Aung Soe Min

Aung Soe Min (, born November 1970) is a Burmese poet, musician, publisher, artist, magazine editor, film director and gallerist. Aung Soe Min is living and working in Yangon, Myanmar.
Early life and education.
Aung Soe Min was born in Kyaukpadaung, Mandalay Division in November 1970. Originally graduating with a degree in Mechanical Power Engineering from the Government Technical Institute (GTI) in Chauk, his education was interrupted by the demonstrations of 1988, when Chauk GTI closed for two years.
Career.
Aung Soe Min is known for his artistic advocacy and attempts to fight against censorship and freedom of expression. His projects include: the Pansodan Gallery and Archives (founded in 2008), Pansurya, and Pansodan Scene. Alongside Nance Cunningham, he authored a Burmese-English, English-Burmese dictionary. He is also the author of articles, poems, short stories, and essays published in magazines.
Publishing and editing.
In 1992 he founded Lin U Taya Publishing House in Yangon, to revitalise publication of serious books, as he was disappointed at the number of pulp novels on offer, and thought there was a market for serious fiction, non-fiction, and poetry.
He served as interim editor of "Thint Bawa Magazine" in 1996. He founded Thet Daung Yaungzin Journal in 2002. He founded "New Spectator Magazine" in 2004. He founded "Pansodan Art & Culture Friday Journal" in 2013.
He translated or interpreted for the Burmese-language reading public a number of English books, including several books by Edward de Bono. When "globalisation" was a little-understood buzzword, he wrote a book explaining different aspects of the concept.
Art.
Aung Soe Min and Nance Cunningham founded Pansodan Gallery in 2008. In 2013, they opened an exhibition, performance, and even space, Pansodan Scene. In 2015 he opened a photography museum which later became Pansuriya, and art centre and restaurant.
Pansodan Gallery has sought to increase the international profile of Myanmar art, and has collaborated with Lindenmuseum in Stuttgart for an exhibition about depictions of religion in art from ancient times to today, and has had numerous exhibitions in other countries, including Singapore, Thailand, Australia, the USA, France, the Inside Stories art exhibition at the 2011 Brighton Festival in the UK, and others.
Aung Soe Min had his first solo exhibition, titled Mind Drops, in January 2015. The exhibition catalogue was edited by Ewan Cameron and published in 2017.
Open History and Public Memory.
Aung Soe Min gave a TEDx talk in 2016 on the history of Burma, and the importance of public memory of these times. He first developed the concept in an exhibition about Kyauktada Township. He has also worked alongside the Yangon Heritage Trust to document local heritage sites in Yangon. Since that time he has continued to develop the concept of 'open history', and in 2018 published a book titled "Open History Project" (လူထု အမှတ်သညာပွဲတော်). In 2018 another larger Open History festival was held in Magwe. In 2019, Open History festivals were held in Hpa-an and Dawei. 
In 2020, he partnered with Yangon University's History Department to create an Open History Festival for the centenary of the university.
Aung Soe Min gave several talks at the Habitat III conference in Quito, Ecuador in 2016. 