About ComPeung
ComPeung (คำเปิง), combining the two words com(a remark) and peung(appropriate), derives from Northern Thai Lanna language. Our vision and mission for ComPeung are to create those appropriate remarks, suitable to the situations, environments, and communities we deal with. Since July 2005 and with the support of the residing artists, the creative community, our friends and families, the idea of ComPeung has become a lived reality. The ComPeung team, Pisithpong Siraphisut & Helen Michaelsen, aspires to live up to the truest sense of the meaning of ComPeung.
ComPeung is located in Doi Saket, Chiang Mai Province, Northern Thailand. Despite just being 20 km northeast of the city of Chiang Mai, Doi Saket has escaped the tourism trap so far. Due to its position Doi Saket is also the gateway to Chiang Rai and the Golden Triangle. With diverse local and ethnic communities traditional northern everyday culture is still very much alive in Doi Saket.
ComPeung is the first non-government artist-in-residence programme in Thailand. Our residency program is designed for local, international artists, and creative individuals to live and work together with the ComPeung Team and the local communities through the process of creating artworks, developing conceptual projects as well as participating in workshops and other ComPeung activities.
ComPeung aims to be an open space for dialogues, encouraging the exchange of ideas and experiments, exploring the interdependence between art, artists and society. We aim at developing and expanding the network of artists and art organizations on local, regional and international levels.
ComPeung provides artists with a rural, peaceful retreat to work and create in an environment closely connected to nature. Through the process of respectfully working and living together in basic sustainable conditions of earthen dwellings, we hope to encourage both visiting residents and locals to acutely reflect upon and learn from diverse facets of everyday life in this context... and perhaps as a consequence to gain more open-minded and inclusive perspectives about seemingly contrasting positions in contemporary culture.
Facilities
We don't have fancy cocktail bars, king-size beds or cable TV. What we do offer are the necessities of living in a rural, tropical area such as genuine hospitality, mosquito nets, running water, electricity and fresh produce from the local market. By providing home-cooked meals, accommodation and studio spaces, our team will maintain a level of comfort and renowned Thai hospitality. As ComPeung is a modest self-sustainable non-profit organization, residents will be asked to participate in the maintenance of the site, if necessary. Such a practice also propagates our idea of finding inspiration in daily, lived experience.
Condition of the space
- Approximate area of 2.8 acres near natural fishing lakes, forest and mountains.
- Main earthen house with shared kitchen and attached bathroom.
- Artist house No.1 with a basic bedroom and an attached studio and a bathroom.
- Artist house No.2 with 2 basic bedrooms, an attached bathroom and open-air working space.
- Multi-function outdoor space for performing artists, 5 x 10 m.
- 1 shared open-air bathroom & toilet. Tents, mosquito nets and sleeping gear are available.
- Running water. 220 volt electricity.
- Good mobile phone reception.
- Internet access.
- No shared computer.