http://www.absolutearts.com/artsnews/2008/10/09/35228.html
2008-10-08 until 2008-11-09
Haus der Kunst
Munich, , DE Germany
"Imagine the formal presentation of poetry as evidence in a future war crimes tribunal. Imagine twenty sheets of paper floating forever in the wind." (Amar Kanwar) "The Torn First Pages" is a 20-channel video installation in three parts by the Indian artist and filmmaker Amar Kanwar, co-commissioned by Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary. Made between 2003-08 this filmic installation will be premiered at Haus der Kunst in its recently completed form and run from October 8 to November 9, 2008. "The Torn First Pages" is an ode to the thousands engaged in the struggle for democracy in Burma and presented in honor of the bookshop owner Ko Than Htay, who was imprisoned for 'tearing out the first page' of all books and journals that contained ideological slogans from the military regime. The twenty-channel video installation directly, elliptically and metaphorically encounters resistance and the struggle for a democratic society, contemporary forms of non-violence, political exile, memory and dislocation.
"The Torn First Pages" takes the viewer on a visual journey into the stories, lives and violent deaths of the protagonists of Burmese resistance virtually combining a poetic expressivity in image and language with the exploration of violence in its multifarious forms and its capacity of intruding the private, the personal, the home. With a penetrating, telescopic gaze Kanwar rescues and reanimates the image and its history in our collective memories. In Kanwar's investigations, the image is the "presentation of poetry", but is also being examined with reference to the question of "evidence", the process of collecting, archiving and circulating material evidences of crime and political resistance.
The video "Ma Win Maw Oo" for instance revolves around a forgotten but very dramatic photograph of a high-school student who was shot dead by Burmese soldiers during the 1988 student protests. This photograph captured the moment when Win Maw Oo was being carried by two medical students just after she was shot. It gained worldwide publicity for a day as a news photograph before it disappeared from public memory. In picking the picture of Ma Win Maw Oo, bringing it into motion, blurring and even distorting it Amar Kanwar magically and uncannily revives a moment in history, a personal fate representing a collective trauma.
In "The Face" - another episode of "The Torn First Pages" - Kanwar juggles, dissects and accelerate a picture showing General Than Shwe, the supreme head of the Burmese military dictatorship as he tosses rose petals an extra time for the press photographers at the cremation memorial site of Gandhi in Delhi. Based on film footage secretly shot at the ceremony at Rajghat on the 25th of October 2004, Kanwar literally unveils The Face of military representation by zooming in on the features of the General who is known for the distance he keeps from cameras. The manic repetition of the general's pose in front of the media reveals the absurdity and ludicrousness of the act.
"The Torn First Pages" also follows the paths of Burmese activism into exile - in Oslo, Delhi, Fort Wayne (USA). Part 2 is about the diaspora in Fort Wayne and a road journey with a Burmese activist in the United States in search of the late Tin Moe, famous Burmese poet in exile to record him reciting one of his most famous haiku's that was found scribbled on the walls of prisons inside Burma. Part 3 revives old and new archival footage anonymously and secretly filmed inside Burma, from the time of the independence of Burma, the 8 /8/88 uprising through to the recent rebellion led by the monks.
Amar Kanwar lives and works in New Delhi where he was born in 1964. He had solo exhibitions in Whitechapel Art Gallery, London and Apeejay Media Gallery, New Delhi (2007), at the National Museum, Oslo (2006) and The Renaissance Society in Chicago (2004) amongst others. He has participated in various group exhibitions such as Documenta 11 (2003) and 12 (2007) in Kassel, Sydney Biennial 2006, Image War: Contesting Images Of Political Conflict, ISP Exhibition, Whitney Museum, New York, and Territories, Kunst-Werke Berlin KW Institute of Contemporary Art, Berlin (2004).
"The Torn First Pages" will be shown from November 19th, 2008 onwards at Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary in Vienna. Founded in 2002 by Francesca von Habsburg, the foundation is committed to supporting the production and presentation of unconventional contemporary art projects that defy traditional disciplinary categorizations.
Six videos from part one of "The Torn First Pages" will be screened in September 2008 in Docking Station of Stedelijk Museum CS.
