The Scream of the Gecko

After its independence in 1948 Myanmar experienced hard times both politically, with a civil war followed by Ne Win’s harsh military regime and economically, with the failure of the “Burmese way to Socialism”. The country was hermetically closed to foreign influence from the 1962 military coup until the early 1990s by decision of the Burmese government but also due to international sanctions. For 50 years, people struggled in their everyday life. Born in 1992, Kyaw Htoo Bala belongs to a generation which benefited from a new political and social context which ensured a slow but sure economic development, more freedom of expression and international exposure. Bala learnt about the Ne Win era and the 1988 uprising from his beloved grand-father who used to spend long hours with him, telling him about the past. As a child he enjoyed listening to these stories as to folk tales. As an adult he realized that these tales were about history, and that the old stories were repeating themselves. In 2021 he decided to create artworks, which would encapsulate his own stories to become a narrative of his time. The ongoing Tales series was born. In Bala’ s own words “the Tales series is a daily visual journal portraying [his] personal interpretations of tragic situations and destressing events that he has heard, read, watched or experienced”.