Eric Booth: Committed to the New
By Dave Willis
Having lived in Chiang Mai off and on over the past four years, I’ve had the pleasure of meeting Eric Booth repeatedly at MAIIAM Contemporary Art Museum, which he founded in collaboration with his stepfather, Jean Michel Beurdeley, back in 2016, shortly after I first arrived in the city. Jovial and unpretentious, Booth has a passion for experimental art and progressive politics that is rivaled only by his enthusiasm for having a good time, as evidenced on the occasion when he booked a famous molam band to perform songs of the lively, northeastern Thai style at a MAIIAM exhibition opening, where I found myself one of three people dancing exuberantly in the front row, alongside Booth himself and the renowned curator Gridthiya “Jeab” Gaweewong. In January, I met up with Booth once more at MAIIAM, where we strolled through the galleries as he filled me in on how it all began.