MOH personnel fully equipped with personal protective equipment (PPE) suits to survey migrants and citizens around the Pudu area on the Conditional Movement Control Order to curb the spread of the Covid-19 outbreak. Photo by Hazreen Mohamad.
Publika Shopping Gallery is currently holding a photography exhibition until 30 June 2020 documenting the initial days of the Movement Control Order (MCO) to curb the spread of COVID-19 pandemic in the country.
Titled 'Bridging the Distance: Making us Stronger', the exhibition started on 13 June 2020 showing the scale of the impact of MCO and COVID-19 on human lives and their livelihoods and on communities reeling from pro-longed containment aftershocks. The exhibition features a total of 900 photographs shot by 75 photographers.
This will be the country’s first exhibition to introduce the new norm of artwork presentation, with social distancing steps put in place around the exhibits.
"As the developer of Malaysia's premier creative retail mall Publika, we wanted to present and document the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic in Malaysia especially during the Movement Control Order when the country was in near lockdown while the authorities, frontliners and media risked their lives," said UEM Sunrise Berhad Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Anwar Syahrin Abdul Ajib.
According to Fergana Art founder Jaafar Ismail, "The key imperative of this project is of chronicling visual and textual narratives which aggregate into forming part of the History of Malaysia. COVID-19 is a global viral pandemic in the same class as the Spanish Flu in 1918; hence it is an occurrence that calls for documentation. We chose photojournalism - visual and textual - as the window to chronicle the phenomena since it is widely regarded as the first draft of history," he added.
"We envisage a nationwide tour of discrete versions of the exhibition – hence the title Bridging the Distance," he added. "The end objective is to publish a book about this project -- a testimony of COVID-19, and how a global pandemic catalysed the nation as a whole," Jaafar explained.
A soldier, wearing a face mask and gloves, offered face mask to a homeless man at Selangor Mansion in Kuala Lumpur on April 8, 2020, after the area cordoned off due to a number of cases of individuals with COVID-19 novel coronavirus at the premises. Photo by Mukhriz Hazim, Malaysiakini.
As to what will be the new trend of holding an exhibition or presentation of works of art due to this pandemic both from the point of view of an exhibitor and artists in the way they produce works, Jaafar says the Creative Industry must respond to the demands and prerogatives emerging from this global pandemic as it is about projecting the future rather than re-making the past.
Jaafar also expressed gratitude to UEM Sunrise Berhad and the management of Publika for offering the opportunity and support in undertaking this exhibition project.
The exhibition will be held from 13 to 30 June 2020, from 10am to 10pm at The Gallery, Publika. Admission is free.
(16 June 2020)
