franco angeloni presents indie punk-garage band super dr.k fucking av idols allstars featuring mr. berlusconi - live performance in bangkok | ®2004 | we..ed art cafe drawing parallel lines among the weird way populist parties take over on the political scene in western and far-eastern countries governments. i set up this project in the city of bangkok after finding out that the local pm mr. s.taksin had set up a very powerful party by using allegedly undemocratic practices. over the last 10 year mr. s.taksin (currently ousted after sept 2006 military coup) was able to climb up the political scene by simply buying satellite tv and telecommunication companies. by doing so mr. taksin had gained access to one of the most powerful national mass-mediatic system. this cunning manouvre enabled him in the round of a few years to win the confidence of thai people and, with very seducing language and the promise of transforming the country into a wealthy and modernised one, he became prime minister in two terms. to this days, after a coup of sept 2006 and the establishment of the martial law, thailand is still struggling to find its way into the future in a democratic way. thai people, are still waiting for the unrealised dreams of more equal standards of living among the population and a more sustainable economic progress. bangkok, is looking more and more as huge shopping mall, where anything is tradable, from water to cars, from sex industry to the air that you breath (...).
this concert and the ideas behind it caught the attention of a local news-paper that got in contact with me for an interview. the interview with pictures was reviewed in a long article that was published in the weekly thai a-day magazine.

i set up this free street concert after gathering information that i collected during a number of meetings and talkings with professors, jornalists, students of the university silpakorn (art dept.) and common people in bangkok. the naive idea that only in developing countries a populist party can gain power by the appropriation of media and national tv-channels in order to speak up in the name and benefit of the masses is a false one. over the past 15 years such a dangerous phenomenon took place in a country much closer to us in europe. italy is an evident example. the consequences of that power-gaining practice is still there to be seen. this concert in bangkok was only meant to "celebrate" the unfortunate fate of these two countries. in cooperation with rajata art house, bangkok and with the kind support of the netherlands foundation for the visual arts, amsterdam.