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

It’s a quiet panic that comes with growing older – not just the creaky knees or the birthday candles multiplying like bacteria, but the silence around it. Coming of Aging, an experiential exhibition by Eyedropper Fill, doesn’t try to soothe that discomfort. Instead, it invites you to sit with it. Think less anti-ageing cream, more existential unpacking. Through three immersive zones, visitors are nudged to consider ageing not as a decline, but as a shift – inevitable, complex and deeply human. In a world obsessed with FOMO (the fear of missing out), a subtler fear creeps in: FOGO, the fear of getting old, now bubbling up in Gen Z timelines and TikTok laments. This exhibition doesn’t offer neat resolutions. But it does ask the question we tend to avoid: what if ageing isn’t the enemy, but just another way of becoming? Until Jul 16. Free. River City Bangkok, 10am-8pm

This festival doesn’t try to define queer cinema. It simply lets it speak. Curated by Baturu, a collective that believes art doesn’t need permission to be political, the programme spans fifteen films from across continents – Nepal to New Zealand, France to the Philippines. The stories aren’t stitched together by genre or tone, but by their refusal to shrink. They don’t beg for tolerance. They breathe, ache, kiss, leave. Screenings unfold across Bangkok – from the Goethe-Institut to Buffalo Bridge Gallery – while Chiang Mai sees parallel gatherings hosted by Sapphic Riot and Some Space. Expect talks, workshops, unlikely connections. Expect joy that doesn’t need to explain itself. Jun 27-Jul 6. Check the schedule here. Free. Goethe-Institut Thailand

In his latest offering, Udom Taephanich – long known for saying too much with a single raised eyebrow – turns his attention to the strange erosion of play. Not the type sold in boxes, but the kind we used to conjure instinctively, when sofa cushions became castles and questions came without hesitation. Back then, imagination was a birthright. We made monsters out of scribbles, entire worlds from cardboard. Then came the invisible border called adulthood, where mistakes became shameful and joy needed justification. A reminder that the real decay isn’t physical – it’s forgetting how to be ridiculous without apology. And maybe, just maybe, it’s reversible. Jun 7-Aug 3. B250-850 via here. The Pinnacle Hall, ICONSIAM, 11am-9pm

To mark the 20th anniversary of Naruto, 54 Entertainment, in partnership with SL Experiences, presents Naruto The Gallery – an immersive exhibition that invites fans to explore the intertwined fates of Naruto and Sasuke. With seven meticulously curated zones, visitors journey through key moments, from their childhood in Konoha to their fated reunion during the Fourth Great Ninja War. The exhibition is not just a walk down memory lane, though. It showcases original storyboards, character designs and unforgettable anime scenes that reveal the heart of the series. Highlights include a stunning diorama of Hidden Leaf Village, a tribute to iconic quotes and an exclusive collaboration with five emerging Japanese artists. It’s a celebration of the anime’s legacy, full of surprises for fans both old and new. May 31-Jul 31. B250-450 via here. Free for kids below four years old. River City Bangkok, 10am-8pm

Somewhere between a botanical archive and a love letter to overlooked symbols, this exhibition asks: what if flowers weren’t just decorative but deeply political? Chiang Mai’s flame of the forest, Khon Kaen’s golden shower, Ratchaburi’s pink cassia and Pattani’s hibiscus are plucked from provincial emblems and thrust into the present, reframed through sculpture, installation and graphic forms. Each bloom becomes a portal – to place, memory, even protest – hinting at what it means to belong to a region, and how nature codes itself into the fabric of everyday life. Across four immersive zones, the show leans into nostalgia and community, challenging the way we see flora in urban contexts. This is not your auntie's flower show. It’s a quiet reconsideration of identity, told petal by petal. Until 6 Jul. Free. TCDC, 10.30am-7pm 

No need to hop on a plane – Southern Thailand is coming to Bangkok. From cha chak brewed with flair to flavours that hit like a heatwave, the South takes over Chang Chui Creative Park. Flynowiii, the Tourism Authority of Thailand (Southern Region) and Chang Chui bring it all together with over 40 models in a fashion show, local bites that bite back, and crafts that carry stories. It's a weekend of spice, sound and style, all rooted in the rhythms of the South. July 4-6. Free. Chang Chui Creative Park, 4pm-10pm

This immersive, interactive digital art exhibition themed "Nature and Wildlife" highlights the beauty of ecosystems and biodiversity through advanced techniques like projection mapping, laser art and high-quality media. Spread across nine rooms at King Power Mahanakon, each space presents a distinctive experience reminiscent of a fantastical zoo. Notable features include the Kaleidoscope zone, enveloped in a variety of flowers that serve as food for butterflies; a laser projection room showcasing the majesty of predators; and an interactive underwater world. Youngsters can also enjoy a colouring activity and have their creations appear on the walls. A special surprise awaits with the appearance of Moo Deng, the famous pygmy hippopotamus from Khao Kheow Zoo, who awaits in different rooms to delight you. Until Jul 31. B350 via here and B1,000-1,200 including the Sky Walk via here. Fourth floor, King Power Mahanakon, 10am-9pm

The first group exhibition in Bangkok to centre queer artists from Myanmar – a collective debut that feels less like a splashy arrival and more like a long-overdue exhale. Here, the works don’t shout, they ache. Across video, sculpture, performance and still image, the artists trace a line between leaving and belonging, mapping the emotional weight of homesickness, adaptation and identity in cities that offer both promise and dissonance. Some left for love, others for labour or liberty, but all carry the imprint of elsewhere. Most have sidestepped the usual white-cube trajectory – cutting their teeth in fashion editorials, commercial sets or underground scenes – and yet, the result is anything but amateur. This is not an exhibition that begs for legitimacy. It asserts its presence with quiet defiance, like a diary left open in a room you weren’t supposed to enter. Jun 7-Aug 9. Free. SAC Gallery  

This exhibition wants you to look – and keep looking. This is portraiture unraveled, pulled from its classical moorings and reassembled in ways that feel both intimate and estranged. There’s weight and symmetry in works by André Schulze and Lino Lago – nods to tradition, to balance, to the stillness of oil and time. But that’s only one side of the mirror. Celio Koko splinters the form, pulling it towards something more elastic. Adriana Oliver and Chance Cooper remove the face altogether, offering blankness as a kind of truth, or at least a provocation. What does it mean to be seen now? Between digital noise and emotional residue, the exhibition sketches an answer. Or maybe just a question, blurred at the edges, like memory itself. May 30-Jul 30. Free. Agni Gallery, 10am-7pm

Between 1991 and 1996, Tawatchai Somkong was quietly crafting a visual language all his own. His 16 chosen art books, culled from a wider archive of 23, capture a world of symbolic abstraction born during his studies at Visva-Bharati University in Santiniketan, India. The exhibition unfolds like a whispered dialogue between faiths, where religious icons collide and merge in unexpected ways. Over 2,000 images map a journey of beauty and belief, revealing the artist’s deep spiritual reckoning. It’s less a straightforward show and more an immersive meditation on identity, faith and the power of symbols to shape our inner landscapes – a haunting visual hymn to complexity and devotion. Until Jul 13. Free. Blacklist Gallery, 10am-4pm