Contemporary Dialogues Yangon

Contemporary Dialogues Yangon is an international interdisciplinary festival (25 September - 4 October) built around conversations, roundtables, performances and exhibitions about contemporary art and contemporary cultures in Myanmar. Contemporary Dialogues Yangon is bringing together in Myanmar local and international professionals involved in different cultural fields: contemporary art, film-making, publishing, contemporary philosophy. The project is developed, curated and organized by Ilaria Benini and Thomas Nadal Poletto (Flux Kit), in partnership with TS1 Gallery. It is made possible thanks to the support of Institut Français de Birmanie, Goethe Institut and Asia Center/Japan Foundation. Under military rule, arts and artists resisted, but outside Myanmar there is still very little knowledge about that artistic period and its evolution today. At the same time, the isolation of the country prevented its artists and culture professionals from being involved in a creative international environment.

This festival is intended as a free and open platform where audiences can gather information, share their opinions and define what elements are determining the future of culture in Myanmar. THEME: Now and Memory. Who we are? Where do we go? The debates aim to involve all culture professionals interested in recognising each other and building a network within Myanmar. Artists, curators, art critics, translators, publishers, film-makers and culture professionals will meet in Yangon to discuss the future of contemporary arts and cultures in the country. The programs also aim to give international resonance to Myanmar’s contemporary art scene and to sustain the development of art spaces and networks of art professionals, within the country and abroad. Hence our overarching question: how can Myanmar work best internationally and within the country in creating an active cultural environment? You can find further programme details for Contemporary Dialogues Yangon here or below:

Following the festival, Flux Kit will produce a book with essays and creative pieces discussing the state of culture in Yangon in 2014 in relation to the debate developed during the programmes. Flux Kit is an independent organization based in Yangon (Myanmar). Flux Kit is designed to create intercultural encounters and to record contemporary culture through a variety of curatorial projects, researches and artistic production. Its mission is to promote debate between people with different cultural backgrounds and life experiences, setting up activities in Europe and Asia, and expanding worldwide networks among creative professionals and thinkers. Flux Kit develops projects that intend to establish a permanent research through the programming.