Our picks for the best things to do in Bangkok this weekend

Bangkok Art Biennale returns for its fifth edition with Angels and Mara, pairing Bangkok’s City of Angels identity with Mara, the Buddhist figure associated with temptation, desire and inner conflict. The announced programme brings together 72 artists and collectives from 29 countries, with more than 200 works exploring technology, spirituality, identity and the modern life’s contradictions. Eleven main venues spread the art across the capital, while BAB Plus and BAB Fringe partners extend the programme to Thonburi, Samut Prakan and Suphan Buri. Use the organiser’s venue guide to plan a manageable route. October 29 2026-February 28 2027. Free biennale admission; check individual venue entry arrangements and opening hours. Eleven main venues across Bangkok. 

DIAGE Festival’s October 31-November 1 music programme has finished, but its post-festival installation exhibition is listed to continue at Cloud 11. The highlights include NONOTAK’s 66 beams of light cutting through fog to a percussion soundtrack, Fabrizio Di Salvo’s rotating musical machine and Wit Pimkanchanapong’s woven structure playing with light and shadow. Other installations tackle air pollution and the pace of modern life. Go on, have a play – check which of the seven advertised works remain available before visiting.  November 2-15. Cloud 11, second floor. Listed as free entry, noon-10pm.

French artist and illustrator Julie Stephen Chheng brings Fortune Teller to One Bangkok, with interactive projections and augmented reality that reward a little curiosity. Presented with Alliance Française Bangkok, the exhibition introduces eight nature spirits linked to water, fire, sky, earth, thunder, shadow, light and green leaf. Download the free Fortune Teller AR app to search for hidden characters around the complex, then explore creative workshops covering paper crafts, ceramic painting and DIY keychains. A book corner curated by The Independent Print Club rounds out the programme. Check the workshop schedule before visiting if you have a particular activity in mind.  October 2-November 15. Free exhibition entry. Second floor, The Storeys, One Bangkok. 10am-8pm.

ตามรอยความเชื่อมโยงที่คาดไม่ถึงระหว่างผีเสื้อกับปลา Pi-near นักวาดภาพประกอบและนักเล่าเรื่อง ร่วมกับ papeterie ศิลปินนักตัดกระดาษ ชวนมาค้นหาจุดเชื่อมโยงในนิทรรศการ 'Butterfly & Fish' ผลงานวาดเขียนและกระดาษตัดฉลุถูกนำมาใช้เพื่อถ่ายทอดเรื่องราวของการเติบโต การเปลี่ยนแปลง ความทรงจำ และเรื่องราวที่ถูกรวบรวมไว้ระหว่างการเดินทาง ในขณะที่ผีเสื้อลอกคราบและเติบโตอยู่เหนือพื้นดิน ปลาแหวกว่ายอยู่ใต้ผิวน้ำ ผลงานศิลปะเหล่านี้ได้นำพาสองเส้นทางที่ดูเหมือนจะแยกจากกันอย่างสิ้นเชิงให้มาบรรจบกัน ผ่านห้วงเวลาเล็กๆ และประสบการณ์ที่ใช้ร่วมกันอย่างอบอุ่นและลึกซึ้ง  ที่ Soko Gallery (สุขุมวิทซอย 32) เข้าชมฟรี จัดแสดงวันที่ 29 ตุลาคม – 24 พฤศจิกายน 2569 (เปิดวันพฤหัสบดี-อังคาร 11.00-18.00 น. ปิดวันพุธ)

Bangkok Art Biennale returns for its fifth edition with Angels & Mara, pairing Bangkok’s City of Angels identity with Mara, the Buddhist figure associated with temptation, desire and obstacles to enlightenment. More than 200 works by 72 artists and collectives representing 29 nationalities explore technology, spirituality and identity, among other contradictions of modern life. The 11 main venues range from Wat Arun and Wat Pho to BACC, One Bangkok and the malls around Siam. BAB Plus and BAB Fringe extend the programme to Thonburi, Samut Prakan and Suphan Buri. Use the organiser’s venue guide to plot a manageable route.  October 29 2026-February 28 2027. Free biennale admission; individual venue admission rules and hours apply. BACC’s ninth-floor display finishes on November 25, while its seventh- and eighth-floor displays continue until February 28.

Bangkok’s theatre scene gets its annual get-together as the Bangkok Theatre Festival returns for its 24th edition. The programme brings emerging artists and established performers together for 103 performances, with  theatre, movement and music sharing the bill with puppetry, likay and contemporary experiments.Shows take place at Bangkok Art and Culture Centre and TK Park at centralwOrld, as well as T. Namcharoen Playhouse in Bang Pho and Tai Siam at Siam Square. It’s a chance to catch work that doesn’t always reach the city’s mainstream stages. November 14-29. Ticket prices and showtimes vary, with selected free performances. Check the festival programme, including its ‘Foreigner Friendly’ labels, before booking. 

Munins’ solo exhibition STILL : ON at River City Bangkok explores the work going on behind our thoughts, memories, emotions and decisions. Three processes shape the show: Emotion Encoding, how emotional experiences are recorded; Signal Selection, what we choose to retain; and Neural Pathway, how we see and make sense of what’s in front of us. Familiar moments of tiredness, confusion and quiet reflection connect those processes to everyday life. The artist also considers the changes happening around us, from accelerating technology and information to the human impact on the environment. The invitation is to slow down and consider what your mind is doing, even when you think nothing much is going on. October 2-November 15. Free entry. RCB Galleria 5, River City Bangkok. Daily 10am-8pm.

More than 50 years after Dutch artist Bas Jan Ader created them, three of his works arrive at Bangkok Kunsthalle for Bright at Midnight, a solo exhibition curated by Leonardo Orion Dal Colle. Created between 1970 and 1975, the works use simple materials and gestures to explore vulnerability, absence and uncertainty. Presented within the Kunsthalle’s unfinished architecture, they take on a new context in Bangkok, another ‘City of Angels’ thousands of miles from Los Angeles. The exhibition considers how these works speak to a different time and place, with gravity, light and darkness shaping the experience.October 14-January 10, 2027. Free entry. Bangkok Kunsthalle. 2pm-8pm

What do we believe in when we want more? Czech artist Jan Bican examines obsessions with beauty, money, status and success in Gospel of Desire at CLOUD 11. Large-scale, boldly coloured paintings bring saints, human bodies and animals into the same frame as luxury symbols. For his third Bangkok exhibition and fifth in Asia, Bican asks how consumerism and spirituality shape what we value and aspire to. November 6-January 5, 2027. Free entry. Cloud 11. 10am-8pm.

What do butterflies and fish have in common? Butterfly & Fish, a collaboration between illustrator and storyteller Pi-near and papercut artist papeterie,looks for connections between creatures from very different worlds. Through drawing and cut paper, the artists explore growth, change, memory and the stories gathered along a journey. Butterflies transform above ground while fish navigate beneath the water’s surface; the works bring those separate paths together through the small moments and shared experiences that connect them. October 29-November 24. Free entry. Soko Gallery, Sukhumvit Soi 32. Thursday-Tuesday 11am-6pm; closed Wednesday.