MONA to Open Bangkok Museum in Partnership with AWC

The Museum of Old and New Art will establish its first international outpost at Asiatique The Riverfront on Bangkok’s Chao Phraya River, with an opening planned for 2029.

The Museum of Old and New Art (MONA), the privately owned Hobart institution known for its unconventional approach to display and curation, has announced plans to open a major new venue in Bangkok. Developed in partnership with Thai property group AWC, MONA Bangkok will be located at Asiatique The Riverfront on the banks of the Chao Phraya River and is scheduled to open in 2029.

The riverside site is among Bangkok’s busier evening destinations, home to a night market, restaurants and a landmark Ferris wheel. MONA has indicated that the new museum will be developed as a distinct project rather than a replica of its Tasmanian home, with local artists, narratives and cultural context shaping its programming and design.

Leigh Carmichael, creative director of MONA’s DarkLab, said the project would be organised around the theme of “light” — interpreted both literally and conceptually, and drawing on Bangkok’s character as a city defined in part by its nocturnal life.

A central feature of the development will be a cable car crossing the Chao Phraya. According to MONA, it will be the first such crossing to span the river without support pillars in the water, and has been conceived as a work of kinetic art incorporating colour, sound, movement and technology, intended to form part of the visitor experience.

Founded by collector David Walsh, MONA opened in 2011 and is the largest privately owned museum in Australia. It is known for “The O,” a handheld digital guide that allows visitors to navigate its collection of ancient, modern and contemporary works along individual paths rather than a fixed route. The Bangkok project extends more than two decades of the museum’s programming into Southeast Asia, with the stated aim of establishing a significant new cultural landmark for the city.