Samak Kosem (Thailand) is an artist and anthropological researcher based in Chiang Mai and Tallinn. He investigates transnational frameworks of sexuality that circulate and connect to sexual discourse, practice, and subjectivities. His project of Nonhuman Ethnography (2017-ongoing) in the deep south of Thailand considers how the body, desire and queerness interface with ambiguous Islamic homosociality through everyday practices.

During his residency at Delfina Foundation, Samak will focus on the re-orientation of masculinities by figuring alienated bodies and borders in the cases of male sex workers and queer Muslims through ethnographic objects and notes.

Samak has presented his work in solo and group shows at: Blindspot Gallery, Hong Kong 2021; Tainan Art Museum, Taiwan 2020; Vargas Museum, University of the Philippines 2020; Thammasat Anthropology Museum, Thailand 2020; nca | nichido contemporary art, Tokyo and Taipei 2019; Osage, Hong Kong 2019; A+ WORKS of ART, Malaysia 2019; Bangkok Art Biennale, Bangkok 2018; WTF, Bangkok 2018; and Art Centre Silpakorn University, Bangkok 2017.

Samak’s writing has recently been published by the Kyoto Review of Southeast Asia (2020) and the Taiwan Journal of Southeast Asia Studies (2020). In 2022 he will exhibit the collaborative art project Leave it and Break no Hearts with Phaptawan Suwannakudt at 100 Tonson Foundation in Bangkok, curated by Patrick D. Flores.

WITH SUPPORT FROM

Delfina Foundation’s Network of Asia-Pacific Patrons

RESIDENCY SEASON

Spring 2022

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Please note all artist-in-residence biographies are accurate at the time of their residency. For up-to-date bios please visit the artist’s website.