Som Supaparinya uncovers connections between landscape, history, and power in her first solo exhibition in Scandinavia

Som Supaparinya: Reroute:
26 September 2026 – 21 February 2027

Thai artist Som Supaparinya (b. 1973) explores how infrastructure, landscapes, and political alliances shape collective memory. Through video installations, archival materials, documentary- and field research, Reroute: connects overlooked histories from Southeast Asia to contemporary questions of power, ecology, and geopolitics.

Press Preview: Thursday 24 September, 10.00–12.00
Kunsthal Charlottenborg invites members of the press to a preview of the three new exhibitions opening this autumn. The artists, curators, and the Director of Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Helene Nyborg Bay, will be present to introduce the exhibitions. For registration and interview requests, please contact: Jeannie Møller Haltrup, jmh@kunsthalcharlottenborg.dk.

Working across film, photography, found objects, and installation, Som Supaparinya combines field research, archival investigations, historical imagery, and sound recordings to uncover hidden stories of power, colonial continuities, and geopolitical entanglements. Focusing on Thailand and its neighbouring regions, she reveals how local histories are intertwined with global conflicts and political interests.

“Over the past few years, Som Supaparinya has established herself internationally with a practice that compellingly brings together historical research, film and installation. Her work shows how places carry traces of political decisions, conflicts and power structures that continue to shape our present,” says Helene Nyborg Bay, Director of Kunsthal Charlottenborg.

At Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Reroute: brings together for the first time the video installations Melted Stars (2026) and Mo num en ts (2025), both of which examine Thailand’s role within the political and social power structures that shaped Southeast Asia throughout the twentieth century.

In Melted Stars (2026), Supaparinya traces the routes used by Japanese military forces through northern Thailand during the Second World War. Drawing on historical maps, archival documents, photographs, and conversations with local witnesses, the work uncovers a largely overlooked history of Thailand’s involvement in Japan’s wartime operations. Along the way, the artist gathers images, sounds, documents, and objects that come together in a video installation where military medals from several nations are melted down into a single form, stripped of their national symbolism.

In the video installation Mo num en ts (2025), Supaparinya turns her attention to Thailand’s alliance with the United States during the Cold War. Through fragmented moving images and layered sound, the work examines monuments, propaganda, and the role of mass media in shaping historical narratives. Landscapes, infrastructures, and human presence emerge as living archives that continue to bear the traces of political conflicts and shifting power relations.

As the title Reroute: suggests, the exhibition exposes infrastructure as a form of power that is both material and symbolic. Military routes, bridges, railways, dams, and monumental construction projects appear as enduring manifestations of progress, propaganda, and geopolitical ambition. At the same time, Supaparinya investigates how these structures continue to shape ecological systems, social relations, and collective understandings of history.

Situated between the two video works, Wonderland Reading Room invites visitors to explore the artist’s research materials and picture books. The installation considers how knowledge and narratives are produced, circulated, and controlled, and how they influence public understanding and social coexistence. Its title references Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland, one of the books included in an ongoing project initiated by Supaparinya in 2015 that collects publications banned across different historical and cultural contexts.

With Reroute:, Som Supaparinya invites audiences to reconsider established historical narratives and follow alternative routes through time, landscape, and memory. The exhibition highlights how global power structures become embedded in specific places and how infrastructures of the past continue to shape the present.

Reroute: is curated by Natalie Keppler in collaboration with Kunsthal Charlottenborg.

The exhibition is supported by the Augustinus Foundation, the Danish Arts Foundation, and the Obel Family Foundation. The exhibition furniture has been generously sponsored by Montana Furniture.

Mo num en ts (2025) is presented as part of the Han Nefkens Foundation – Southeast Asian Video Art Production Grant 2024 in memory of Dinh Q. Lê, in collaboration with Jim Thompson Art Center, Outpost Art Organisation, Museion, Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art, Kunsthal Charlottenborg, and Rockbund Art Museum.

About the artist
Som Supaparinya (b. 1973) lives and works in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Her multidisciplinary practice spans installation, found objects, photography, and film, exploring social histories, ecological structures, political power relations, and colonial continuities across Southeast Asia.

Her work has been presented at major international exhibitions including the Gwangju Biennale, Cairo Biennale, Jogja Biennale, Thailand Biennale, documenta fifteen, and Bangkok Art Biennale. Recent solo exhibitions include The Rivers They Don't See at Kestner Gesellschaft, Hanover (2025), Mo num en ts at Jim Thompson Art Center, Bangkok (2025–26) and Museion, Bolzano (2026), and Melted Stars at daadgalerie, Berlin (2026).

Practical information
Som Supaparinya: Reroute:
26 September 2026 – 21 February 2027
Press Preview: 24 September, 10.00-12.00
Season Opening: 25 September, 17.00-22.00
Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Kongens Nytorv 1, 1050 Copenhagen K
Read more here

Press Contact
Jeannie Møller Haltrup
Head of Communications, Kunsthal Charlottenborg
jmh@kunsthalcharlottenborg.dk, +45 33 74 46 29

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