Karlo Pacana
Art in Paradise Bangkok: Interactive Art Museum Experience
Want to know where you can ride a magic carpet, become an angel, surf a tidal wave or get featured on Time Magazine in Bangkok? Three words: Art in Paradise Bangkok.
Listed as one of the child-friendly attractions in Bangkok, Art in Paradise is basically Bangkok’s first interactive 3D Art Museum.
This is actually quite a relief when you’re a curious guest who wants to touch a piece of art that catches your eye like me. So far, I never saw customers getting reprimanded by the staff. I guess maintenance and restoration is part of the operating budget.
I think it’s really a great activity for the entire family, young and old and surely one of the best places to take fun photos. If you’re planning on taking family portraits as souvenirs or for your photo album at home, go here, instead of just going to an ordinary photo studio.
If you’re travelling solo however, I suggest you bring a tripod or find a fellow solo traveller and take pictures of each other and gain a new friend on the process.
Located within Esplanade Shopping Mall which is just walking distance from Thailand Cultural Centre MRT station and occupies two separate floors, it’s really worth the admission fee of 400 baht for adult foreigners which is about 600 pesos for a Filipino like me.
After getting a ticket, you’ll need to remove and deposit your footwear at the counter before entering the museum. Don’t worry, your footwear will be put in string bags and put on red trays that’s efficiently numbered and categorized.
Since we were one of the first customers, the floor indeed looked spotless and it also had a glossy coating probably to give that three-dimensional effect.
Personally, I guess I could recommend for the establishment to issue disposable footwear so as not to pick up skin diseases like athlete’s foot or something. Or maybe wear socks at least.
Before you go off and wander around, take a moment to check out sample pictures of other guests who’ve been to the exhibit that’s prominently displayed on the receiving counter to get some ideas.
Do take your time and don’t rush to better appreciate the place. We spent at least two hours inside.
First Impressions
My jaw literally dropped. It felt like I was transported to a different realm or a parallel universe.
There are 150 paintings across various themes inside: nature-inspired, futuristic, classic, media art and illusions. I was actually expecting a museum map, but I guess it would ruin the surprise.
Korean artists made the walls of this museum their canvass, demonstrating their skill in color manipulation, depth, technique and perspective on every inch of the place.
Aside from their individual creativity, they also took inspiration from the art masterpieces of Van Gogh, Monet and Da Vinci to name a few.
To make this activity a learning experience however, I guess it wouldn’t hurt to put single paragraph labels on some of these classic paintings, that’s just my personal suggestion.
It really was an interactive experience. We really didn’t care if we did silly poses or made a fool of ourselves because we’re tourists in Thailand and nobody knew who we were.
Not only was it interactive, it was also customer-friendly. Why? There were stickers on the floor on specific exhibits that guided us where to pose and where to take the photos to get the desired picture.
We also noticed that common courtesy was seldom practiced here among other visitors since the photo bombing level is so damn high. I don’t know why but a bit of humanity fades away especially when people are in other countries, that’s just my thought after having to delete multiple ruined pictures on my camera.
If I had known, I would have visited Art in Paradise past seven in the evening, that way we could’ve had this attraction all to ourselves.
Now that you’ve read this article, I guess you’ll have a better experience. Also, note that the ticket booth closes at 9PM.
What to wear? I guess something comfortable or anything that would allow you to do complicated poses since some exhibits require you to lay on the floor. And since doing a million poses is considered as exercise, a change of clothes would come in handy, thank me later.
So what are you waiting for? Go ahead and buy that ticket.
Art in Paradise Bangkok is open from 10:00AM to 10:00PM. It is located in the 4th floor of Esplanade Shopping Mall, Ratchadapisek Road, Din Daeng,Din Daeng, Bangkok, Thailand. For inquiries, you may call them at +66 2 660 9130 or check out their website and Facebook page.
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