BANGKOK, THAILAND – Next year, Bangkok will awaken once more as a living gallery, appropriate for a city where art glimmers through temple spires, flows along the river, and breathes in the rhythm of its streets. From 29 October 2026 to 28 February 2027, the Bangkok Art Biennale (BAB) returns for its fifth edition, inviting the world to witness how contemporary art can both illuminate and interrogate the times we live in.

Its chosen theme, “Angels and Mara,” feels almost prophetic. As our world trembles under the weight of wars, environmental collapse, propaganda, and division, humanity stands uncertain and unsure of what is right, what is wrong, and what lies in between. Compassion seems fractured; truth, relative. Yet in this confusion, the Biennale offers a space to confront these opposites, not neccesarily choosing between them, but to recognize how they coexist, and how art might help us make sense of their tension.

“Angels and Mara” draws from the spiritual lexicon of East and West. Angels, the messengers of light, appear across religions as bearers of truth and divine order, from Gabriel and Michael to the devas and apsaras of Buddhist and Hindu cosmology. They represent beauty, wisdom, and protection, the potential for humanity’s higher self. Mara, by contrast, embodies the shadows that cling to us: desire, greed, jealousy, and fear. In Buddhist lore, Mara is the tempter who sought to derail Siddhartha’s path to enlightenment, the voice of doubt and distraction within us all.

Set in Bangkok, Krung Thep, the City of Angels, the biennale transforms this duality into a living metaphor. Once famed as the “Venice of the East,” Bangkok is a place of contrasts, golden temples beside concrete towers, serenity beside chaos, faith amid fatigue. In recent years, as social and political strains test the city’s spirit, its angels have grown weary, its Mara more restless. BAB 2026 captures this moment, turning the city itself into a stage where divine and destructive impulses meet.

Under the artistic direction of Prof. Dr. Apinan Poshyananda, and a curatorial team including Adulaya Hoontrakul, Rémy Jarry, Melanie Pocock, and Kulapat Yantrasast, the Biennale promises a vivid mix of reflection and rebellion. Installations will unfold across sacred and civic spaces — from the luminous courtyards of Wat Arun, Wat Pho, and Wat Prayoon to the modern vibrancy of BACC, One Bangkok, Museum Siam, and the National Gallery.

The announcement of the first wave of artists offers a glimpse of what’s to come: haunting sculptures by Sun Yuan & Peng Yu, conceptual provocations by Piero Golia, self-transformations by Yasumasa Morimura, and thoughtful interventions from Mel Chin, Mandy El-Sayegh, Htein Lin, and Thai artists Mary Pakinee, Kornkarn Rungsawang, Teerapon Sisung, and Manit Sriwanichpoom. Each will explore what it means to be human in an age where virtue and vice often wear the same face.

Since its debut in 2018, the Bangkok Art Biennale has stood out as one of Asia’s most distinctive cultural experiences, taking audiences on a journey through the city’s spirit. It invites visitors to wander, to question, to lose themselves between holiness and hedonism, between the light of angels and the whisper of Mara.

Come October 2026, step into this citywide conversation. Walk the temples. Drift through the galleries. Let the art provoke and console in equal measure. For in Bangkok, the City of Angels, the battle between heaven and hell isn’t fought in the sky, but within us.

Photo Credit: Bangkok Art Biennale

Bangkok Art Biennale 2026 runs from 29th October 2026 to 28th February 2027. More information available here