Thai artist gives voice to Myanmar’s Shan refugees at Venice and Bangkok biennales

Jakkai Siributr’s work There's No Place – a collaborative embroidery installation on view at Palazzo Smith Mangilli Valmarana as part of the Venice Biennale until late November and then at the Bangkok Art Biennale. Photograph: Amarin/Courtesy of Bangkok Art Biennale

The Koung Jor refugee camp on the Thai-Myanmar border is just three and half hours from Jakkai Siributr’s home in Chiang Mai. But it was only during a visit in 2019 that the Thai textile artist learned about the ordeals of the Shan refugees living there.

That visit inspired a collaborative embroidery project, with participation from 20 girls and women from the Shan ethnic minority living in the camp in northern Thailand, who were invited to sew images and words of their choice.