26 Kore

“Before it stood tall as a community that consolidated layers of cultural beliefs into one, we began counting from a single clump of bamboo, gradually nearing the eleventh. It transformed into a space of existence beneath the dim shadows of a tunnel, just before reaching the light at its open end. As time passed through that passageway—along the nodes and hollow joints of bamboo stretching toward their swaying tips—it became many things through the resonant collisions of empty tubes moving alongside shifting stages of life, and through the urgency of running through the tunnel. This moment is a recollection of the sharp bamboo shoots before they emerged and unfurled into radiant groves.”

The exhibition “26 Clumps” by 26 third-year students from the Interdisciplinary Arts Program explores artistic projects within the inner landscapes of each individual. These inner territories are likened to bamboo shoots of thought, gradually growing into multiple stalks that come together to construct a new conversational space.

Set within the context of Wat Umong (Suan Phutthatham) formerly known as Wat Pa Phai 11 Kor a site once rooted in a tightly knit community and now layered with overlapping contemporary memories shaped by diverse people, cultures, temporalities, and identities bound together like a grove. What shared identity emerges through the individual selves of these students, each an outsider who has come to root their thinking in this place?

The 26 bamboo clumps thus become symbolic gestures in constructing new ground interacting with the historic and spiritual presence of Wat Umong. They may be humble, assimilative, or resistant to the original eleven clumps. At the same time, they articulate creative processes expressed through contemporary art practices.

The exhibition concludes with a question about the cyclical nature of bamboo groves standing tall, falling, decaying, and sprouting anew. What might viewers discover within the interplay between personal narratives and the shared space in which we collectively define this dialogue?