Myanmar's Chan Aye a sensation in Paris
Pagoda bells chime as exhibition extended by popular demand
The Palais de Tokyo Museum in Paris has indefinitely extended an exhibition of art by Myanmar’s Chan Aye due to popular demand, and it’s still only one month into its initially planned run of six months.
What began as a group show, with three French artists, will become a solo exhibition at the end of this month, such is viewer interest in Chan Aye’s four “Dawn” canvasses.
The first Myanmar artist to mount a show at the museum, Chan Aye attended the opening on December 11 and was surprised to see artists from various countries in attendance.
“There were artists from Spain, Argentina and the Arab countries. Asian artists tend to exhibit our work in Asian countries, and we rarely get a chance to exhibit in Europe. I’ve had the opportunity to study their work – their ways of expressing themselves and their views – and this has encouraged me to do more than what I’ve been doing so far.”
Chan Aye’s art adorns the ceiling at the museum entrance – bells from the Shwedagon Pagoda jingle and the tape-recorded soft ticking of a World War II-era clock provide “background music” to the show.
Flanking the central staircase are four distinct yet connected scenes, in which Chan Aye evokes the shifting nature of humanity, its connection to the natural environment that morphs time and is morphed by time itself. Ancient symbols and some he’s created himself play with “impossible spaces”. He also uses the trompe l’oeil technique, coupled with actual objects, to suggest humanity’s everlasting concerns.
Chan Aye is the first artist to have an on-site installation arranged through a new partnership between Palais de Tokyo and the Fondation d’entreprise Total. It’s part of the programme “Emerging Talent in Emerging Countries”, aimed specifically at Southeast Asia and continuing through 2017.
Since 1983, Chan Aye has had several exhibitions at home and abroad, including a solo sculpture show at the French embassy in Yangon in 2005 and others in Singapore, Germany, Hong Kong, Thailand, China, France and the United States.