IMAGE
Amar Kanwar
The Torn First Pages
Still from Ma Win Maw Oo, 2005
Video, colour, 4 mn, 44 s
Belong to Part 1 of The Torn First Pages 2008
(6 channel video installation, Colour, Sound)
Courtesy: Amar Kanwar and Galerie Marian Goodman, Paris
ｩ Amar Kanwar
Thursday, October 9, 2008
"Amar Kanwar, The Torn First Pages"
UN Outlines Steps to Improve Burma’s Human Rights
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Thursday, October 9, 2008
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Tomás Ojea Quintana, the UN special reporteur on human rights in Burma, outlined “core human rights elements” that should be put in place before the 2010 general election, in a statement released on Wednesday.
The elements include:
—Amend domestic laws that limit freedom of expression, opinion and peaceful assembly.
—Release of political prisoners.
—Repeal discriminatory laws.
—Stop the recruitment of child soldiers.
"Respect for international human rights standards is indispensable" for the regime's proposed "roadmap to democracy" to gain international acceptance, Quintana said.
He said full enjoyment of human rights does not exist in Burma, according to "reliable reports on the extension of detentions and/or new arrests of political activists."
The release of political prisoner would reduce tension and inspire political participation among stakeholders in Burma, he said.
The transition to a multi-party democratic and civil government, as planned under the new constitution, will require “an intensive process of incorporating democratic values,” Quintana said.
He suggested a number of changes in the country’s judiciary, which currently "is not independent and is under the direct control of the government and the military."
Proposed changes include guaranteeing the due process of law, establishing a fully independent and impartial judiciary and setting up a mechanism to investigate human rights abuses.
Quintana, who took up his post in May 2007, visited Burma in August and met with prominent political prisoners, including U Gambira, the head of the All-Burmese Monks Alliance, a leading force in the 2007 demonstrations. He met with Gambari in Insein Prison, where he was being held prior to standing trial for posing a threat to the security of the state.
Meanwhile, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Tuesday his planned visit to Burma in December might not take place unless he sees the regime is ready to produce tangible results toward progress in democratization.
Also, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, this week called for the release of all political prisoners including detained democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
The junta now holds 2,123 political prisoners in various prisons across the country, according to a report compiled by the Thailand-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma) and the US-based Campaign for Burma.
Two leading activist groups in a joint letter to UN Secretary-General Ban released on Sunday said, "Dramatic increases in the number of political prisoners show the junta's defiance of the United Nations and international community, as well as its own people."
Copyright © 2008 Irrawaddy Publishing Group | www.irrawaddy.org
Appeal against Suu Kyi’s Detention Handed in at Naypyidaw
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Thursday, October 9, 2008
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A legal representative of Burma’s detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi handed in to the military government in Naypyidaw on Wednesday a formal appeal against the latest extension of her house arrest.
Suu Kyi’s lawyer, Kyi Win, told The Irrawaddy on Thursday that the appeal had been handed in personally by his assistant, Hla Myo Myint.
The government had given no indication when the appeal would be heard in court, Kyi Win said. “But we are hoping for a positive outcome.”
Suu Kyi’s latest five-year term of house arrest was extended in May for a further year—illegally, according to Kyi Win, because article 10 (b) of the Burmese State Protection Law 1975 stipulates that a person judged to be a “threat to the sovereignty and security of the State and the peace of the people” can only be detained for up to five years.
Suu Kyi has spent more than 13 years of the past 19 years confined to her Rangoon home.
Kyi Win said he planned to meet Suu Kyi soon to discuss the appeal.
Suu Kyi has reportedly been in poor health recently. She refused for about one month to accept deliveries of food and other household supplies at her home in what was seen as a protest against her continuing house arrest. Last week, she was visited by an eye specialist, Dr Kan Nyunt, and her personal physician, Dr Tin Myo Win.
At a Geneva press conference earlier this month, a UN High Commissioner for Human Rights official, Navanethem Pillay, expressed concern about Suu Kyi’s continuing detention and urged the regime to free her and all other political prisoners.
Suu Kyi had “in fact served a sentence that far exceeds that served by many hardened criminals,” Pillay said.
Pillay welcomed the recent release of seven political prisoners, but said it was a very small step when more than 2,000 political activists were still detained. “I urge the government to release them all as soon as possible,” she said.
Copyright © 2008 Irrawaddy Publishing Group | www.irrawaddy.org
Burmese in Exile Stage Demonstration on General Maung Aye's Visit to Bangladesh
Thursday,09 Oct,2008
About 30 Burmese democratic activists staged a demonstration in Bangladesh's capital, Dhaka, on Monday, to protest the visit of Burma's Senior General Maung Aye to Bangladesh.
