cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/40297852
A Bangkok exhibition exploring state violence and resistance, which included artists from Tibet and Hong Kong, was altered under pressure by officials at the Chinese Embassy in Thailand.
In an email sent to the artists reviewed by Hyperallergic, the curators of the exhibition said that the show was modified to protect diplomatic relations between the two countries. The news was first reported by Reuters. Some of the censored works reference China’s treatment of Uyghurs and other primarily Muslim ethnic groups.
The 10-artist exhibition, Constellation of Complicity: Visualising the Global Machinery of Authoritarian Solidarity opened last month at the Bangkok Art and Culture Center (BACC) and is set to close this October. Bangkok’s Metropolitan Authority, a public agency, was the exhibition’s main supporter, according to emails reviewed by Hyperallergic.
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In an email sent to artists, BACC staff said that works by artists from Hong Kong, Tibet, and the Uyghur diaspora were altered, including with text black outs, due to a risk of “creating diplomatic tensions between Thailand and China.” The show was curated by the Myanmar Peace Museum and also includes artists from Iran, Russia, and Syria.
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[Artist] Doc Tenzin, who was born a refugee in India and moved to the US as a child, said that seven objects in his mixed-media installation were altered under pressure from Chinese officials. Uyghur and Tibetan flags were blacked out, he said, but other flags in the installation, including Palestinian, Rohingya, Haitian, and Sudanese flags, were not.
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“Who are museums for? They should be for the people, not for dictators of any ideology,” Tenzin told Hyperallergic.
“When museums are unfairly pressured like BACC has been, the people must speak up for protection of the arts and artists. They must let the powers that be know this is unacceptable,” Tenzin continued. “More importantly, they must send a message to censoring governments that these works will be seen, they will be heard, they will be discussed.”
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