Is owning an old map dangerous? How about an old magazine? For many years in Myanmar, possessing the wrong document could land the owner in jail or worse. In an interview with TEDxInyaLake lead curator Thin Lei Win, art gallery owner and collector Aung Soe Min discusses the five eras that Myanmar has passed in the last century - British Colonial, Japanese Occupation, Parliamentary Democracy, Socialism, Military Dictatorship - and how each era had opposed and changed the history of the previous era leaving the country with a concealed and changed story of its own history. A must-see for all seeking to understand their nations’ story.


Aung Soe Min was born in 1970 in Mount Poppa. He graduated as an Engineer from Chauk in Middle-Burma. Aung is the founder and spirit behind Pansodan Art Gallery, a well-known and favoured hub for and of creativity in Yangon. Its influence and projects reaches out into the outskirts and countryside. Pansodan is also a venue for poetry readings, book launches, literary receptions, documentary film showings, public lectures, art and heritage workshops. Aung’s true passion lay in the world of the literary arts. He started writing and selling screenplays as a teenager, and founded a publishing house at the age of twenty-two. He is the author of numerous articles, poems, short stories, and essays published in the leading magazines of their time. Aung Soe Min’s ongoing projects also include collecting cultural objects in the form of artwork, documents and visual history for archiving, which he intends on publicly display in a private museum.