomatic offerings. The second video is a portrait of Woralak Sooksawasdi with a narrative that shifts between family genealogy and the royal craft.“The complex continuum of Mongkut disturbs the linear chronology we generally inherit. Rungjang’s delicate approach to the symbolic negotiating power of the object deliberately offers only part of the story of Thailand’s qualified sovereignty, past and present,” said Curator Erin Gleeson.“Seen through the lens of the present — a gaze he believes is too immediate to reveal reliable evidence — the latest version of the crown becomes, according to the artist, a ‘bi-polar looking glass.’”Arin Rungjang's "Mongkut" is at Maison d’Art Bernard Anthonioz until May 17, 2015. Le teaser de l'exposition Mongkut d'Arin Rungjang, présentée à la Maison d'Art Bernard Anthonioz à Nogent-sur-Marne jusqu'au 17 mai.Posted by Jeu de Paume on Monday, April 20, 2015
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