A Bangkok exhibition exploring state violence and resistance, which included artists from Tibet and Hong Kong, was altered beneath strain by officers on the Chinese language Embassy in Thailand.
In an electronic mail despatched to the artists reviewed by Hyperallergic, the curators of the exhibition mentioned that the present was modified to guard diplomatic relations between the 2 nations. The information was first reported by Reuters. A number of the censored works reference China’s therapy of Uyghurs and different primarily Muslim ethnic teams.
The ten-artist exhibition, Constellation of Complicity: Visualising the International Equipment of Authoritarian Solidarity opened final month on the Bangkok Artwork and Tradition Heart (BACC) and is about to shut this October. Bangkok’s Metropolitan Authority, a public company, was the exhibition’s important supporter, in line with emails reviewed by Hyperallergic.
In an electronic mail despatched to artists, BACC workers mentioned that works by artists from Hong Kong, Tibet, and the Uyghur diaspora had been altered, together with with textual content black outs, attributable to a danger of “creating diplomatic tensions between Thailand and China.” The present was curated by the Myanmar Peace Museum and in addition contains artists from Iran, Russia, and Syria.
“We’re doing the whole lot we will to make sure the exhibition proceeds as deliberate whereas taking mandatory steps to de-escalate the scenario,” BACC workers mentioned within the electronic mail, reviewed by Hyperallergic. “Reasonably than eradicating any names, we’ll place a black tab over the affected entries — serving as a press release itself and leaving the interpretation open to the general public.”
The curators of the exhibition fled the nation after officers from the Chinese language Embassy and Thai police visited the museum, in line with Reuters and one of many censored artists, trans Tibetan artist Tenzin Mingyur Paldron, who goes by the moniker Doc Tenzin.
“The identify Tibet is politicized, and that features Tibetan names,” Tenzin instructed Hyperallergic.
Photographs taken after the adjustments had been made beneath strain from Chinese language officers present that the names of 4 individuals — Uyghur artist Mukaddas Mijit, duo Clara Cheung and Gun Cheng Yee Man from Hong Kong, and Doc Tenzin — had been blacked out.
Hyperallergic has tried to contact the curators who’ve fled Thailand. Doc Tenzin didn’t blame BACC for the exhibition alterations, and mentioned he believed that the middle had accomplished their greatest to mitigate the scenario.
Doc Tenzin, who was born a refugee in India and moved to the US as a baby, mentioned that seven objects in his mixed-media set up had been altered beneath strain from Chinese language officers. Uyghur and Tibetan flags had been blacked out, he mentioned, however different flags within the set up, together with Palestinian, Rohingya, Haitian, and Sudanese flags, weren’t. Tenzin added that three movies he labored on, together with Take heed to Indigenous Individuals (A Trans Tibetan Scholar and Survivor Speaks on the Dalai Lama), footage he edited of a multi-hour demonstration by LGBTQ+ Tibetans in New York Metropolis, and a brief animated movie he wrote about listening to nature had been all eliminated.
A graphic by artist Liz Hee relating China and Israel’s surveillance and repression of Muslim communities within the nations’ respective occupied territories was additionally censored, the artist mentioned.
Tenzin defined in a press release that his 12-minute conversational movie Take heed to Indigenous Individuals explored the roots of a controversial viral 2023 video by which the Dalai Lama asks an Indian boy to “suck” his tongue. Doc Tenzin claims that the footage was “spliced” and supplied maliciously by an nameless Chinese language supply to media.
“Who’re museums for? They need to be for the individuals, not for dictators of any ideology,” Tenzin instructed Hyperallergic.
“When museums are unfairly pressured like BACC has been, the individuals should converse up for cover of the humanities and artists. They have to let the powers that be know that is unacceptable,” Tenzin continued. “Extra importantly, they have to ship a message to censoring governments that these works shall be seen, they are going to be heard, they are going to be mentioned.”
Hyperallergic has reached out to different artists within the present, the Thai Ministry of International Affairs, and BACC for remark.
