Research as Strategy: Reactivating Mythologies and Building a Collective Memory in Wah Nu and Tun Win Aung's The Name (2008-)

The Name (2008-) is an on-going sound and image installation by Burmese artist couple Wah Nu and Tun Win Aung, featuring 33 portraits of important Burmese figures from the colonial era. Based on a systematic process of work that resembles the methodology of work of historians, the artists aim at correcting the way colonial history has been told and taught in the country. However, rather than being a mere post-colonial discourse and far from a didactic artwork, the installation plunges the viewer into an immersive experience that re-actualizes a myth of resistance and freedom, challenging both past and present productions of historical narratives. This article examines the artists' innovative engagement in research, which seems to be as much a means to gather information and facts about history as a strategy aiming at legitimizing a renewed historical perspective. It sheds light on the artists' potential position in society as initiators of emancipatory modes of knowledge production and as creators of alternative historical narratives.