Photo Art Exhibition “Youth Power & Symbols: The Myanmar Spring Lives On”
21 December, 2024 @ 11:00 am - 2 February, 2025 @ 7:00 pm
Exhibition Description
Organized and curated by SEA Junction in collaboration with BACC Pop-Up, the Photo Art Exhibition “Youth Power & Symbols: The Myanmar Spring Lives On” is to be displayed from 21 December 2024 to 2 February 2025 at BACC pop•up, Gallery 1, Mun Mun Art Destination (MMAD), 3rd floor, Seacon Square, Srinakarin. The exhibition consists of two series of artworks by two Myanmar photographers, documentary photographer Ta Mwe (pseudonym) and photography artist Lily (pseudonym). The two series portray the resilience, hope and struggle of protesters in Myanmar’s Spring Revolution and its aftermaths with similar, yet specific, approaches.
Within a matter of days of the February 1, 2021 military coup d’état, youths and older people from all walks of life began to pour onto the streets in outrage and protest against the military. Since then, for almost four years now, the population has been demanding the restoration of democracy and the release of the imprisoned leaders and all other political prisoners in spite of the military’s use of lethal force. As of October 2024, 5,909 people have been confirmed killed by the junta and a total of 27,612 people have been arrested, with 21,062 currently detained and 169 people have been sentenced to death. 573 children have been arrested and 655 children killed (AAPP). The number of displaced people in the country and across borders is over 3 million and growing. Amidst the failure of the international community to respond and take action, people are not giving up, continuing their support for the opposition National Unity Government (NUG) in exile. Many young people have taken up arms and joined the armed struggle as a last recourse against dictatorship, with many counting on the armed resistance by the People Defence Force and the Ethnic Armies gaining ground to eventually win the revolution.
The revolutionists’ defiant resistance is celebrated by the two artists’ series featured in the exhibition. In particular, Lily’s ‘Forever Young’ twin series of photo-collage portraits of Gen Z protesters commend their struggle to save their country from dictatorship. Awash in red, the portraits are remarkably absent. The real faces and identities of the protesters are hidden in a discomfiting chaos, in some instances obscured by delicate spring flowers, in others by guns and bullets. In parallel, Ta Mwe, in his photo documentary series “Symbols of Presence” (originally titled as “Flowers of Spring”), highlights how protesters manifest their commitment to freedom and democracy through body art amidst a backdrop of the military crackdown on protests and suppression of free speech. Their tattoos of political symbols express their commitment to freedom and democracy, despite the risks of being imprisoned by the military and/or having the tattoos burned. For their safety, the photographer concealed the protesters’ identities using flowers and bouquets, which also serve as a metaphor for these youths being akin to the blossoms of spring, symbolizing growth, resilience, and hope. Together, the two artists’ series stress that Myanmar’s Spring Revolution lives on in the face of continued atrocities by the military regime.
Artists Bios:
Ta Mwe is a Burmese photojournalist and documentary photographer with experience covering a wide range of political and social stories and events throughout Myanmar. After many years working for national and international publications and organizations as a photographer, videographer, and video editor, Ta Mwe’s recent work has focused on analog stills photography, covering first the COVID-19 crisis and then the country’s anti-coup protests on medium-format black and white film stock. The series exhibited at BACC pop was first exhibited together with textile artwork of Myanmar’s artist Sai in SEA Junction’s exhibition “Trails of Absence & Symbols of Presence: Loss and Protest in Myanmar’s Spring Revolution” in April 2024 at the Curved Wall, 4th floor, BACC and was later on solo display at the Event, Compassion Without Borders: A World Refugee Day at Chulalongkorn University in June. For more information about Ta Mwe see his website at https://tamwe.link/about/
Lily is a Burmese photographer. She was part of the protest against the Junta’s coup that overthrew their democratic government in the Spring of 2021. she developed ‘Forever Young’ over the course of the Spring Revolution, documenting the festering intergenerational rage that had found a new outlet in the linguistic, cultural and stylistic idiosyncrasies of the nation’s Gen Z. Shwe’s poetically inclined repertoire often includes intimate, contemplative images shot within private, enclosed spaces. Since Lily moved to Chiang Mai in November 2022, she has become interested to experiment with printing these scanner-generated self-portrait images on Saa Paper. In ‘Forever Young’, which comprises a twin series of photo-collage portraits of Gen Z protesters, her attention is focused outdoors, on the public.
For more information, please email: info@seajunction.org or phone/wa: +66970024140
NB: The exhibition is free, but donations are welcome to support SEA Junction activities.
Organizers
SEA Junction
SEA Junction, established under the Thai non-profit organization Foundation for Southeast Asia Studies (ForSEA), aims to foster understanding and appreciation of Southeast Asia in all its socio-cultural dimensions, from arts and lifestyles to economy and development. Conveniently located at Room 407-8 of the Bangkok Arts and Culture Center or BACC (across MBK, BTS National Stadium), SEA Junction facilitates public access to knowledge resources and exchanges among students, practitioners and Southeast Asia lovers. For more information, see www.seajunction.org, join the Facebook group: http://www.facebook.com/groups/1693058870976440/ and follow us on Twitter and Instagram @seajunction
BACC Pop-Up is a collaboration of the Bangkok Art and Culture Centre (BACC), the main art meeting place of the City of Bangkok, with Seacon Square Srinakarin as part of their Mun Mun Art Destination (MMAD) project. Located on Zone MUNx2, on the 3rd floor of Seacon Square Srinakarin, BACC pop•up aims to promote art to become part of people’s everyday life, in this case specifically for those living on the eastern side of Bangkok. For more information see BACC pop•up is located at Zone MUNx2, Seacon Square Srinakarin, and it is part of the Seacon Square MMAD project. For more information see https://www.bacc.or.th/en/events/61746
