Sasiwimon Wongjarin
Name of your organisation: the land foundation
Website of your organisation: www.thelandfoundation.org
Email: theland@thelandfoundation.org
How is your organisation funded?
The land foundation has 3 kinds of funding/support
1. Self-funded by its founders for managerial and administrative operations.
2. The land foundation asks for funding from other art and cultural organizations, in and outside Thailand, related to project activities for the project the land foundation organized.
3. For private initiative project, the (group of) artists / collaborative organizations will be responsible for their own funding.
Explain what your organisation is about
The land foundation is the merging of ideas by different artists to cultivate a place of and for social engagement. It was initiated without the concept of ownership. It has intentions towards community, towards discussion and towards experimentation in other fields of thoughts.
It exists to create a nexus between socio-ecological sustainability and contemporary international art practice, and to foster interaction between emerging and established artists, cultural activists, intellectuals and the general public from Thailand and from all over the world. With intention to bridge the gap between formal organizations, to give opportunities for informal groups in our artistic and cultural societies to reach a boarder audience, the land foundation endeavors to provide alternative multidisciplinary instruction.
All projects and activities are open-ended in scope but with ethical concerns. The land foundation pays attention to the importance of personal perception development and the knowledge sharing process. The focus is on concept and process rather than only on the end-result.
The land foundation aims at the following;
1. To promote and support artistic and cultural activities,
2. To promote and support natural farming;
3. To promote and support self-knowledge by Vipassana techniques. There is not a time limitation to the cultivation of the land, it is there to be used and can be used.
Describe how your organisation is engaged in international cooperation and exchange
The land foundation is engaged in international cooperation and exchange via individual and organizational contact.
Individual contact: This individual has two characters; from within and from outside.
From within: The founders, Mr. Tiravanija and Mr. Lertchaiprasert, play an important role in drawing a lot of attention in the international art scene. The founders discuss the possibility to collaborate with curators, artists, collectors and friends and eventually develop into an international collaboration. Later our young artists and members like Angkrit Ajchariyasophon, Jirasak Sangpolsith, Aroon Puritat, Paphonsak La-or, Tepparit Nuntasakul, Deunthalae Inchan, etc. have also created connection and open up new channels. These connections strengthen our network as well as provide multidisciplinary in a multicultural atmosphere.
From outside:
People visit our website and start sending e-mail contact and eventually visit the pavilion in person. Often times informal talks have developed into wellestablished cooperation. These give a spontaneous and dynamic movement into the land foundation projects and activities as well as broaden its horizon.
Organizational contact:
Well-established organizations contact us for cooperation and collaboration and further invite us to become their collaborative partners. Should the curator find our concept and content suitable with his/her project; he/she will principally invite the land foundation as guest panelists to give talks, presentations, and exhibitions and to take part in seminars and workshops. The committee will then decide whether or not to participate. If we do, at least two representatives of the land will participate and we will engage with local community and get them involved. Most of the activities have a loose framework which is open for change according to specific time and space within that organization and local community.
Describe how your art space relates to the local community. If you are about to open an art space, explain how you related to the local community in your previous experiences
The land foundation’s relationship with the community has free-form and various accesses. Not only do they open its space for art and culture, the land foundation also provides its space for natural farming, sustainable living, selfknowledge, alternative and multidisciplinary education and all kinds of possibilities. It relates to its local community as well as inspires other local communities to be involved.
Its topographical environment (landscape) layout is inspired by the Buddhist farming concept: only one quarter of the property areas is allotted to solid ground and the other three to ponds and pools, like the composition ratio of our body. In the middle of the land lies two working rice fields which is an on-going relationship to the initial rice field itself and a lose group of students from university in Chiangmai and the local village. The product yield is shared by all participants involved and to some underprivileged people in the community.
Often times people come for social gathering and do all kinds of everyday life practice: farming, fishing, handicraft making, cooking, building, relaxing, meditating, staying over night, making merit to temple, studying the biogas system, etc. A number of intellectual activities also take place, such as presentations, excursions, handson experimentations, artistic and cultural exchanges, talks and discussions, questioning, answering, giving opinions, repeating, considering, referring, and so on.
The land foundation becomes a role model and has been developed as an ongoing bilateral art- and culture exchange between Thai and Norwegian artists and local villagers with the objective to question the local context and the communicative ability and function of art in today’s reality. The land’s ideas are related and can be applied everywhere as long as that
particular community really has the desire to develop the idea, work on it, and maintain and give it a life.
What are the major internal and external challenges your organisation is facing?
Internal challenges:
Initial ideological concept and actual situation:
-Encouragement of upcoming generation with new visions and management
-Conflict in personal character, working system, concept and idea
External challenges:
-Understanding of the nature of the land foundation and its activities
-Fixed idea and certain expectation influence by medias
-Attitude and cultural background in collaborative project
What are the main achievements and strengths of your organisation?
-Open platform of and for social engagement
-Provides alternative multidisciplinary education
-Open-minded, friendly, informal, ethically-concerned
-A diversity of Intellectuals and Disciplines
-Hospitality, easy-going atmosphere and family-like friendship
-Giving and sharing
