Code:Red Bangkok

Opening on May 4. from 7 pm to 11 pm

Event: May 7. at 8 pm, Tadej Pogacar in conversation with Ana Lopes, University of East London

Sparwasser HQ is proud to present Tadej Pogacar's CODE:RED Bangkok, as the second part of the CitySellingCityTelling project.

CODE:RED (formed in 1999/2000) is a multidisciplinary, collaborative project, which researches and discusses informal economy models, self-organisation, global sex work, and global trafficking. CODE:RED encompasses various forms of joint operation with experts, scientists, and activist groups, ranging from research, activation, and self-help, to public manifestations, actions, exhibitions, etc.

When the United States pulled out of Vietnam in the 1970ies, the Thai sex industry faced a worrying decline in profits. The sex industry, in partnership with the tourist industry and the government, sought, consequently, to attract a new type of client. Tourists replaced military personnel. New bridges for sex tourism were established between Bangkok and towns in Germany, Denmark, and Japan. This builds new mythologies, stereotypes, and stimuli for the urban economy. Trafficking increases.

CODE:RED Bangkok / Trafficking Topographies, conceived for and shown for the first time at Sparwasser HQ, maps some of the most important routes of international trafficking in Asia, together with a display of documentary material. Furthermore, the exhibition premiers a new board game, »Monapoly«. The game aims to spread knowledge about the transnational trafficking of humans, and focuses on empowering, giving support, and helping the activist groups of urban minorities.

May 7. 8 pm, Tadej Pogacar in discussion with Ana Lopes, University of East London Ana Lopes has a Masters degree in Anthropology from the University of London. She completed a Ph.D. thesis, in which she reports on her project of establishing a union for sex industry workers. She is an international sex workers' rights activist, who has worked in the industry and is a member of several international sex workers' organisations. She is the Branch President of the Sex Workers GMB Union Branch and a visiting lecturer at the School of Social Sciences, University of East London.

Tadej Pogacar (*1960) is an artist, curator, and artistic director of the P74 Center and Gallery, based in Ljubljana. He is a founder and director of the P. A. R. A. S. I. T. E. Museum of Contemporary Art, a virtual, critical formation established in 1990 and P.A.R.A.S.I.T.E. Product Corporation. He is a theoretician of New parasitism, a model for alternative cultural and social activity. His most recent projects involve collaboration with urban social minorities, use of various media, activism, and intervention in the public domain.

CODE:RED Bangkok
Trafficking Topographies
Tadej Pogacar & P.A.R.A.S.I.T.E.