FREEDOM FROM THIRST, originally conceived by German artist Albrecht Pischel as a pavilion for the 2nd Bangkok Biennale, opens up an ambivalent space between the commercial and the spiritual. The slogan is borrowed from a Sprite advertising campaign from the early 2000s and is subliminally evocative of Eastern discourses on detachment from desires.  

‍

A customized mobile pop-up tent – a ‘pavilion povera’ – makes camp at TARS Gallery and shelters an eclectic ensemble of purling fountain sculptures by the artist. A sweet flow of colored soda endlessly cascades over heavy postmodern stone assemblages that contrast with the transient nature of the folding tent. Upstairs, another smaller pavilion echoes the first. It displays a series of ink drawings by American artist Matt Mullican, that Pischel freely incorporated into his exhibition. They are variations on the logo of a famous carbonated soft-drink produced under hypnotic trance and bridge the commercial and the spiritual in a similar way.

‍

Following the opening, the pavilion will travel and appear across Bangkok, activated as a nomadic venue for events and occurrences orchestrated by The Performance Agency, a major hub for contemporary performance and fluid practices based in Berlin and Paris.

As such, its functionality oscillates between an architecture, a shelter and a promotional tool bearing logo-ish arrangements of texts and images made to attract. Whilst appropriating visual codes of corporate design, sponsorship and promotional strategies, the pop-up space also highlights the original purpose of a pavilion – or “Sala” in Thai – as a place of leisure offering a moment of rest and togetherness.