Ko Kyaw Myint, an organizer of the protest said, "We expressed our desire to General Maung Aye and the Bangladesh government through this protest because there are many human rights violations in Burma by the present military government. It is not the the right time for Bangladesh to cooperate with Burma." .
General Maung Aye arrived in Dhaka about 11 am on Monday and was received at the airport by Bangladesh Chief Adviser Dr. Fakhruddin Ahmed. .
The demonstration took place in front of the Dhaka high court after Maung Aye's arrival. The demonstrators angrily shouted many slogans against Burmese military government and held posters and banners that read, "Get Out Maung Aye, Get Out Maung Aye," and, "Bangladesh - Stop Cooperating with the Burmese Military Government." .
"We would like to say to the Bangladesh government to stop extending its relations with Burma, because the Burmese military government abuses human rights in Burma. Burmese people now respect Bangladesh, if the government of Bangladesh extends its cooperation with the military government, the image of Bangladesh will be affected. So we request Bangladesh to not look only at business, but also at Burmese people who are being oppressed by the present military government," said Ko Kan Myint. Bangladesh police eventually dispersed the demonstrators after destroying their banners and posters, but the protesters were able to demonstrate for about 30 minutes and drew the attention of Bangladesh to their activities..
Maung Aye will leave Bangladesh for Burma on 9 October from Ragamati Town after visiting there. Ragamati is located in Chittagong Hill Tract where Buddhist Chakamar people are living. .
Narinjara News (NN) was founded by a group of Arakanese in exile in Bangladesh from Burma in 2001 seeking to voice for the people depriving of human and democratic rights and to pave the way for them who are struggling for those rights. The Narinjara News is an independent organization, not affiliated with any political party or organization. Any opinion or advice relating to our News Agency is warmly welcomed and please email to: narinjara@narinjara.com
Copyright © 2005-2008 Narinjara. All rights reserved.
Desertions, Assassinations Plague Burmese Armed Forces
Burmese troops—the show of unity hides growing unhappiness and resentment. (Photo: Nic Dunlop/Panos)
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By MIN LWIN Thursday, October 9, 2008
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A soldier deserted recently from Burma’s Light Infantry Battalion (LIB) 707, in Taikgyi Township, Rangoon Division, after murdering his commander—the latest sign of rising dissatisfaction among the lower-ranking members of the Burmese armed forces.
The deserter, who fled with a number of weapons, was later killed in a manhunt.
Desertions, small mutinies and assassinations are plaguing Burma’s ruling military, according to observers abroad and sources within the country.
Low-ranking soldiers are increasingly unhappy about their conditions of service. “There is a big gap between high ranking officers and other ranks,” said Htay Aung, a Burmese military researcher based in Thailand.
Ordinary soldiers earn around 22,000 kyat (less than US $20) per month, and most have difficulty surviving, particularly if they are family men. They are also assigned sub-standard housing, while high-ranking officers are given luxury homes in Naypyidaw and Rangoon.
Htay Aung said soldiers were treated “like slaves” by their officers, whose wives often assigned them menial domestic duties.
An army training officer said defectors were leaving not for political reasons but because of their treatment by their commanders.
The murder of the commander of Light Infantry Battalion (LIB) 707 was no isolated incident.
In 2005, a young captain with Light Infantry Battalion No. 375, based in Kyauktaw, Arakan State, killed the wife and other family members of his commanding officer and then committed suicide.
In 2001, a medical corps sergeant shot dead Maj Min Min Soe and a captain from No. 4 Military Operations Command after accusing them of abusing their positions.
In the same year, Tin Oo, Secretary 2 of the SPDC and Army Chief of Staff, died in a helicopter crash after previously surviving three assassination attempts.
In July 1977, Capt Ohn Kyaw Myint, personal secretary to then Army Chief of Staff Gen Kyaw Htin, was arrested, along with a dozen other army officers, and accused of plotting to assassinate dictator Gen Ne Win and other state leaders.
The captain said he and other members of the group opposed Ne Win’s “Burmese Way to Socialism,” which they felt was leading the country to ruin.
In the late 1960s, Capt Kyaw Zwa Myint, a military intelligence officer and personal assistant to Ne Win, fled to Karen rebel-controlled territory after plotting to assassinate Ne Win. He later died in Australia.
Copyright © 2008 Irrawaddy Publishing Group | www.irrawaddy.org
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