An exhibition marking 100 years of Diplomatic Relations between The Kingdom of Norway and The Kingdom of Thailand was ‘soft-opened’ at the Queen’s Gallery, Bangkok on January 27., 2005.
The exhibition will last until 27 March. It will be officially opened on 24 February and also celebrate Norway’s 100th anniversary as an independent state.
The Royal Norwegian Embassy has initiated the exhibition, which has been created by a group of Norwegian and Thai artists.
The exhibition compares architecture, decorations, ornaments and textiles in the art and craft traditions of Norway and Lanna culture in Northern Thailand, exploring motives and myths, commonalities and similarities between the two cultures.
Despite the vast geographical distance and many differences, the two countries and people have come closer together in many areas and at many levels. The Exhibition provides historical and cultural perspectives to present and coming generations focusing on similarities from the Viking period and Early Medieval age in Norway and the Lanna period in Thailand. It is meant to create a new awareness about cultural parallels and similarities that have not been presented before.
Utilizing multi-media and digital technology such as video projection, photographs, slide show, and 3D construction animation, this imaginative and contemporary exhibition will create a feeling of the prominent features of both cultures.
The idea for the exhibition was inspired by the striking similarities between the architecture, wood carvings, weaving, patterns, designs and symbols of Norwegians during the Viking period and early Middle Ages and the same in the Lanna culture which took its roots in the Northern Thailand around thirteenth century.
The exhibition will make one wonder what, if any; relations the Vikings and the Lanna may bear. Images of the traditional weaving, ornaments, wood carvings together with the multi-roofed wooden Stave Churches, which still today are part of a living culture in Norway, are exhibited together with their counterparts from the Lanna culture.
The exhibition is meant to inspire new connections between Norway and Thailand while providing a different type of journey into the past through a contemporary and modern presentation. An introduction to the historical journey of King Rama V (Chulalongkorn) who visited the Land of Midnight Sun in 1907 will also be featured.
