On a recent Saturday in Ratchaburi, children and adults met to decorate a drab community wall with coloured tiles.
A mural in Ratchaburi.
One by one, they plastered the pieces onto the public surface and turned the banal into something more eye-catching, something more artistic, something that all the residents could participate in creating.
“If there are more projects like this, Ratchaburi people will be encouraged to do something to make Ratchaburi a better place,” says Rungpetch Chaothieng, a teacher. “In the long term, we’ll be proud to be part of the creation of our city’s landmark.”
Ratchaburi, located just an hour from Bangkok, is a city famed for its traditional earthenware and ceramics, but the place has, in the past few years, been rebranded with waves of contemporary art. The tile project, called “Art For The City”, is the latest addition to the steady flow of art in this once-old-fashioned province. Ratchaburi now has a small contemporary art museum, an art library, walls of street art, and a large fibreglass, pop-art sculpture as a new landmark.
Often, everyday structures like house walls and eateries are used as makeshift exhibition spaces.
Art For The City is the most recent project organised by Ratchaburi-born artist Wasinburee Supanichworapach, co-hosted by Ratchaburi Municipality and, of course, the community members that participated. The project was a one-day activity in January, with money from the sales of the tiles going to help needy students. Besides the charitable aspect of the event, it also spoke on the joint effort between artists, the public and the town to raise the city’s profile through the use of art.
“We want the students to know that art by the hands of the community once helped support their lives,” says Wasinburee.
Art For The City has also undoubtedly improved the landscape, as the location of the project — walls underneath overhead train tracks — were once unmaintained and flooded with garbage.
Wasinburee is a well-known artist who has been behind much of Ratchaburi’s most recent transformation into an art city. His family owns one of the city’s lead earthenware factories, Tao Hong Tai. The artist has worked from the small gallery Tao Hong Tai: d Kunst, the province’s first contemporary art gallery, for more than 10 years.
Although art has always been a part of his life, Wasinburee was inspired by the concept and possibility of art-orientated cities ever since his time in Germany, where he studied ceramics. His vision to turn Ratchaburi into a city of art has, to a great extent, succeeded, with more and more media reports on the once-overlooked province referring to it as an art hub.
“I don’t expect people to have better understanding of art, or to love art, or to dream of becoming artists. My only attempt is to bring attention to our community in order to preserve our hometown.”
Wasinburee admits that attempts to do so haven’t always been received positively. He once helped bring and publicly exhibit a collection of photos on the Mae Klong river, created by a German artist.
“Those who liked our idea completely understood, but those who didn’t said that Ratchaburi deserves to be a peaceful and clean city and that no fancy work need be done,” explains Wasinburee.
“I was prepared for these kind of comments, as an art piece lasts for only a couple of months, but with this project and involving the community, people are able to say what they like and how they want Ratchaburi to be.”
History and preservation of a legacy is often used as the foundation of most cities, but in times of inevitable change, art is often used as a means to preserve the old, while finding a way to update and make it more relevant.
Wasinburee says that this metaphor of change lies in the actual tiles used in the project. There are two kinds of tiles: those that have been dipped in gold, and the plain, coloured ones. Within three to four months, the golden-dipped tiles will fade in colour, leaving just a normal surface. Interpretations of this technique varies, he says, from non-permanence to the co-existence of the new and old. Although happy with how Art For The City worked out, he is not one to rest on his laurels. After receiving positive feedback from the 2012 Art Normal project — a citywide exhibition aimed at introducing art to locals by displaying various artworks in everyday areas such as in shophouses, buses, eateries — the artist has set his sights on the second Art Normal project.
“In planning for this edition, I would like to ask locals to set aside space for permanent exhibitions and if we succeed, then this will be the first permanent community exhibition in the world. But we’re still looking for funding,” says Wasinburee.
“The budget is a classic obstacle,” says the artist, adding that he and his friends more often than not have to reach into their own pockets. Wasinburee concedes, however, that the government sector has recently been much more supportive in terms of granting permission to use public areas, as well as providing workers.
This recent interest and support from residents and local authorities couldn’t come at a better time as this year, the Tourism Authority of Thailand selected Ratchaburi as one of the 12 hidden gems that tourists should visit, mainly for its famous arts and crafts communities. The government realises, according to Puwanapt Supapetch, Ratchaburi’s Municipal Clerk, that art can be a way of attracting tourists.
“For this project, we provided money for concrete and also people who can help mix it. We have also previously supported graffiti artists to create artwork on abandoned buildings, based on the theme of identities of Ratchaburi,” said Puwanapt.
In the end, it’s the community that will decide on how Ratchaburi will look in the future.
“I’ve stopped with my child to join the activity,” says Ratchadaporn Wongsaroj, a nurse, who was helping to put tiles on the wall. “At least it makes me feel like a part of the province. Art has become part of Ratchaburi identity in recent years and helps make our province unique. I want my kid to feel attached to his hometown, and this is a way to do it.”
Although Wasinburee has long been a driving force of Ratchaburi art, he says he doesn’t want to be a permanent fixture in its future. He instead wants to be a participant and a supporter.
“From now on, a project should not just come from an individual. The long term plan, especially, should come with the co-operation of the people,” he says. “I don’t think we’ve reached the point where we can fully call Ratchaburi ‘the city of art’ just yet, but we’re getting there.”
Local people join The Art For The City event on Jan 17.
