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. 

Life doesn’t always come with a script, and MMAD invites you to write your own. Running from November 12 to January 10 2027, four exhibition explore how we navigate everyday life. LIFE THEATRE, by illustrator PYH, looks looks at dreams and purpose through paintings and a walk-in Toy Theatre. Korrakot Lordkam’s 1,080,000 Seconds asks what makes our time valuable, while TAMSTER’s MAD MASK uses 16 distorted mask sculptures to explore difficult emotions, memories and the subconscious. Finally, HAVE A GOOD TRIP turns life’s choices into a game of possibilities. Expect playful ideas and plenty to think about afterwards. November 12-January 10 2027. Free entry. MMAD Gallery, 2/F, MunMun Srinakarin, Seacon Square Srinakarin. 11am-7pm

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)

Can a photograph capture the scent of a flower? Can paper ever return to its original shape after years of folding? Italian artist Renato Leotta takes those questions into Gift to Entropy at Bangkok Kunsthalle. Curated by Stefano Rabolli Pansera, the installation exhibition uses concealed flower films and folded paper slowly relaxing under gravity to explore nature, memory and time. Leotta works across photography, film, sculpture and installation, paying attention to shifting light, tides and landscapes. This residency project also offers a first look at ideas behind his forthcoming work at Khao Yai Art Forest.  October 30-December 30. Free entry. Bangkok Kunsthalle. Wednesday-Sunday 2pm-8pm; closed Monday-Tuesday.

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. 

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 happens when lotus flowers become chairs and tropical seeds are cast in lead and resin? French artist Hadrien Gerenton gives nature some strange new functions in The Pool’s Pond Delight at TARS Unlimited in Song Wat. Wild dogs, reptiles and female figures populate an imagined sculpture garden, where botanical forms become furniture and suspended mobiles. Resin, lead and industrial paint lend familiar plants an unfamiliar weight and colour. Drawing on Édouard Manet’s Déjeuner sur l’herbe, Gerenton brings the natural and manufactured together with a slightly unsettling edge. November 7-December 13. Free entry. TARS Unlimited, Song Wat Road. Tuesday-Sunday 2pm-6pm; closed Monday.

Bangkok Kunsthalle sets aside alternate Sundays for cinema in a new screening series curated by Rosalia Namsai Engchuan. Running through the second half of the year, Sunday Cinema pairs Thai classics with contemporary international films, celebrated masterpieces and overlooked titles that deserve more attention. The programme travels from post-war Japan and rural Thailand to the Amazon, Mongolia and modern Italy, returning to themes of love, work, migration, memory and community. It is a reminder that films from very different eras and places can still speak directly to life now. Every Sunday, from July 19-December 20. Free entry. Reserved via here. Bangkok Kunsthalle. 5.30pm

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.

Ever feel like even your downtime needs to be productive? Tangmo Ladapha Sophonkunkit’s  Cry on Cue at 6060 Arts Space examines work pressures, emotions and the business of turning personal experiences into a career. Installation and live performance reconstruct a dream about a robot housemaid pouring water into her own eyes as theatrical sets. The main event, Dream-set, is a one-on-one performance running for eight hours a day: visitors share the space with the artist one at a time, without needing to say a word, and can come and go. November 6-28. Free entry. 6060 Arts Space, Pradiphat Soi 21, Saphan Khwai. Monday-Saturday noon-8pm; closed Sunday. Dream-set: November 11-14 and 18-21, noon-8pm.