Curating the Frontier: Tactical Interventions, Spatial Negotiation, and the Re-Signification of Chiang Saen in Thailand Biennale, Chiang Rai 2023

Abstract

This paper examines the intersection of contemporary art, curatorial practice, and development policy in the Mekong Subregion through a case study of Thailand Biennale, Chiang Rai 2023: The Open World in Chiang Saen District. Located at the tri-border area of Thailand, Laos, and Myanmar, Chiang Saen reflects overlapping pressures of heritage preservation, cross-border mobility, tourism development, special economic zone planning, and ecological precarity along the Mekong River. The Biennale strategically used historical ruins, riverfront areas, municipal spaces, warehouses, schools, and local cultural venues as temporary exhibition sites, transforming the district into a distributed curatorial landscape. The study investigates how these interventions reconfigured fixed or underused spaces into platforms for public reflection and critical dialogue. Methodologically, it adopts a qualitative case-study approach combining document analysis, site-specific interpretation, and thematic analysis of selected artworks and venues. Findings suggest that the Biennale operated as a form of spatial negotiation in which contemporary art activated tensions between existing site functions and new interpretive possibilities. The paper proposes the concept of curatorial intersectionality to explain how such interventions mediate among state policy, global art discourse, local memory, and socio-ecological urgency. Although temporary, the Biennale re-signified Chiang Saen as a critical cultural site for reconsidering development, heritage, and regional identity in the Mekong context, while also indicating the potential and limits of cultural events as catalysts for spatial and policy reflection.