Southeast Asia

Homophobia, prejudice and hatred marked Patchara Kumchumnan's childhood. It's taken him a few years and some hundred kilometres to escape the prejudice and hatred in his hometown. But, while the scar of discrimination never faded completely, the experience became his driving force to defend the rights of others.

One of the most radical political artists in the Thai scene, 34-year-old Tada Hengsapkul ties together nationalism, often-ugly politics, and the bruises of the Cold War in provocative, thought-provoking art. In the current political climate where police violence against pro-democracy protesters has been increasingly rampant, his past works still ring true.

Poetry is an important form of expression for everyday and social issues in Cambodia, providing an important voice in increasingly shrinking spaces. The award-winning poem by Chhoy Phanith gives insights into the aspirations and hopes of young Cambodians.

While political and social avenues for free speech are limited and prohibited, Cambodian visual artists find limitless forms of creative expression to critically examine many complex urban, social and environmental concerns.

No Single Pathway. Southeast Asian countries’ targets and wish lists toward carbon neutrality are like individual recipes that use different ingredients in various ways, to produce the same dish (hopefully).

Most regions in the world have been – to some extent – affected by climate change, and Southeast Asian countries are no exception. Within the group of people who are affected,  recognition needs to be accentuated on the disproportionate impact of climate change along gender lines.

Community-based organizations and grassroots-led initiatives across Asia are addressing the growing threat of plastics pollution. Governments must now enact and properly implement policies and regulations to scale up these bottom-up efforts and hold plastics producers accountable.

The exhibition "Climate Killer Cement", designed by Save Kendeng and Watch Indonesia and produced with the support of the Heinrich Böll Foundation, highlights on the one hand the impact of cement production and construction megaprojects on ecosystems and indigenous communities, but also aims to show positive local alternatives.

While the answer to when, and if, the post-COVID era will come remains uncertain, it is clear that sustainability is back in centre stage - no longer as the hip slogan of the 90s - but as a survival need.

A virus riding on another virus. That is how the ‘infodemic’ is raging in online spaces around the outbreak of the novel coronavirus called COVID-19, which has been on just about everyone’s radar since late January 2020. As grave as the quest to manage the respiratory disease and cure those ill with it is not only the challenge of using facts versus fear - but how to create and keep avenues of information that withstand the unrelenting drip of skewed, confused, partially true to totally false information, to racist and prejudiced views, or a cocktail of these.