The Place and the Plate

Design Exhibition – Installation – Video – Sound – Gastronomy

When:  June 29th to August 31st
Where: Jim Thompson Art Center
Workshops: June 17th - 22nd and June 25th - 29th

French curator: Cédric Morisset
Thai curator: Gridthiya Gaweewong
Scenography: Wit Pimkanchanapong

THE PLACE AND THE PLATE
A blend inspired by the East and the West, modernity and tradition, heritage and innovation: the similarities between Jim Thompson’s life, house and this project are so striking that "La Fête” could not have found a better "place” to serve its "plates”.
As Jim Thompson did in boosting up the silk industry by modernising it while keeping up its strong traditional identity., numerous designers have also used their culture in order to create a future that is rooted and makes references to the past, as they are faced to a world that is more and more homogeneous and standardized, by suggesting a new approach to the French tableware.

Accompanied by a background sound effect which brings out a culinary atmosphere, the exhibition will show videos of bars and restaurants that have been created by designers and will compare typical French and Thai tableware pieces and their role in enhancing creativity and know-how, in encouraging innovation.  Thus the permanent pursuit of a new energy will be highlighted by reinterpreting tradition, integrating the use  new techniques, new methods and new productions forms.  In Thailand where the culinary art and ultra modern designs are of the essence, the "Place and the Plate” will find its place naturally!

Being the spearhead of "Fooding” = Food + Feeling), term invented by Alexandre Cammas at the beginning of the year  2000 to evoke alternative gastronomy by combining a pleasing atmosphere with pleasurable food(the pleasure of the place and the plate), the imagination of designers compete with the  biggest table-ware factories.
Thus, to conclude this fourth edition, "La Fête” will invite its guests to taste a healthy menu created in the breast-shaped moulds of the artist, Pinare Sampitak for the pleasure the pupils and the taste buds.

The menu prepared for the closing ceremony will be available at the Jim Thompson restaurant during the exhibition.

Cédric Morisset
Following a diploma in History and Cultural Management, Cédric Morisset chooses design. Now a design consultant , he encourages emerging talents and projects. Since 2002, he has been the curator for several exhibitions in France and abroad. He is also the editor of the Italian trends magazine "Which”.

Gridthiya Gaweewong
Gridthiya Gaweewong completed her Master of Arts Administration in Chicago in 1996.  She is the co-founder and the director of "Project 304” an art centre based in Bangkok and devoted to the cultural diversity of contemporary art projects. She is also the art director at the Jim Thompson Art Centre.

Pinaree Sanpitak
"Breast Stupa Cookery”, an ongoing, collaborative art project started in 2005 by Thai artist Pinaree Sanpitak,explores how cooks interpret her signature form of breast+stupas. Professional and amateur chefs create meals using her specially designed breast stupa-shaped cooking molds made in cast aluminum and glazed stoneware. Food becomes the art medium and connection.The special menu and chocolates created by Jim Thompson chefs are presented at Saladaeng Café and Thompson Bar and Restaurant to coincide with La Fête, The French Cultural Festival, as well as the exhibition The Place & The Plate at The Jim Thompson Art Center, June - August, 2007.

Wit Pinkanchanapong
Wit Pinkanchanapong, after studying at the Chulalongkorn architecture faculty, completed in 1994 a Master in Visual Communication at the Kent institute of Art and Design of Maidstone, Great Britain.  He is now in charge of the set direction for "The Place and the Plate” exhibition

Workshops will be organized before the exhibition period and for the opening ceremony with French designer Cédric Rogot and Anne Xiradakis and Thai designers: Rachaporn Choochuey and Pim Sudhikam.