While many designers insist on using standard patterns and materials, Suppapong Songsang sees things differently.

He believes that a design should not have a static meaning, but that its beauty depends on the individual's point of view and attitude.

Tazana, the name of his brand, means Perspective in Thai. Like nature creating beauty in an unrepeatable manner, Suppapong's striking lights are not static. In his work, technology meets handicraft and improvisation.

Imitating stemcells ability to evolve in various ways, Suppapong Songsang's designs are able to evolve according to the needs and creativity of their owners.

Fashion photographer, but not only. His personal work is fed with the question of gender. A very trendy theme these days, except that contrary to others, it is not the feminine-masculine or the 3rd sex theory that interest him, but rather the question of identity that is behind and linked to it.

This is reflected in his work which gives him ground to experiment. This is why and also for ethic a reason, Punsiri has never accepted that fashion designer tell him what to do. Designers and publications he works for have always given him a lot of freedom: "Right from the beginning of my career, I only shot what I wanted to and the way I wanted to. I would rather my style to be hated than just average".

When he speaks about his work and his research on identity, one really gets this impression that Punsiri uses fashion as a means to be experimental, playing with images and impressions we get from them.

Daringly, he mocks traditional criteria attached to fashion photography: use beautiful models so that people want to buy the clothes they wear and give of themselves the same image.  Punsiri does not hand over the ideal aesthetic of fashion models but instead creates characters that are extraordinary, that we cannot relate to because their attribute of identity are contradictory: a young boy wearing trash make-up; a woman dressed like a little girl; an Asian model with black skin, a transsexual dressed like a diva. 

Because nobody can really relate to the models he photographs. Is that why his photographs strike us so much and sometimes disturb us? Hence opening the debate: are our identity classifications valuable? Are they healthy?

Exhibition : 28 May - 29 June at GMT+7 art&design Gallery : 258 Chaussee d'Ixelles, 1050 Brussels

Contact us: gmt7gallery@gmail.com

The gallery is opened Wednesday to Sunday  2.pm to 7.pm. or upon request
258 Chaussée d'Ixelles, 1050 Brussels, Belgium

Web : www.gmt7.org
Email : GMT7gallery@gmail.com

Owner : SoiWat.org
Management : France Dupin de Beyssat  and  Xavier Lambert

Tel  : +32 2 648 26 23
Fax  : +32 2 265 07 24

Back to GMT7 art&design gallery main page

When fashion overcomes illusion, where couture tends to become sculpture, at the collision point of catwalk and sidewalk, at the borders of trash culture and haute couture, there stands Chaichon Savantrat one of Bangkok's most famous and independent fashion designers.

Active for more than 20 years in his field, Chaichon achieved a remarcable level of creativity and delicacy in his realisations, at the razor-sharp limit of both art and fashion...

He is widely recognised as one of the most daring and main figures of Bangkok fashion scene.

He is the designer behind the well acknowledged brands Good Mixer (menswear) and Muse (women)

In March 2008, a retrospective of his work has been organised in Brussels, at GMT+7 art&design gallery. follow this link to have a look at the the Opening night

Coming from a family of innovative silk screen printers that have just invented magnetic ink, Narttawat sees more in prints than just paper. Same goes with objects: "I don't see many products that have dimensions. Objects are stiff, not flexible and not organic. I'd like objects to be more movable, I'd like them to create illusion, play with your eyes and tease you. Why and object should be boring and have a limited life?!"

Thus Narttawat mocks the usual categories under which are separated visual arts, interactive installations and functional designs. Through his work he unifies usually separated department such as Science, Research & Development and Printing by using everybody's knowledge in a new perspective. Technology and research are his natural way to diversify his means of artistic expression.

His work is a material symbol of the part that artistic influx plays in industrial development and advanced technologies. This synergy makes all these disciplines greater, enriched from each other. Then printing is not only paper, Plexiglas is not only transparent, lamps are not only lights, industrial design does not only serve a function.

Together with his 3Ds and 4Ds lampe, large Plexiglas boards use kinetic graphics and optical effects, playing with perspective and space, as well as our visual senses.

Visit the exhibition "Layers of Light... " at GMT+7 or the Opening of the 04 February 2008

Rising star of South East Asian design, locally acclaimed as one of the best emerging young designers, Nattaboon founded Amalgamm+ in Bangkok in 2006, just after graduating in Lighting Design from the School of Architecture and Design (King Mongkut's University of Technology).

