The Coup Years: A Visual Chronical of Resistance in Myanmar

Background

For nearly six years, Myanmar’s people have fought to restore democracy following the 1 February 2021 coup led by General Min Aung Hlaing to block the National League for Democracy (NLD) from forming a government after its landslide 2020 election win. State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi, President Win Myint, and other officials and activists were arrested. Within hours, people of all ages poured into the streets in outrage, while public employees across the health, education, and transport sectors launched the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM), striking to resist military rule.

Since then, the junta has relied on lethal force and repression to control the country, but has failed due to fierce resistance from pro-democracy forces, including the National Unity Government, the People’s Defense Forces, and ethnic armed organizations.The recent elections were rejected as a sham designed to whitewash the junta’s crimes and entrench authoritarian rule against the people’s will. Symbolic gestures—Min Aung Hlaing’s claim to have been elected by his crony parliament, and the commutation of Aung San Suu Kyi’s prison sentences to house arrest and the freeing of Win Myint—do not obscure the rising death toll, the thousands still jailed, or the ongoing fight for genuine democracy.

People’s lasting opposition has come at a heavy price. According to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP), as of 10 July 2026, 8,153 people have been confirmed killed by the junta, and another 5,100 are awaiting verification. A total of 31,418 people have been arrested, with 22,391 currently detained and 173 sentenced to death. Among them, 639 children have been imprisoned and 1,086 killed. That same month, the global monitoring center ACLED put the death toll from the conflict far higher, at over 100,000 people. Meanwhile, the UN agency for refugees, UNHCR, reports that the number of people displaced within the country and across borders has surpassed 4 million and is still rising, as villagers flee intensified bombing and young people leave the country to escape forced conscription.

The global community has widely condemned the coup but failed to act, entrusting ASEAN with the response. Yet ASEAN has so far only managed a still-unfulfilled Five-Point Consensus peace plan and the exclusion of junta leadership from official meetings. As debate intensifies over readmitting junta leader Min Aung Hlaing following his claimed transition to civilian rule, the photo exhibition Coup Years—first shown in Bangkok, Thailand by SEA Junction—is touring to Indonesia thanks to a collaboration of SEA Junction, AJAR, Humanis, Migrant Care and Dia.lo.gue .

In Jakarta, home of the ASEAN Secretariat, the exhibition aims to inform the public and engage ASEAN representatives on what is actually happening in Myanmar. Opening on 26 September 2026, The Coup Years: A Visual Chronicle of Resistance in Myanmar will be on display at the art space Dia.lo.gue for two weeks. Curated by Yit, Jeje, and Rosalia Sciortino, the exhibition presents photographs taken between 2021 and August 2026, primarily by Myanmar photographers, capturing the geographical reach and thematic diversity of people’s resistance. In this adapted version, the pool of photographers has grown beyond the original four —Ko Kaung, Loki, Phoenix, and Sis Min Naing— into a richer collective of committed photographers, now also including Alien; Ants Are Always Busy (AAAB); Aung Khant Zaw (AKZ); Chindwin Riverside Village Strike Committe; Mar Naw; Mayco Naing; Mikoshiba Yato, Paschal Zayar dan Thomas Lynn from Visual Rebellion; Myanmar Community in Japan, Naphat Kongchan, Salingyi Letpadaung Taung Committee; Ta Mwe; Yangon Revolution Force; Yar Zar Tun; dan Yit.

The exhibition also features dialogues and film screenings exploring Myanmar’s situation and ASEAN’s role in conflict management, transnational solidarity across Southeast Asian civil society, cyber scam centers and trafficking, and strategies to counter shrinking civic space and resist authoritarianism, militarism, and impunity in the region.

Through art, documentation, and discussion, The Coup Years challenges the erasure of memory, confronts injustice, and stands in solidarity with the people of Myanmar in their fight for democracy. The exhibition is meant not only to be viewed, but to be remembered and felt—questioning power in relation to justice and human dignity.

Curators:

Yit, Ji Ji and Rosalia Sciortino

Photographers:

Alien; Ants Are Always Busy (AAAB); Aung Khant Zaw (AKZ); Chindwin Riverside Village Strike Committe; Ko Kaung; Loki; Mar Naw; Mayco Naing; Mikoshiba Yato, Paschal Zayar dan Thomas Lynn from Visual Rebellion; Myanmar Community in Japan, Naphat Kongchan, Phoenix, Salingyi Letpadaung Taung Committee; Sis Min Naing; Ta Mwe; Yangon Revolution Force; Yar Zar Tun; and Yit.

Exhibition Schedule:

Organizers and Partners:

SEA junction, a Thai Foundation located at Room 407-8 of the BACC, aims to foster understanding and appreciation of Southeast Asia in all its socio-cultural dimensions, from art and

lifestyles to development and human rights. For more information, see www.seajunction.org.

Dia.lo.gue Artspace is a venue dedicated to art and design located in Jakarta, whose name means “He/She.You.Me”in the local Betawi language. In addition to the exhibition space the venue also houses a small craft and book shop. IG: @Dia.Lo.Gue.

Yayasan Humanis dan Inovasi Sosial or Humanis is a Jakarta-based non-profit organization that works across the Southeast Asia region to build just, sustainable and inclusive societies. For more information, see https://humanis.foundation/

Asia Justice and Rights (AJAR) is a Jakarta-based non-profit organizations that aims to contribute to the strengthening of human rights and the alleviation of entrenched impunity in the Asia-Pacific region, especially in countries involved in transition from a context of mass human rights violations to democracy. For more information, see www.asia-ajar.org.

Migrant Care (Indonesian Association for Migrant Workers Sovereignty) focuses on migrant worker’s rights advocacy, with a vision to strengthen the migrant workers movement as part of broader social movements. For more information, see https://migrantcare.net/

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