In peak moments of political change or crisis, there is often a corresponding increase in arts censorship. Arts and culture in Southeast Asia already face multiple challenges – the lack of resources, narrow public support, an opaque legal and admirative landscape of practice. On top of this, across the region, arts and cultural workers regularly experience increased surveillance, censorship or pressure during periods of leadership challenges, economic turmoil or social unrest. Yet, these are moments when artists’ voices are most urgently needed. As Farida Shaheed has noted, artists bring “counter-discourses and potential counterweights to existing power centers.”

This panel on 18 May at 5.30-7.00 pm, presented cases from Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines, where artists and art making are by default at the mercy of various normalized acts of censorship, yet are also particularly targeted at specific heated political moments in these contexts. It takes an exploratory tone, asking if there are observable patterns across these three countries. How do artists make in heat, and navigate these moments of high risk and precarity? Are there possible intersections across these cases that make space for possible solidarity and support among the arts sectors in the region?

This panel was organized as part of the pilot project “Southeast Asian Arts Censorship Database”, which documented arts and culture censorship in the region. Launched in 2022 by ArtsEquator in partnership with Five Arts Centre, supported by the Swedish Arts Council and Globus Nordisk Kulturfond the pilot covered incidents occurring from 2010 to 2022, in six Southeast Asian countries, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam (see further https://artsequator.com/censorship/)

 

Moderator
Rosalia Sciortino, founding director, SEA Junction 

Speakers

Adrian Jonathan Pasaribu, chief editor and co-founder, Cinema Poetica
Kathy Rowland, co-founder and head of research, ArtsEquator.com
Katrina Stuart Santiago, founder, People for Accountable Governance and Sustainable Action-PAGASAph
Patporn (Aor) Phoothong, independent researcher

Photo credit: Five Arts Centre