INDONESIA

Art as a form of protest in Burma

"Exhibitions are now showing political art openly in Burma. As the old censorship laws are being relaxed, protest groups are using art to spread their message."

Exhibitions are now showing political art openly in Burma.

As the old censorship laws are being relaxed, protest groups are using art to spread their message.

An exhibition to fundraise for a copper mine protest in northern Burma was held in Rangoon.

One of the artists is Myint Soe. He's showing me a painting about a controversial copper mine joint owned by the Chinese in northern Myanmar. 

“I am attached to politics. In my paintings, you can see my paintings are political.  My style depends on the political and economic situation.”

Before, paintings like his would have been banned from being displayed.

The censors would come and check for anything offensive.

Though censorship is supposed to have been relaxed, galleries still have to go through this process says Aung Min Soe, owner of Pansodan Gallery.

“This year is a lot relaxed," he says. But it's an old habit to break.

"In reality they still check what you are doing, how the exhibition goes. And we still have to submit to apply to the censorship board to come to the gallery. These routines are still continuing. “

But now exhibitions purely dedicated to showing political events are pushing the boundaries.

“In the copper mine case, I tried to depict the need under the reality. If all is gone, in this area, there will be bloodshed. We are burning inside.”

An exhibition to fundraise for the Latpadaung copper mine protest was held in Yangon.

They are protesting against the copper mine that is forcing them from their land. Recently, it turned violent when police cracked down on protesters.

“Mountains are normally still but I wanted to paint with movement to reflect the turmoil of the situation. Even though they said politics is allowed, in reality one night before the Latpadaung exhibition, they came to ban the exhibition.“

But they didn’t manage to shut the exhibition down.

There is a lot of confusion now as to what is and isn’t allowed says gallery owner Aung Min Soe.

“They don’t inform us officially. So this is also a problem – we are still confused. Shall we inform them? Or do we still need to get the censorship board to come and check everything. We are still confused in fact.”

There may not be total freedom of expression yet but there is a larger platform emerging.

“If we want to avoid we avoid, if we want test, we test. “

And the artists will carry one what they’ve always been doing…

“When I make a drawing I don’t think about censorship, I just draw what I think.  I don’t think about it when I make a painting.”

Censorship rules are still unclear but as long as artists keep pushing boundaries now – they will be able to set the benchmark for future artistic freedom.

• Burma Art Protest
• Helen Regan DVB
• conflict copper mine