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Karl Ingar Røys’s latest work Burmese Days (2014) looks at
cultural production in Yangon – Burma’s former capital – and how it has
managed to co-exist within the political regime.. This multi-channel
video installation takes its name from George Orwell’s novel of the same
title. Orwell is seen as a prophet by the Burmese who regard his books
as prescient: tracking Burma’s recent history from colonial oppression
in Burmese Days, the socialist military coup in Animal Farm, to the tyrannical dictatorship portrayed in his most famous novel 1984.
Burma was ruled by a military junta from 1962 to 2011, which
controlled all artistic production; censoring works including George
Orwell’s novels and forcing galleries to seek permission for the
artworks they exhibited. Røys’s Burmese Days occupies the
aftermath of the 2012 media reforms and intimately portrays Yangon as a
site where the personal and the political are overlaid. Drawing upon the
real experiences of individuals who lived under the regime – from the
punk vocalist with outspoken lyrics and the artist who makes work out of
rubbish – Røys intertwines subjectivity into an uncertain reality. Cassandra Newham, Curator
The soundscape for Burmese Days is recorded and produced by the London-based Austrian composer and sound artist Matthias Kispert.
This project has been made possible by:
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