The quiet hum of the music boxes, playing through Braille for the blind, brings a profound sense of peace to the fifth floor of Bangkok Kunsthalle, inviting visitors to pause and consider the unspoken narratives embedded within the building’s walls.
The quiet hum of the music boxes, playing through Braille for the blind.//Photo by Samatcha Apaiswuan
Contemporary art inspires us to delve deeper into its meanings and the society it reflects.
This holds true for an ongoing art exhibition at the historical building-turned-art space in Bangkok’s Chinatown.
Bangkok Kunsthalle, formerly the old printing house, is currently presenting “This page is intentionally left__”, an exhibition that invites visitors to go deeper into the building’s story, its social context and the history of one of the first Thai-English dictionaries for students.
Printing: An ongoing process.// Photo by Samatcha Aapisuwan
The exhibition occupies the fifth floor of the historical Thai Watana Panich printing house where Thai-English and student textbooks were once published.
The historical printing house serves well as the art space.//Photo by Samatcha Apaisuwan
Here, artworks spanning multiple disciplines engage deeply with the building’s rich history.
Curated by the Yoonglai Collective, the exhibition creatively reimagines the floor through works of three emerging artists, Nat Setthana, Anusorn Thanyapalit, and Teetat Thunkijjanukij. Diverse media—text, sound, print, and installation—co-create meaning for the space.
Thought-provoking installations invite deeper reflection.//Photo by Samatcha Apaisuwan
You’ll find a book on a bookshelf, music boxes playing through Braille, a facsimile machine, and old Thai dictionary copies on display.
The exhibition reflects the curator’s vision, framing printing not as a final product but as an ongoing process open to revision and reinterpretation.
In this way, printing and art share common ground.
Visitors can listen to unheard voices, read the unwritten, and imagine the print presses and publications that once defined this building’s core function.
Redefining the dictionary together
Taking center stage is the “Editorial Only”. Once forbidden to outsiders, this area has been redesigned as an open space to invite the public to revisit old books and the building’s history.
On display is a selection of old Thai-English dictionaries by So Sethaputta - writer, journalist, politician and the compiler of one of the most popular English-Thai dictionaries of the 20th century.
Old publication by So Setthaputta printed by Thai Watanapanich.//Photo by Samatcha Apaisuwan
While his “New Model English-Thai Dictionary” was widely used by Thai students, few knew that So Sethaputta wrote it in prison.
Learning the background of his political stance and the social context of that period inspires many to re-examine his work, especially the examples he provided for certain words.
“New Model English-Thai Dictionary” was widely used by Thai students.//Photo by Samatcha Apaisuwan
For instance, “He has suffered severely for his democratism” is one usage he gave for “democracy”.
A sentence example could also reflect Thai politics, similar to “The Thai Democratic Party took its birth from the Progressive Party” or President Kennedy was a Democrat”.
These works, along with his articles published while he was a journalist, provide rich material for the artists to explore.
They highlight how a small piece of history can inspire out-of-the-box thinking.
This theme resonates with contemporary slang terms on display, such as “tip” (used to describe something fake) or “mae-ko-kue-mae” (literally “a queen is a queen” and used in admiration of powerful women).
Together, these examples clearly show that language and culture are not stagnant; they evolve through time. Visitors can actively participate in contributing to this evolving language.
Everyone is invited to co-author the dictionary by creating a new word, defining its meaning and providing usage examples.
Part of the building’s history is also on display.//Photo by Samatcha Apaisuwan
A computer screen awaits anyone ready to contribute.
After adding a new word, you can even print it out as if you were compiling a dictionary.
With hands-on experience of seeing, hearing, feeling inspired and even writing a contemporary term, the exhibition aligns well with the venue’s mission.
It welcomes artists and visitors alike to revisit the building’s glorious and challenging periods, to explore, and to add new creativity with diverse interpretations.
By doing so, the venue and the art exhibition successfully serve as a platform to cultivate new interpretations and ideas within the evolving art and culture scene, ensuring that even when we feel we’re running out of words, we’re actually just beginning to discover new ways to define our world.
Once forbidden to outsiders, this area has been redesigned as an open space to invite the public to revisit the printing’s history.//Photo by Samatcha Apaisuwan
If you go:
“This page is intentionally left__” runs until 17 August 2025 on the fifth floor of Bangkok Kunsthalle. The exhibition is open Wednesday to Sunday from 2pm to 8pm. Admission is free. Bangkok Kunsthalle is located at 599 Maitri Chit Road and is accessible by MRT, Hualamphong.
