Closing Tour of "Mingalaba: A Journey Through the Myanmar Photo Archive"

as part of the 9th Singapore International Photography Festival (SIPF)

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Date: 23rd Nov 2024 (Sat)

Time: 5.30pm—6.30pm

Meeting Point: Riceball Photography (3 Coleman Street, #01-04 Peninsula Shopping Centre, Singapore 179804)

Registration: $10 (General), $8 (Concession), Free (Passholders)

Guides: Kirti Upadhyaya [IN], Curator of "Mingalaba", Phoo Myet Che, Pearl [MM/SG], Artist & Cultural Worker

Capacity: Limited to 12 pax

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About the Exhibition

Mingalaba: A Journey Through the Myanmar Photo Archive / မင်္ဂလာပါ: မြန်မာ့ဓာတ်ပုံမော်ကွန်း၏ဖြတ်သန်းခြင်းခရီး invites audiences to engage with Myanmar through a vast, visual archive.

Mingalaba is a playful experiment that brings old images to new audiences. It presents the archive not as a dusty, forgotten storage space but as an active space for exploration. Audiences are invited to journey through Peninsula Shopping Centre, Excelsior Shopping Centre, and Peninsula Plaza, where they will encounter different collections of images from the Myanmar Photo Archive (MPA) embedded in the everyday spaces often frequented by the local Burmese community and photographers alike. Each intervention introduces Myanmar—its diverse cultural activities, histories, and multi-ethnic environments—to audiences through the eyes of many different photographers.

Opening up archives and bringing images that preserve significant moments from the past–whether personal or political, quotidian or historical–to audiences in real life is significant as access to the past is not always granted. This is the case in Myanmar, where archives, mainly visual archives, are not publicly accessible. The MPA is a rare exception. It is the largest visual archive of Myanmar, containing more than 40,000 photographs, negatives, and paraphernalia that illustrate the country's visual culture. These materials are accessible to audiences online (through the MPA's website) and offline through exhibitions and programmes such as Mingalaba.

The archive was founded by Lukas Birk and is currently run with his team, May Hia Myat Thu, Rita Khin and Khun Kyi in Myanmar. The archive is supported by the Goethe Institut Myanmar and has initiated commissions and education programmes for Myanmar citizens to engage with and rethink these archival materials.

W: myanmarphotoarchive.org

Host or Publisher Singapore International Photography Festival