Contemporary Arts in and for Civil Society

In Southeast Asia, modern and contemporary arts have often been closely interrelated to broader socio-cultural changes and, in particular, to civil society in its varied phases and forms. Through selected recent case studies of contemporary art from Myanmar and Singapore, this chapter aims to elucidate locally embedded but regionally shared complexities and the potentiality of arts in light of varying levels of censorship and (semi-)authoritarianism. Premised on the ever-growing visualisation of politics and prominence of present-day art activism, artists’ involvement in revolutions and social movements in public spaces is often taken as the culmination of the connection between arts and civil society. Yet, this most discernible form should not be allowed to overshadow the significance of other methods, roles, and positionalities of arts to provide alternative narratives, spaces, and envisionings. This chapter proposes a more comprehensive approach based on an acknowledgement and critical investigation of multi-layered, trans-local shared agency as it infiltrates throughout and in-between states, public spaces, political arenas, (art) markets, art institutions, (international) non-profit organisations, and civil society. Intertwined aspects of social, political, cultural, and symbolic capital embedded in artistic and curatorial processes enable contemporary arts to reshape sites and places of and for civil society.