The curator of a recent museum exhibition in Thailand that criticized authoritarian governments in China, Myanmar and other countries expected a pushback, but not one so swift that he would have to flee the country.
The curator, an artist from Myanmar who goes by the name Sai, said he was in the museum’s parking lot two days after the July opening when its directors warned him in digital messages that Thai police officers were inside, asking for his contact details.
Fearing that he would be arrested and deported back to neighboring Myanmar for his work on the show, Mr. Sai said, he scrambled to a Bangkok airport and took the first available flight to London, leaving his belongings behind.
“We expected there would be some kind of formal hindrance, but we didn’t expect it to be that immediate,” said Mr. Sai, who fled Myanmar after a 2021 military takeover and designed the show to feature artists from Myanmar and countries that remain friendly with its ruling military junta.
Later that week, the directors told Mr. Sai that the Chinese authorities wanted the museum to remove the names and works of four artists in the show from Hong Kong, Tibet and Xinjiang — politically sensitive places where the Chinese government has been tightening its control.
The show at the Bangkok Art and Culture Center, which runs through Oct. 19, was not taken down. But the directors removed the four artists’ names from the exhibition materials with thick black lines. They also removed a Tibetan flag — a rising sun over a snow-capped mountain — and a sky blue flag with a white crescent and star, generally used as a symbol of independence for the Uyghur people who live in Xinjiang, their homeland.
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The post A Curator Flees Bangkok After China Deems His Art Show Too Provocative appeared first on New York Times.
