A very successful beginning to our Mobile Library: Myanmar project in Mandalay! We opened on 16 January at Dreamland Guest House/Alin Dagar Art School to a large and enthusiastic crowd of professionals, artists, teachers, and students. More photos and information about programming can be found on our Burmese language Facebook Page. Click Here.
Mobile Library is sponsored by Foundation for the Arts Initiative and Mr. and Mrs. Serge Pun.
Mobile Library is sponsored by Foundation for the Arts Initiative and Mr. and Mrs. Serge Pun.
The Panel Discussion on Archive was meant to bring attention not only to archives, but also the panelists experiences working with archive through research, exhibition, and writing/publishing.
Sana started off the discussion by examining his own work and use of archive. Through his personal practice, he looks at war and memory. Memory is the archive of the Civil War in Sri Lanka and Sana isolated experiences through objects, displaying these objects in an exhibition as well as publishing a book – The Incomplete Thombu. His practice involved speaking to people, reliving and sometimes rebuilding their memories.
Hammad followed with some of the archival research and projects of Asia Art Archive, where he is Head of Research. Hammad was asking important questions: what gets written? Who are the voices? What is recognized and what is not? He described 4 separate archives including Salon Natasha, the performance art video archive of Ray Langenbach, the China Interviews of artists in the 1980s, and the India Bibliography.
Zasha Colah and Sumesh Sharma spoke toward the end of the day and shared about some very interesting projects focused on the archives of exiled Myanmar artists. Htein Lin and the prison painting series, Sitt Nyein Aye and his Myanmar archive in India, and Sawangwongse Yawnghwe, a little known exile from Shan State who grew up in a border camp, and remembers Myanmar through his family’s memories and his own recreation of events with historic proportions.
A discussion ensued addressing the issues of archiving such as focus, digitization, personal affiliations and exhibiting archive not through library or catalogue but through curated exhibitions – a way to examine the archive through history and image.
Mobile Library is sponsored by Foundation for the Arts Initiative and Mr. and Mrs. Serge Pun.
We have had one incredible week of visitors, conversations, inspiring exchanges and a few good meals. Thanks to everyone who participated in the Educational Workshop at the National University of Art and Culture, the Panel Discussion on Archiving, and the Digital Archiving Workshop. We will be posting photos, video and more information soon. Stay tuned!
Mobile Library is sponsored by Foundation for the Arts Initiative and Mr. and Mrs. Serge Pun.
AAA (Hong Kong) and MARCA (Myanmar) have teamed up to bring Myanmar the third edition of the Open Edit: Mobile Library project, generously funded by the Foundation for the Arts Initiative (FfAI).
MARCA has received over 500 books, which we are furiously cataloging and translating short summaries, in order to create a program based around these books from Yangon to Mandalay and beyond. The program will run from November to March and so far, include the following collaborative partners:
University of Arts and Culture – Yangon
Dreamland – Alin Dagar Art School
More details to come!
In March 2014, we embarked on a research trip with Susanna Chung, the Head of Learning and Participation at Asia Art Archive. It was during that trip we were told that MARCA has been asked to partner with AAA in the Open Edit: Mobile Library project. Myanmar will be the third country where the Mobile Library has been implemented. The first two were Vietnam and Sri Lanka. You can read more about the previous projects here.
In keeping with the objectives of both MARCA and AAA, we decided to meet a range of professionals, both inside and outside of the arts. Journalists from PEN Myanmar, directors from private art schools, art educators from the University of Fine Arts in Yangon and Mandalay, artists, art students, school and library managers, non-government organizations, international cultural institutions, and filmmakers and musicians.
These photos are just a sampling of the amazing experiences we had meeting so many intelligent, magnanimous professionals interested in education and creativity. We are currently putting together an outline of what this Mobile Library project will aim to achieve and share it with you as we plan the programming.
We are on Facebook! Here in Myanmar, Facebook is one of the easiest ways to reach a larger audience of artists and creative folks, so we started with that and will continue here and there to update you with photos, archive, progress, and workshop dates!
Books donated by artist Nina Rodin for the MARCA reference library.
MARCA | Myanmar Art Resource Center and Archive 