Ordinary Archives, Fragmented Scenes: Making Public Queer History at Museum Siam
摘要
The unattributed poem above appeared on the entrance panel for a temporary public museum exhibit at Museum Siam in Bangkok, a public institution established in 2007 as part of the National Discovery Museum Institute (NDMI). According to the NDMI Director, the exhibit aimed to map Thai gender and sexual diversities using the objects and belongings of “ordinary people” to “illustrate their stories” and experiences for public audiences. Held from May to September 2018, the exhibit was a collaborative project, designed by Thai civil society organizers, museum curators, and independent researchers working in consultation with LGBTQ+ community members. It was publicized under the Thai title, chai ying sing-sommut (ชาย หญิง สิ่งสมมุติ; The Man-Woman Imaginary), as well as the English title, Gender Illumination, both of which framed the project as an effort to “illuminate” the social imaginaries of binary sex and gender. The blend of Thai and English vocabularies was visualized through the exhibit’s main graphic (Fig. 5.1), which combined the LGBT acronym (for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender) with Thai script for “man” (ชาย; chai) and “woman” (หญิง; ying).