Myanmar’s Contemporary Arts: In the Face of a Revolution

Clara Che Wei Peh

In the early morning of 1 February 2021, Myanmar’s military declared a year-long state of emergency. The military junta seized control of the government, after arresting the nation’s civil leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, and top members of the elected National League for Democracy (NLD). Parliament was scheduled to hold its first session since the nation’s elections last November, during which the NLD won by a landslide. Claiming electoral fraud and refusing to accept the voting results, the military forcefully took over Myanmar and its infrastructures, restricting telecommunications and internet access, and suspending domestic and international travel.

With that, the military took away the quasi-democracy Myanmar had for the past five years and has held the nation hostage since. As a result, Myanmar’s contemporary arts scene is forced to confront an uncertain path ahead, as artists risk facing increased scrutiny and censorship, as well as stark changes to the arts ecosystem. Based in Yangon, Nathalie Johnston, Founder and Director of Myanm/art, a contemporary arts organisation, says, “Waking up on 1 February, hearing the news, it felt like the bottom fell out underneath the entire country. Whatever future we imagined was gone in an instant.”

Pro-democracy protestors took to the streets in largely peaceful acts of civil disobedience, work stoppages and general strikes. Johnston observed that art played a major function in spreading the messages of the revolution and expressing solidarity. The Association of Myanmar Contemporary Artists hosted an art-making protest event on one of the main roads in downtown Yangon on 10 February, in support of the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM). Artists across different practices and mediums joined together to create artworks and sold them to raise funds for civil servants partaking in the CDM, refusing to continue to work in service of the military.

The three-finger salute, which originated in ‘Hunger Games’, authored by Suzanne Collins, has become a symbol of resistance in protests. Adopted by pro-democracy protestors across Hong Kong, Thailand and now, Myanmar, it has risen to be a symbol of global solidarity and the fight for freedom. The symbol spread rapidly across graffiti on government buildings and protest art painting on hanging canvas murals hung on bridges overnight.

Johnston witnessed that in the first weeks under the coup, the urgency of the demonstrations prompted artists to create, share and spread their artworks with an unprecedented level of openness. “One artist would create a work, upload Google Drive links for download and explain that it was free for all,” says Johnston. “The next day, a group would show up to the protests with large vinyls of that same artwork. There was this beautiful synergy to the sharing of symbols that created knowledge, community, understanding and disobedience.”

As the movement gained momentum, artists and creatives started Raise Three Fingers (formerly Art for Freedom MM), a movement to gather artworks featuring the three-finger salute, from artists in Myanmar and abroad, to spread awareness of Myanmar’s demonstrations to the global art community. By April, the campaign had gathered more than 1,000 artworks from artists around the world, fuelled by a collective belief in the power of creative resistance and unity.

Soe Yu Nwe, ‘In Memory of Kyal Sin, A Pure Fallen Star’, 2021, mixed media on arches paper. Image courtesy of the artist.

Bart Was Not Here, 2021. Image courtesy of the artist.

Myanm/art’s space. Image courtesy of Myanm/art.

Emily Phyo, ‘Response 365 Day 60’, 2021. Image courtesy of the artist.

Bart Was Not Here, a pseudonym for a young artist from Yangon who has worked closely with Myanm/art in the past years, explained that many artists instinctively turned towards creating and sharing artworks digitally since the first day of the coup. “A lot of artists were arrested for their physical artworks and illustrations back in the day," Bart Was Not Here cited the 8888 Uprising in 1988 and the Saffron Revolution in 2007, suggesting that “it is relatively safer and easier to spread art or counter-propaganda digitally.”

Although citizens began to experience increased freedom in public expression after 2015, the nation’s first fair elections since 1962, artists continued to be challenged by a lack of public space to show their work, drawing them to present their works online or in the streets. This led Myanmar artists to develop a strong fluency in utilising digital communications to spread their message across and beyond the nation’s borders. It contributed to the key function played by digital channels in organising and broadcasting the protest and its developments.

Emily Phyo, a performance and installation artist from Yangon, transformed her social media accounts to document and call attention to the protests. In 2015, Phyo photographed 365 portraits of different individuals in Myanmar and posted them online each day. On the first day of the coup, she began a new iteration of this project, capturing her response each day as the coup went on and the military’s violence escalated, often featuring the three-finger salute. By sharing them on social media, Phyo’s images not only spread awareness, but also provide rare on-the-ground documentations of the situation, especially as the military cracks down on journalists and news media.

