FOREVER LOVE SOUL ENGINE: A Techno-Animistic Ritual at Bangkok Kunsthalle

At Bangkok Kunsthalle, Pansan Klongdee stages a funeral for a machine, turning a salvaged BMW into a meditation on memory, sound, and the afterlife of objects

Bangkok’s contemporary art landscape takes a quietly radical turn as Bangkok Kunsthalle presents FOREVER LOVE SOUL ENGINE, an installation by Pansan Klongdee curated by Mark Chearavanont. Running from 6 February to 15 March 2026, the exhibition positions Bangkok Kunsthalle as a site for deep reflection on how we relate to the non-human world, blending performance, sound, and spatial memory into a single unfolding ritual.

At the center of the work is a BMW E34 retrieved from a junkyard in the Rama II area. Suspended between usefulness and obsolescence, the car exists in a state of purgatory, no longer fully a vehicle yet not reduced to scrap. This in-between condition becomes the conceptual departure point for FOREVER LOVE SOUL ENGINE, which examines how objects accumulate memory and how they might be acknowledged, mourned, and released.

Staged as a techno-animistic funeral, the installation treats the car as an analogue for the human body. Verses engraved directly onto its surface trace its history, functioning like an obituary etched into metal. These inscriptions operate as scars, tattoos, and incantations all at once, transforming the vehicle into both a ritual site and the ritualized subject. Over time, the car is dismantled piece by piece, echoing the slow breakdown of a body and turning mechanical decay into an act of remembrance.

The setting at Bangkok Kunsthalle is integral to the work. The space once served as a garage for repairing delivery trucks, a place of restoration and return to function. FOREVER LOVE SOUL ENGINE subverts this history entirely. Rather than repair, the space becomes a site of degeneration, a concrete coffin that confronts anthropocentric assumptions about life, death, and value. In doing so, Bangkok Kunsthalle becomes not just a container for art, but an active participant in the narrative.

The exhibition avoids references to any specific religion, instead tapping into a more primal sense of soulfulness. Through the lens of techno-animism, ancient spiritual impulses are collapsed into the present moment, allowing prehistoric ideas of spirit and ritual to coexist with industrial materials and contemporary sound practices. Time folds in on itself, and the boundary between the ancient and the modern dissolves.

FOREVER LOVE SOUL ENGINE unfolds in two acts, each initiated by a live ritual. Act I begins with FOREVER LOVE on 6 February 2026, a funeral performance guided by sound and movement. From 7 to 28 February, the car remains intact at Bangkok Kunsthalle, preserved in its final complete state. Act II is inaugurated by SOUL ENGINE on 1 March, a one-day performance during which the car is dismantled while the raw sounds of its destruction are captured and reconfigured live. From 2 to 15 March, the remaining components are laid out like an excavated burial, accompanied by a sound installation composed from the recordings of the dismantling.

Sound functions as a central force throughout the exhibition at Bangkok Kunsthalle. In Act I, it guides the car’s passage, operating as both mourning and celebration. In Act II, it becomes memory itself, lingering as an echo of something that once moved, carried, and served. Visitors are invited to witness this transition, to participate in a contemporary ritual that asks how we let go of the objects that shape our lives.

Program

FOREVER LOVE, funeral performance: 6 February 2026

Act I: 7 February – 28 February 2026

SOUL ENGINE, dismantling performance: 1 March 2026

Act II: 2 March – 15 March 2026

Tickets are THB 250 via Ticketmelon or THB 350 at the door.

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[PHOTO: Courtesy of Bangkok Kunsthalle]

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