Nineteen Artists who Gathered During a Special July – Looking Back on the Past 70 years, to the Next 10 years

The Secretariat (Former Burmese Government Office)

Jul 19 - Jul 31, 2018

Written by Maki Itasaka (writer living in Yangon), Translated by AURA Art

19^th July is a special day for the people of Myanmar. On 19^th July, 1947, nine key individuals for independence, including General Aung San, lost their lives in an assassination. In July, the former Burmese Government Office, which was the site of the genocide, was where a planned exhibition was held called 'Seven Decades' which featured nineteen Myanmar artists.

Looking Back 70 Years on a 'Special July'

The former Burmese Government Office was built as the Governor-General's Office during the British colonial period, and it had been the stage for independence and democratization movements. It was closed due to the relocation of the capital from Yangon to Naypyidaw in 2005, but in January 2018, the artist support group Pyinsa Rasa rented some space of the building and succeeded in carrying out several planned exhibitions.

Nathalie Johnston, one of Pyinsa Rasa's founders and an American curator, reminisced about the beginning of the exhibition: "July 19th is an important day for the people of Myanmar. Because this place is a symbol of Myanmar's history, so I wanted to hold a special exhibition suitable for the special July, and so I consulted with Htein Lin." Htein Lin, a prominent performance artist, was imprisoned under military rule as a political prisoner for nearly seven years, but he is known for somehow devising tools and continuing to create artworks in prison.

He selected nineteen artists after the '19th'. He presented only the theme of 'expressing the 70 years of each person through the work', but the gathering pieces became a dark political colored lineup. "The arts of Myanmar are politically inseparable. Five out of the nineteen experienced a long period of imprisonment as political prisoners," said Htein Lin. His tone was fast, as if he lives his life too hard and too fast.

Introduced Toilet Bowl and Iron Grate

Upon entering the site of the former Burmese Government Office, the first thing you saw was a row of Burmese toilets lined up outside the main entrance; 'Waiting Together', by San Oo. It is explained that the endless battle for human rights, peace, and the arts under a socialist society was satirized by comparing it to the line of Burmese toilet bowls.

In the next entrance hall was Maung Di's 'Vimutti Rasa'. In Myanmar, where democratization is progressing, political prisoners have been released one after another. The two intersecting iron grids (more precisely aluminum fences) situated in the antique-looking hall, in which weak light streamed into, seemed to ask - 'Did they really become free?' Mental freedom and physical freedom are separate. Even though they were released from prison, they might be wondering if they just became a prisoner of 'ism'.

Looking back, we can see that these two works were excellent introductions to this exhibition.

Works that Express the Times

The main venues were two halls upstairs, with high ceilings that gave the area an impression of spaciousness. Works expressed in a variety of ways, such as two or three-dimensional ones, videos, comics, and mixed media were lined up. I would like to highlight three works that attracted particular attention.

First of all, the joint work of Chan Aye and Phyu Mon, 'Loving Kindness'. It represents 'The Saffron Revolution', a monk-led large-scale democratization demonstration that broke out in 2007. In this disturbance, the military killed several civilians, including a Japanese journalist. Behind the artwork, flipped a begging bowl, which symbolizes the rejection of begging by the army, and there was a video of recorded footage of the time. Perhaps because of the comprehensibility of the theme, young people of the generation who were probably ignorant of the Saffron Revolution also stopped to view the work.

The following M.P.P Ye Myint's two-dimensional work, 'Cancer: 1, 2, 3, 4' gave a pop and fashionable impression for an instant, but it is a serious social problem that has occurred in recent decades, such as the selfish demonetization of the government, which has caused social poverty, and commercialism, which in turn has brought about ruination to the common people.

'The Unfinished' by Aye Ko, where a large number of stumps were lined up, caught my eyes at the back of the hall. What is inscribed is the names of the countless students who fought for democratization. Aye Ko who impresses with his thick eyebrows and big eyes, explained his reason for choosing the stumps: "Trees shot from the side, even though they are cut down again and again." Is it 'conflict' or 'hope' that follows the title of 'The Unfinished'?

What impressed me with this piece was that there were several viewers who were sitting down, eagerly trying to ascertain something. Someone said that they were looking for the names of their acquaintances. Some might have been looking for own their names. Yet, both The Saffron Revolution and imprisonment are not just topics on television news and textbooks for them, but rather what actually happened to them during this era in which they are now living.

At the Beginning of Myanmar's Contemporary Art

The series of works that looked back over the past 70 years strangely enough brought up another common theme, the criticism of the past regime as a necessity of Myanmar's modern history, but we cannot help feeling that there was something short in that we wanted to see the landscape one step further. However, the opening of such a large-scale exhibition in a special place during a special July was a landmark event in the current art world in Myanmar, and it gave the viewers and the artists who created the exhibition a sense of the next developments.

Htein Lin stresses the significance of this exhibition. "Reflecting on the past is not the purpose, but it is important to create new art for reflection." In fact, it was a retrospective exhibition of the dark history that Myanmar society should break away from, but it was also a presentation of the 'now' of Myanmar art which is still unsophisticated. Certainly there was a throb of Myanmar art that inflated expectations for the next decade.