Montien Boonma interview :
Reaching beyond tradition (1991)
Alfred Pawlin: Reaction to much contemporary art in Thailand has been unfavourable at times. How do you feel your work has been treated through your exhibitions?
Montien Boonma: I’ve read the comments of the people who have attended. From their remarks I sense that people have understood my work quite well and have been able to communicate with it. This is perhaps mostly because people in Thailand know the materials that I use and have had some experience with them. But if you asked them if my work had any value, they wouldn’t say. If you asked them if they considered my work as works of art, then they also wouldn’t say.
In Thailand, only certain forms are regarded as art. The main criteria are the quality of beauty, fine and elegant motifs, oil paintings and bronze sculptures in the Western style.
These make a work a form of art. So my work might not be considered a valuable form of art in Thailand. But it communicates well.
To me it is like eating a plant and calling it a vegetable without realizing that it is a medicine as well. Everybody is concerned with form, but not everyone is concerned with substance. The image is fixed on Western criteria, so painting and sculpture have to be formal.
Alfred Pawlin: What about future projects?
Montien Boonma: I do not know exactly but I’d like to use photographs with the theme of people in the village. But I don’t like to speculate on work because I live day by day and don’t want my future to be linked with the business world. That is not my way. I might know a way, but perhaps another way might open up. So I don’t plan too much for the future.
Alfred Pawlin: Do you think you have inspired other Thai artists?
Montien Boonma: Yes, I hope so. Some artists have realised that the way I have gone makes us all open to more energy and experience.
Alfred Pawlin: Thai art is one part of the art of Asia. What do you think about contemporary art in Asia?
Montien Boonma: Asian artists have to communicate between their countries more and more. I think that the new generation in particular will have to change its ideas, to share more of the experiences and learn more about each other. Maybe this will help Asian contemporary ar to become more solid and to have a greater influence on the international art world.
I think we need a few international exhibitions in Asia curated by Asian art critics since they will understand our activities better than Western art critics.
I think also every country needs more contemporary art museums. These institutions have a very important role and position to support artists from all Asian countries.
Montien Boonma’s work [was] at Visual Dhamma Gallery, Bangkok, 21 December 1991 to 5 February 1992. It [was] also seen, in February 1992, at the environmental project Arte Amazonas at the Museum of Modern Art in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
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