Art to laugh in Pattaya

Art is actually not for laughing. Art is serious business, which we often admire in silence in museums around the world. Just like millions of others have already done, we are standing – at a considerable distance – in front of the Mona Lisa in the Louvre in Paris. Look, admire, that's all you can do with it.

Art in Paradise

A museum has now been opened in Pattaya where you can stand close to the Mona Lisa and, with a brush in hand, even pretend to be Leonardo da Vinci himself and touch up her eyebrows. In any case, it produces a nice photo, because photographing in this museum is actually expected of you. Of course it is not the real Mona Lisa, but a reproduction like many other famous works of art in this museum, which are projected on the walls and floors in a special way. The images are usually two-dimensional, but through the lens of a camera it appears three-dimensional thanks to the clever use of depth perception, shadows, colors and varying brightness. It is as if you yourself are part of the painting. With that idea, you can interact and play with a famous painting or a fantastic nature scene.

Hilarious results

Through these trick projections you can imagine Josephine, who receives her own crown in Jacques-Louis David's painting “The Coronation of Napoleon”. You can walk in a waterfall scene, pet the grazing head of a giraffe or rise from a tomb like a mummy. You can shake hands with a depicted God in Michelangelo's depiction from the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican. In Botticelli's “The Birth of Venus”, the Goddess of Love, seated on a shell, rises from the sea. She is completely naked and you can help her cover some parts…

In Jean-Francois Millet's “The Lady Garners”, originally three women are harvesting corn. In Pattaya, one of them takes a break outside the frame, where you can pour her a cup of tea. The beautiful woman of Jean-Honore Fragonard's “The swing” playfully loses a shoe, which flies in the direction of Cupid. In Pattaya you have to bend over, because it seems that the shoe is coming straight at you.

Korean idea

The museum was founded by 12 Korean artists, who took an idea from Korea Thailand to introduce. They jointly invested 50 million Baht and spent two years renovating a two-storey former nightclub. During that period, 140 works of art were (re)painted by ten Korean artists. The museum covers 5800 m² and features 10 themed rooms, including Aquarium, Jurassic, Classical Art.

Panoramic vistas

Part of the museum are the gigantic panoramic views, which show the grandeur of ancient Ayutthaya and Egypt or the ruins of Machu Picchu in Peru. They are depicted in paintings 10 meters high and 20 meters wide.

Being creative

Shin Jae Yeoul, one of the Korean partners says: “Everyone likes to be busy like a kid every now and then. Look at the paintings and pictures and think of something crazy. Fight a shark, flee from a dinosaur, sit on an elephant, sink into quicksand. In short, think of something and be creative.” One visitor commented: “It's a real kick. I really enjoy being tricked by the various tricks in the paintings.”

The Art in Paradise museum is located on the north side of Pattaya's Second Road and is open from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.

Adapted from a recent article in The Nation