Aung Zeya Light Project #1: Lives Look Like Light

A country in darkness. Ten years ago, Burma was not only politically oppressed, but also a very poor country. The artist Wah Nu and her artistic partner and husband Tun Win Aung lived in a poor apartment in the Aung Zeya complex, in an area without electricity, without ‘light’. The surroundings were depressing and in order to bring light to this darkness in a literal sense, Wah Nu embarked on a light project that she recorded in this video installation.
Shots were filmed in the apartment from dusk to dawn, in order to show the living conditions of the Burmese. They also filmed outdoors in the unlit night.
This video installation, often screened in a kind of tent of canvas and bamboo, marks the beginning of modern installation art in Burma and is therefore an important document. The work is as realistic as a documentary, but obviously has a symbolic significance which is now augmented by the fact that dawn seems to have broken in Burma.