THAI MILITARY CENSORS GALLERY IN BANGKOK
On June 15, Thai soldiers removed political artworks from an exhibition at Ver Gallery in Bangkok, Teeranai Charuvastra of Khaosod reports. The drawing, four photos, and seven diary pages were part of photographer Harit Srikhao’s solo show “Whitewash,” which included images of Thailand’s government crackdown on the Redshirt protesters in 2010.
Organized by the United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD), a number of demonstrations, which called for Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva to step down from his post and the election of new leadership, ended in violent confrontations with the military and around ninety people dead. Srikhao, who was not at the gallery when the soldiers arrived, was exhibiting photos of the bloodshed that occurred during the Redshirts’ riots contrasted with pictures of everyday life. “I’m not sure what the reasons were,” Srikhao said.
Three or four soldiers and several police officers originally demanded entry to the Cartel Artspace Gallery, which is adjacent to Ver Gallery. They had been under the impression that the exhibition there was organized by Pronthip “Kolf” Mankong, a female playwright who was convicted of lèse-majesté, insulting the monarchy, and spent two years in jail for her student production of “The Wolf Bride” in 2013. A portrait of Mankong was included in photographer Tada Hengsapkul’s show “The Shards Would Shatter At Touch,” which featured images of political prisoners, but she did not stage the exhibition.
Hengsapkul believes the soldiers first learned of the show from an article, in which Mankong, an advocate for the rights of women prisoners, criticized the gallery’s inclusion of her image in the exhibition without her permission. “I already apologized to her. I thought the matter was over, but she wrote about it on Prachatai,” Hengsapkul said. He added that he suspected the article would attract unwanted attention for the show. “I knew it right away, soldiers would definitely come visit us.”
After Hengsapkul explained to the soldiers that Mankong was not involved in the gallery’s exhibition programming, they left, and then entered Ver Gallery next door. Gallery manager Jirat Ratthawongjirakul told artforum.com that the soldiers forced the staff to remove several works and threatened to come back every day to ensure that the spaces on the wall and on the table where they were displayed remain empty.
According to Khaosod, since the 2014 military coup in Thailand, soldiers have been increasingly acting as law enforcement and security forces for the current military dictatorship and have blocked various cultural events and political activities. “I’m already used to this kind of thing in this country,” Hengsapkul said, adding that he is concerned that incidents such as their visit to the galleries will have a chilling effect and “scare off” the next generations of artists.
