“The state minister’s residence in Taunggyi, northern Myanmar, never felt like home for Sai. He found the cavernous rooms and hallways oppressive. The colonial-era edifice gave him “the creeps” long after his father Linn Htut, the chief minister of Shan state, was installed there in 2015, following Myanmar’s democratic reforms.
But as chaos engulfed the Southeast Asian nation in the wake of the February 2021 coup, Sai—a young artist and curator whose work is being exhibited at this year’s Venice Biennale—knew that Taunggyi was where he had to be. Linn Htut was being interrogated and tortured in a military jail. Sai’s mother was languishing in the official residence, under house arrest, with only her invalid mother-in-law for company. Some 20 guards were stationed outside.
Sai had been hiding in Myanmar’s biggest city, Yangon, where he was helping the democratic protest movement. Last May, however, he embarked on the perilous journey to Taunggyi, slipping through military checkpoints by huddling with elderly passengers in the backs of dilapidated vehicles. He brought a camera with him. To avoid arousing suspicion in case he should get stopped, he buried the camera in a suitcase beneath his wife’s underwear, exploiting the superstitious fear Burmese men have of touching women’s undergarments.
Read the article in full at Time.com.