KULTX

The KULTX team told me to meet them at MAIELIE, the well-known Khon Kaen gallery on the edge of Bueng Kaen Nakhon. When I arrived, several members were helping to prepare Proto-historic, an exhibition by Panachai Chaijirarat due to open the following week. While I sipped my coffee, I realised I was already getting a glimpse of how KULTX works, and of its place within the local and wider Thai art ecosystem.

The team voted and decided we should shoot where the giant dinosaur sat, on the other side of the lake, in a section of the public park that was under renovation. Dinosaurs are everywhere in Khon Kaen, in malls, temples and public spaces; they have become part of the city's visual identity, so I wasn't too surprised by the choice. The area was also close to where the original KULTX space used to be.

Out of the six members of the collective, four were in town. Four motorbikes started up and, carrying all my gear, I jumped on the back of Manaporn Robroo's. Manaporn is one of KULTX's co-founders, alongside Ugrid Jomyim. With us were Ammie Saenpo, artist and general manager; Cambodian artist Kong Siden; and Sirinart Sodprasert, who helps with coordination and administration. Ugrid and Prapatsorn Sukot were both away that day. The titles make the organisation sound more orderly than it really is. In practice, everyone seems to end up doing a bit of everything.

KULTX began in 2021 as a space for contemporary art in Khon Kaen, but over time it grew into something broader. Alongside exhibitions, they organise residencies, festivals, research, public programmes and projects with artists and communities, increasingly seeing themselves as part of a wider art ecosystem rather than simply a gallery.

Keeping that ecosystem alive involves a lot of work that rarely becomes visible. An exhibition can begin one or two years before anything reaches the wall, while projects with communities often start simply by spending time there, listening and building relationships.