River City Bangkok is proud to present “Minsterwood”, a visionary exhibition by Belgian artist Director Jacq (Wayn Traub), marking a powerful culmination of his over 26-year practice in art, film, music and theater. Serving as a tangible prelude to his decade-in-the-making cinematic epic, the exhibition immerses visitors in the film’s haunting world through a central collection of hand-embroidered artifacts.

Drawing on a lifelong engagement with fabric and narrative, Director Jacq has, since relocating to Thailand in 2012, meticulously developed a series of 25 hand-embroidered ‘copes’, inspired by the liturgical stoles of high Catholic clergy. Each of these monumental copes are created as narrative paintings, requiring between four to five months of meticulous hand embroidery to complete.

For this exhibition, 12 of these masterworks are presented alongside his signature shields and sacred objects. Each piece is crafted on traditional handwoven Thai fabrics from Sakon Nakhon, transformed through Director Jacq’s intricate needlework into scenes of self-penned "Minsterwood" script, a dark fairytale set in a jungle monastery where nuns weave copes from the stories of the men they killed. The exhibition presents the first physical incarnations of this world: these are the actual vestments that will be worn by the nuns in the forthcoming film, offering a rare and intimate preview of its aesthetic and symbolic core. The experience is further deepened by an original soundtrack composed by the artist for the film.

Alongside the central textile works, the exhibition unfolds as an immersive monastery, featuring a symbolic life-sized red horse and contributions to a painted religious tryptic from invited contemporary Thai and international artists Kasing Lung, Mu Pan, Michael Hutter, Guy Slabbinck, Stéphane Blanquet, Steven Peters Caraballo, Kat Bové, Suwat Boontam, Thaloga, Rearngsak Boonyavanishkul, Rachata Siriyakul, Pongsakorn Tanakhun, Thanyalak Sagkanit, Narathip Ronnakhunt and Kanokwan Kham-art.

“Minsterwood" is an invitation to witness the foundational artifacts of a cinematic vision, crafted by an multi-disciplinary artist for whom textile became a primary and performative language. It is a world where hand-stitched thread becomes script, fabric becomes film, and art becomes a ritual of preview.

The exhibition “Minsterwood” stands as one of River City Bangkok’s most monumental showcases of the year. Visitors will be immersed in a meticulously crafted cinematic exhibition design—an invitation to step fully into the world of Minsterwood—while experiencing extraordinary works of art, unveiled here for the very first time and nowhere else before.