Ethics and Responsibility

Ethics and Responsibility In “International Artists Mobility”

The FCP 2013:  Burmese Days is commissioning and supporting a number of independent local projects in Myanmar:

Our belief in artist mobility is that we can work towards enriching the local, the small, the intimate, and not just the international, the big, the spectacular.  International curation can be responsible for the development of conversations in local arts communities and their audiences.  The international arts market should not just ‘cream’ off the interesting artists to be exhibited abroad.  Hopefully, we can all slowly move towards a more sustainable process in the art-ecosystems of production and circulation.

1 Commission:  The Art & Museum Project

“We initiated the Art & Museum Project because as we travel around the countryside we are always faced with a lot questions as to what artists like us do. People want to know what artworks we make. Where are our exhibitions held? They think the ‘art-museum’ is still a far away land. Hopefully this project will respond to ‘what is art?’ and ‘what is museum?’

In 2010, we started to realise small scale exhibition spaces in different villages and towns where there are no art gallery or museum built for the people. We thought exhibition designs should be connected and reflect on local people’s daily life, situations or landscapes. Space designs should be friendly and accessible for local people. So, we chose local small huts, tents, and barns. After that, we asked what pieces should be exhibited? We decided to collect local artifacts & handicrafts even though they were not seen as ‘artworks’. We walked around the villages, met children and asked for their toys to exchange with our new ones. We walked by the river to find flotsam which the water brought.

Related to ‘the urban’ in Yangon or Mandalay or Taungyi, we will work with a variety of different spatial designs from the pagoda festival bazaar to an open-air museum of new media art.  We invite artists and support them to create artworks for these spaces. These spaces can turn into studios, workshops and private classrooms. Through conversation with the artists, new works may be imagined and developed.

We propose these four artists May Phue Thet (b. 1992), Min Thein Sung (b. 1978), Phyoe Kyi (b.1977) and Zar Min Htike (b. 1975) for collaboration with us.”

Tun Win Aung & Wah Nu

2 Bridging the Wathann Film Festival Yangon with Mandalay

For the first time, the emerging Wathann Film Festival will screen prize winning works of young Myanmar film-makers in Mandalay.  This allows a circulation of Myanmar films within Myanmar, rather than being ‘for export’ only.

3 Hotel Reverie – Room No. 64 (Episode #01) and (Episode #02) by Theatre of the Disturbed

4 Subtitling of Myanmar (Burma) films

The subtitling in English of Maung Wanna’s first film which has become a classic.  Also the subtitling of Okkar’s newest film.  This allows for the circulation of Myanmar (Burma) films internationally to introduce that there was once a film culture which was dynamic, integrated with society, and hopefully that there will be another era of vibrant film culture again.