Located between the Creative District of Charoen Krung to Talad Noi, "Awakening Bangkok 2020" gets underway today and showcases 36 light installations by 25 selected artists to bring back Bangkok's cheerful spirit.
Organised by Time Out Bangkok, the annual light festival returns for its third edition and is designed around the concept of "Re/Wind/Fast/Forward", to reflect on the current coronavirus crisis so that we can look back at what we have gone through and contemplate how to move past the hard times.
"The first edition of Awakening Bangkok attracted around 75,000 visitors and that number jumped to more than 120,000 in the second edition. Awakening Bangkok has become a creative platform for visual artists and designers to showcase their artwork. At the same time, this event has played a major role in boosting the local economy," said Pongsiri Hetrakul, executive director of Time Out Bangkok and festival director of Awakening Bangkok.
"Amid the global Covid-19 concern, we have seen how the pandemic severely affects society and the economy. Therefore, we need to join forces to find solutions and move forward together."
Continuing until Dec 20, this year's festival highlights three iconic landmarks including the Grand Postal Building, Warehouse 30 and Prince Rama Theatre, home to a collection of 40 artworks and light installations created by Thai and international designers, artists and students. There will also be live music and a craft fair.
Other attractions include Darun Bannalai Library with a lighting installation titled Autorora, created by Autosave Studio, a group of students from King Mongkut's Institute of Technology Ladkrabang. This work traces the origin of Aurora, the Roman goddess of sunrise.
Inspired by Chinese mythology, Digital Picnic will project the Carp Tale into So Heng Tai house's 100-year-old pool, in which visitors will see a carp swimming upstream against the river's strong current and jumping over a waterfall hoping to become a powerful dragon.
"Awakening Bangkok 2020: Re/Wind/Fast/Forward" runs from today until Dec 20. Admission is free. Find out more details at timeout.com/bangkok, and facebook.com/TimeOutBangkok.
Awakening Bangkok 2020: Re/Wind/Fast/Forward.
Awakening Bangkok 2020: Re/Wind/Fast/Forward.