Nattaboon presents here his Airlines collection as well as his latest design: Scientist.

The concept of Airlines grew from the desire Nattaboon had to underline the essence of our invisible atmosphere: Air. By giving it a more tangible form , the balloons do not imprison the air but underlines its very existence.

Visit the exhibition "Air... " at GMT+7 or check the  atmosphere during the Opening 

The process finds its originality in the very sincere and respectful manners of the artist.This work is in itself a quest for ideal. Even-though does he nothesitate to physically incarnate western historical or sacred figures and symbols of absolute such as Virgin Mary, Jesus Christ, Mona Lisa orMarie-Antoinette; his intentions do never appear insulting, even at first glance.

When working on these representations of the absolute, Montri Toemsombat chooses to not explore them through scholar or theoretical knowledge. Instead, he applies a willingly childlike look guided mainly by his instinctive sensibility. He does not try to tear the myth apart, but when incarnating these figures and reviving these instants of ideal(otherwise solidified in classical representations as well as in our own minds) he lets surprising new elements come out of the myth.

Thanks to the artist's lack of preconceptions, the audience itself is freed ofits own cultural and emotional formatting which allows it in returnto consider freely those familiar representations under a newperspective. Freed from the subconscious print of the myth, thespectator then becomes more than a passive simple product of his culture and myths; he becomes an actor, an individual person in front of his own culture.

In Montri's work, performances are always site specific; an intimate relationship between space and topic is developed: the location is an actor in the process of creation. It appears like location itself invites a particular classic myth representation. The recurrence of high places is to be put in relation with the universal concept of direct relationship between the notions of altitude / heavens. Therefore, in this work all performances took place in locations allowing direct vertical communication with the sky, on elevated grounds.

The outcome of this work is photographed. The pictures are then applied by the artist on a wooden frame of his conception wrapped in a Buddhist monk's robe fabric. Some specific parts (mainly faces) are torn apart and glued another parts of the picture. This final operation leaves holes in the scene, (where the orange monk robe is revealed) and invites the onlooker to a hide and seek game exiting his curiosity and interest.

From all these transformations, many new meanings can freely be found or developed by the spectator according to his own aspirations. The work iscalling for interpretation; it is a source of creative introspection. Long after it took place, the performances open doors in the onlooker's mind and generate several new layers of creation.

During summer 2007, Montri Toemsombat visited Brussels where he organised the set up a chapter of his reseach. This time, the western myth of marriage was to be explored.

Performance took place on the gothic tower of the City-Hall, culminating at more than a 100m...

While Thailand Contemporary Creative Scene still appears to many a novelty, for the few western specialists and lucky amateurs introduced to it, its variety and dynamism is a perpetual source of fascination.

In order to share these contemporary treasures with a wider audience and support original creation and artists, the Franco-Belgian couple France Dupin de Beyssat and Xavier Lambert founded SoiWat.org a Brussels based NGO. By showcasing Artists and Designers, supporting artistic events and the production of works of art, SoiWat.org aspires to help Europeans go beyond some of their wrongful preconceptions concerning Asia and give them a unique opportunity to open up to a cutting-edge, up-and-coming creation scene.

Since its creation SoiWat.org presented 8 Bangkok fashion designers at the Paris Ethical Fashion Show 06 ; participated to the redaction of Made by Thais, a major art book edited by the world famous Parisian Gallery Enrico Navarra; organised the production of the performance White Bird by Montri Toemsombat ; brought 3 other major Thai contemporary artists to Brussels Nuit Blanche 07 notably Pinaree Sanpitak who exhibited Temporary Insanity at Brussels Town Hall; and finally organised a performance by video artist Peerapat Kittisuwat closing the Mogno Music 10th Anniversary Festival at Flagey in collaboration with the performers Antoine Prauwerman and the Vegetal Beauty.

The new born of their long, patient and unshakable passion, GMT+7 art&design gallery is to become a cultural vortex where creative and personal encounters blur all boundaries, notably those traditionally separating East and West; Art and Design; Fashion and Creation; Trend and Inspiration. It is also a place where visitors access documentation, resources, experience and intimate knowledge of today's Thai creative scene gathered by SoiWat.org.

Through 2008, GMT+7 will host no less than 14 solo exhibitions showcasing various aspects of contemporary culture: performances, photography, fashion design, light installations, furniture designs, paintings, sculptures, jewelery.

