“The Preservation of Fire” is a fascinating exhibition by Akha artist Busui Ajaw, hosted at the Bangkok Kunsthalle until November 1, 2026. Moving beyond a static display of historical artefacts, it functions as an active, “living archive” designed to counter the cultural amnesia threatening the indigenous Akha people of northern Thailand, Myanmar, and Laos.

The installation spans two floors, creating a physical and spiritual cross-section of Akha life:

• Ground Floor: The space is filled with traditional indigo textiles, garments, and handcrafted items passed down through generations, showcasing Akha weaving techniques and identity.
• Upper Floor: Features a full-scale, authentic Akha stilt house that was entirely dismantled in Chiang Rai and reassembled inside the gallery. It retains genuine traces of daily use, including agricultural tools, a stove, and soot covering the ceiling.

By reactivating fading communal knowledge, craftsmanship, and domestic rituals, the exhibition invites visitors to engage with a living heritage, bridging the gap between historical memory and contemporary survival. The title of the exhibition is inspired by a quote by the Austro-Bohemian composer Gustav Mahler (1860-1911): “Tradition is not the worship of ashes, but the preservation of fire.”

Busui Ajaw (b. 1986, Thailand) is a self-taught painter who creates works that draw from her everyday experiences as a woman in the contemporary world as well as her roots as an Akha ethnic. Since she began drawing at age 15, she has developed an expressive painterly language to communicate both the seen and unseen as well as the material and the psychological.

Born in a remote mountainous region of Myanmar, the artist was forced to flee as a young child with her family after a military invasion of their land. Her practice relates to her unique upbringing. The artist is an Akha, a nomadic ethnic group from the highlands of mainland Southeast Asia, and is from a family of artisans. Coming from an oral culture, the practice of image-making was initially foreign to her. She recently began to incorporate wooden sculpture into her visual language as well as working with installations. Busui exhibits widely in Chiang Rai and Bangkok. She lives and works in Chiang Rai, Thailand.

.

.

.