Alamak!

Alamak! on the occasion of the 57. International Art Exhibition - La Biennale di Venezia "ISLANDS IN THE STREAM” Anon Pairot + Kawita Vatanajyankur + Guests 13 May - 24 September 10 am - 6 pm (closed on Mondays) Private Viewing & Cocktail Party Thursday 11 May 2017 3 pm - 5 pm Arsenale Docks, S. Pietro di Castello 40 (Canale di San Pietro) 30122 Venice 

Alamak! Project launches young Asian artists with multimedia exhibition “Islands in the Stream” for the opening of the 57th Art Biennale in Venice. 

Anon Pairot and Kawita Vatanajyankur are two young Asian/international artists who have, like others of their generation, decided to live on a "nomadic " base, working in different countries and matching their skills with different economical/social/cultural situations, globally. 

Their concentration on topics of representation/discussion of social, cultural, even scientific issues, makes them and their work a new point of reference for the art audience and general public. Their works shown at Alamak! Pavilion in Venice can be considered as "terraferma" - solid ground in the stream of liquid society, where people can stop, stand and understand their condition by looking at the meaning/significance of the world. Kawita Vatanajyankur investigates the condition and obligations of women in contemporary society, by videos with strong performances of female bodies engaged in difficult balancing acts. Anon Pairot looks deeper into the meaning of everyday objects, with the parody full size model Changrai Ferrari car, made out of rattan by skilled Thai craftsmen, or with the iconic rendering of rice sacks from his family memories. 

Other guest artists presented by Alamak! in this exhibition develop objects which merge sound, matter and irony in a constant dialogue between real and imaginary world. The magic city of Venice, where their works are shown at the Arsenale Docks, is in itself an Island in the stream which has resisted so much history and many natural offenses: a city which should be underwater if the whole world wouldn't take care of it, a city in the sea like a unique example of natural/artificial balance. In this respect the show is also homage to Venice and its Art Biennale as unique phenomena of enormous importance for the world’s global culture.

Curators The exhibition is curated by Yoichi Nakamuta, Japanese founder of alamak! Project and Stefano Casciani, Italian designer, writer, publisher.

alamak! The alamak! Project was established to give a platform to emerging creative talent in Asia and explore the work of Asian artists and designers as a driving force behind future art and design movements. Taking its name from the word alamak! – a common expression to exclaim surprise in daily conversation throughout South East Asia and Japan, the Project was created by Yoichi Nakamuta with the intention to provoke an appraisal of contemporary creativity in the region. The alamak!project aims to tour the World with a series of events and exhibitions to illustrate and give rise to these creative undercurrents driving art and design in Asia.