All the artists and designers presented are highly significant in their own country and internationally known by experts through exhibitions and publications. GMT+7 offers a privileged opportunity for the European public to discover these talents in a new intimate way. By bringing physically the artists in Brussels, SoiWat.org allows an actual meeting and a real exchange.

The exhibitions will also be a unique occasion for collectors to access original creations; limited editions, numbered and signed designs; rare works of art presented for the first time in Europe.

Click on the right hand side menu to see the exhibitions.

Since first appearing on the Thai contemporary art scene in 1989, Tawan Wattuya has continuously excelled at translating his provocative social visions into forceful artworks. He uses art as a weapon to break through the conventional image of the society he lives in. His distorted portraits emerge from cut outs of everyday magazines, newspapers, television shows and web sites. Mass communication is for him a playground where the darkest sides of his own culture can be exposed. As Marc Lathuillere puts it: "Every image is a double. The product of a mirror reproduced at high speed by the media. A proliferation that Tawan fully integrated in his previous project, shown in 2005: the head of then Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra painted 500 times, divided into 500 different faces exposed in one single room"

Tawan Wattuya reached new levels in the conceptual portrayal of his contemporaries with his work "Siamese Freaks! A modern courtyard of miracles", exhibited in November 2007 at the Numthong Gallery in Bangkok and originally inspired by the world famous figures of the Siamese Twins, Chang and Eng Bunker (1811–1874) who, "discovered" in Bangkok, travelled with Barnum's circus for many years. Due to their fame and the rarity of their condition, the term came to be used as a synonym for conjoined twins.

By using derived forms of their ill image to portray the emblematic figures of contemporary Thailand, Tawan delivers a bright and colourful overview of a decaying society. Politicians,celebrities, porn stars, traditional figures, seen in the mirror of his black and cunning humour, appear as double-faced monsters - leading us to question the mad society who's given them birth.
 
Without falling prey to exoticism or a desire to soften cultural realities, Tawan portrays locals and foreigners in splashes of bright colour, dissecting their flaws and follies with his paintbrush and the self-awareness of a Thai commenting on his peers. 

Much of Tawan's art is an unflinching commentary on Thai society and the individuals who penetrate the public psyche through celebrity or political activity. Numerous well-known faces appear in his paintings including Miss Universe Nathalie Glebova and former prime minister Taksin Shinawatra.

As his curator Myrtille Tibayrenc says, "Ironically ranging political men at the same level as TV pop stars, or even anonymous porn actors, he reveals the "inverted" power of the media".
 

To see some of Tawan Wattuya's work in Europe, please contact GMT+7 art&design Gallery in Brussels: 258 Chaussee d'Ixelles, 1050 Brussels. Tel: +32 484 435 602. Or by mail: gmt7gallery@gmail.com

2008

• Anon Pairot's design are visible at GMT+7 art&design Gallery, 258 Chaussee d'Ixelles, 1050 Brussels, Belgium. Contact: +32 484 435 602. gmt7gallery@gmail.com

2007

• "Best of the Best Design Award" directed by Singapore Furniture Industries Council for his Cell Collection

• "Furniture Designer of the Year", directed by Silapakorn

• "Product Designer of the Year", directed by Silapakorn

• "Cell Collection" was a finalist of "Design For Asia Award 2007"; directed by Hong Kong Design Centre

• "Kaysorn" was winner awarded "Red Dot Design Concept 2008"; directed by Red Dot Design Centre

2006

• "First Class Furniture Designer 2006" awarded by WALLPAPER MAGAZINE (Thailand)

2005

• "In-Jun" was awarded G-MARK Award 2005 & shown at Japan Good Design Award Exhibition ASEAN Selection directed by (JIDPO) Japan Industrial Design Promotion Organization

• "Thai DESIGN FORUM 2005 exhibition" curator and art director for DEPT Thai

• Finalist of "Thai Young Design Entrepreneur of the Year 2005" ; organized and directed by British Council

• Finalist of Bombay Sapphire Glass Design Award 2005 (Thailand Selection)

2004

• "Young Talent Thai Designer 2004," directed by Thailand Export Promotion Department.

• "Young Designer of Talents a la Carte 2004", directed by Maison&Objet International Fair, Paris

2002

• Outstanding Design prize by "Thai Furniture Development Project," for his Loft Lounge Chair

• "Eminent Student of the Year 2001" by King Mongkut's Institute of Technology Ladkrabang