As the situation exacerbates, the military responded with internet blackouts and new cybersecurity laws that threaten outright censorship. Soe Yu Nwe, a ceramics artist, says, “I now need to be cautious of what I post on my website or online, because you can get arrested or sued if you speak against [the military].” In a commentary published in 'The Arts Newspaper', Johnston also added that print shops have been closed, accused by the military of producing materials offensive to the regime. Johnston stressed that “artists will have to adapt and evolve quickly, to "work in code" and challenge the ways they share and stage their works in the future.”

In light of the uncertain future, arts organisations such as Myanm/art will also have to adjust their functions and spaces to adapt to a rapidly changing landscape. Founded in 2016, Myanm/art is an independent platform that functioned as an exhibition space, a commercial art gallery and a research archive. The organisation has worked closely with emerging contemporary artists across Myanmar to provide visibility for those whose works and practices are left outside of the nation’s mainstream discourses. Soe Yu Nwe say, “Myanm/art has offered an alternative space to traditional Burmese art or commercial art popular with tourists, and has given room for younger voices to develop by offering them space to experiment”. This ethos culminated in a diverse and evolving events calendar that has brought international attention to Myanmar’s burgeoning contemporary art scene. In a country where arts funding is infamously scarce, and often come with stipulations that only supported and documented limited forms of expressions, Myanm/art has played a central role in facilitating the growth and documentation of a diverse arts ecosystem. Bart Was Not Here adds, “Myanm/art’s mission is to amplify the individuality of the artists.” In addition, the gallery has served as a bridge to connect Myanmar with international art scenes and foster exchanges between visitors and local artists.

Even before the coup on 1 February, Myanm/art had been closed to the public for months, as the nation endured one of Southeast Asia’s worst coronavirus outbreaks. In the face of nationwide shutdowns, Myanm/art moved its focus to the digital, staging the online exhibition, ‘Art - Spaces - Us’ in April 2020. Originally planned for its physical location, the exhibition adapted into a Facebook event page that hosted the multimedia show alongside interviews and live panel sessions.

In parallel to the online exhibition, Johnston and Myanm/art also took the involuntary period of closure as an opportunity to develop their longterm efforts in research and archiving. Myanmar Art Resource Centre and Archive (MARCA) is a growing archive of Myanmar contemporary arts that Johnston and her team had been working on since 2013, with the aim of creating the largest database of Myanmar’s contemporary art. MARCA was part of Asia Art Archive’s Mobile Library programme, and grew as Johnston collected physical archival and research materials housed in Myanm/art’s on-site library over the years. When the pandemic hit, Myanm/art applied for and was given the GoetheInstitut’s COVID relief fund, which empowered them to obtain necessary resources to digitise the database and expand its online capacities. The team had initially planned to launch the project online in February.

Moving forward, Johnston shares that Myanm/art will no longer focus on showcasing artists’ works to a wide public audience. The organisation will move out of its current location and into a smaller, private space. Turning inwards, Myanm/art will consolidate its resources to support its ongoing network of artists and facilitate their art-making, while aiding them in navigating the highly policed realm of the public. "I think it is a smart and prudent move,” says Soe Yu Nwe, who has seen Myanm/art as the main platform for her to share her works with the local audience. “With the political instability and pandemic, it would be rather challenging to support a nice physical space and people aren't coming out to see or celebrate shows opening as much any how. It lowers financial, legal and covid risks for everyone."

Regardless of what may come, artists and cultural workers remain committed to sustaining Myanmar’s contemporary arts. Despite the potential challenges ahead, Bart Was Not Here is confident artists will perservere. “I am looking forward to tackling whatever that comes our way,” he says. “I think Myanm/art has a great roster of artists and we’ll make this a time capsule moment in our own way. I am only worried about censorship making a dramatic comeback. That would hurt everyone across the board, not just Myanm/art. But other obstacles, we can handle with no problem, I am sure." Echoing these sentiments, Johnston adds, “It has always been clear to me that these artists are steeled and strong in the face of adversity. Nothing about their lives – for generations – has been easy. Yet they always manage to find a place for themselves, their art and their creativity. They have a role to play in the fight against injustice, the fight for free expression and human rights, and they know it well. I expect they will have no issues responding on their own terms in the future.”