Cities on the Move I
1997
Wiener Secession and Museum in Progress, Vienna

A set of five hand-painted posters for the first Cities on the Move was realised in collaboration with Museum in Progress, a Vienna-based initiative working with international artists to present artworks in media space. Cities on the Move was adopted to title this fake movie along with the Thai name read as Muang Mee Kha, meaning “A City with Legs”. More than 100 large billboards in Vienna were pasted with the Cities on the Move poster series while a national paper provided free pages over the period of exhibition. The two tuk-tuks were greeted by racer Niki Lauda, who tried it out before the two artists went to fix the engine and prepare for an official driving test. With consultation by the artists’ friend Pandit Charochanakit, they went to a garage and traffic department several times and finally only one tuk-tukpassed the test while the other tuk-tuk was displayed as an art object at the exhibition. After the opening night, the two artists handed over the tuk-tuk with the Viennese number plate to a young driver from Sri Lanka wearing a custom-made jacket and driver’s cap. Unfortunately, after a few days on the streets, the made-in-Thailand vehicle with its second-hand engine from Japan could not run in the cold European winter. It eventually broke down in the middle of the road while transporting two guests from aboard. Luckily, a local horse and carriage pulled it back to Secession and it became a second art object for viewing only. While waiting for some missing parts to be sent from Thailand to repair the vehicles, the exhibition already finished and both tuk-tuks were loaded into a truck for the next destination in the south of France.