Burmese Curator Flees Bangkok After China Censors Art Exhibition About Authoritarian Regimes

The curator of an art exhibition on authoritarian regimes at the Bangkok Arts and Cultural Centre (BACC) fled Thailand two days after it opened over fears of possible arrest and deportation, reports the New York Times.

The show, titled “Constellation of Complicity: Visualising the Global Machine of Authoritarian Solidarity,” was curated by an artist from Myanmar, who goes by the name Sai. It features work by exiled artists from countries like China, Russia, Iran and Burma and aims to illustrate how authoritarian regimes “collaborate, affirm one another, and reproduce forms of violence under the guise of sovereignty and order,” according to the museum’s website.

Sai told the New York Times that he received digital messages from directors of the BACC warning him that Thai police officers were asking for his contact information.

““We expected there would be some kind of formal hindrance, but we didn’t expect it to be that immediate,” he said.

The New York Times reported that the directors of the BACC told Sai in an email that the museum had received warnings from the Chinese embassy, the Thai Foreign Ministry and Bangkok city officials that the exhibition could cause “diplomatic tensions” for Thailand with China.

Multiple changes were made to the exhibition, with black paint covering the names of several artists’s names and over part of the descriptions of homelands such as Tibet, Hong Kong and Xinjiang, according to an earlier report by BBC News in August.

A multimedia piece by the Tibetan artist Tenzin Mingyur Paldron showing Tibetan religious practices was almost completely removed. All that was left of Mr. Tenzin’s work was a traditional Tibetan woven door cover, left hanging in the middle of a gallery without context.

According to the New York Times, the directors of the BACC told Sai the changes were requested by Chinese authorities and were for “politically sensitive places where the Chinese government has been tightening its control”. There was also the removal of a Tibegan flag and a flag “generally used as a symbol of independence for the Uyghur people who live in Xinjiang, their homeland”.

The email prompted Sai to immediately get on the next flight to London over concerns he could be arrested and deported back to Myanmar.

Sai told the New York Times that he planned to bring “Constellation of Complicity” to other countries where the exhibition could be shown without censorship.

The exhibition at the BACC is scheduled to run until October 19.