Screening and Conversation: ‘Thailand and the Making of Modernity’
About this Event
Join us for an evening of screening and conversation held presented in dialogue with the exhibition ‘รูปสุวรรณศิวิไลซ์: Metamorphosis in Gold’ by Nakrob Moonmanas, curated by Alex Ungprateeb Flynn at Warin Lab Contemporary, Bangkok.
The event begins with a 20-minute screening of the first three acts of ‘รูปสุวรรณคิวิไลซ์: Metamorphosis in Gold’, presented as a trilogy of short films, followed by a conversation between artist Nakrob Moonmanas and curator Alex Ungprateeb Flynn, moderated by esea contemporary Associate Curator, Julia Jiang. Together, the speakers will explore the questions at the heart of ‘Metamorphosis in Gold’: how histories are constructed, how identities are transformed, and what remains unresolved within projects of ‘civilisation’.
Moving between archival research, curatorial inquiry, and speculative artistic practice, the conversation takes as its starting point the figure of Kanang – a Maniq child brought to the court of Rama V within the broader project of ‘ศิวิไลซ์’ (civilisation). Through this lens, the speakers will reflect on what it means to see across difference, navigate diasporic perspectives, interrogate the limits of the historical record, and consider how art can reopen histories that resist closure.
Expanding on the exhibition’s exploration of performance, transformation, and historical memory, ‘The Unfinished Work of Seeing’ invites audiences into a collective reflection on recognition and representation, as well as the unfinished legacies of modernity.
Advance booking is required for this event.
'Metamorphosis in Gold' continues at Warin Lab Contemporary, Bangkok, until 10 July 2026.
About Alex Ungprateeb Flynn
Alex Ungprateeb Flynn is the Associate Professor of Art and Anthropology at the University of California, Los Angeles. Informed by ethnographic and curatorial inquiry, his research explores prefiguration, diasporic identities, and utopia. He is the author of Pathways to Utopia (Indiana University Press, 2025) and Taking Form, Making Worlds (University of Texas Press, 2022), and editor of Unmaking to Make (UCL Press, 2026). An anthropologist, curator, and art theorist, his exhibitions include Construction, Occupation (Fowler Museum, 2025), Cartoneras: Re-leituras Latino-Americanas (Casa do Povo, 2019), and Concrete Mirror (EHESS, Paris, 2017). For his work at São Paulo's Cambridge Artistic Residency, he received Brazil's prestigious APCA Trophy for curatorial practice.
About Nakrob Moonmanas
Nakrob Moonmanas is a visual artist based in Bangkok whose collage practice explores the historical memories of Thai visual arts and culture. Drawing from pictorial archives across different times and geographies, his work juxtaposes local and foreign fragments of visual culture to construct alternative narratives that reframe familiar histories through a contemporary aesthetic. He studied Thai literature at Chulalongkorn University.
His work has been presented at institutions including Bangkok Art and Cultural Centre, Jim Thompson Art Center, Mizuma Gallery, and Warin Lab Contemporary. From 2020–21, Moonmanas was a laureate of the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris, supported by the Institut français and the Embassy of France in Bangkok. In 2022, he participated in the Bangkok Art Biennale, and in 2024 collaborated with Chitti Kasemkitvatana on Our Place In Their World for The Spirits of Maritime Crossing, a collateral event of the Venice Biennale.
esea contemporary is the UK’s only non-profit art centre specialising in presenting and platforming artists and art practices that identify with and are informed by East and Southeast Asian (ESEA) cultural backgrounds.
esea contemporary is situated in an award-winning building in the heart of Manchester, home to one of the largest East Asian populations in the UK. Since its inauguration as a community-oriented visual arts festival in 1986, esea contemporary has continuously evolved to establish itself as a dynamic and engaging space for cross-cultural exchanges in the British art scene, as well as in a global context.
esea contemporary aims to increase the visibility of contemporary art practices from the East and Southeast Asian communities and their diasporas. It is a site for forward-thinking art programmes that beyond exhibitions also include commissions, research, residencies, publishing, and a wide range of vibrant public events. esea contemporary values creativity, compassion, interconnectedness, and collectivity in implementing its mission.
Learn more at: www.eseacontemporary.org
Photo by Joe Smith.
Where is it happening?
Event Location & Nearby Stays:
GBP 0.00 to GBP 3.00
