ArtReview Asia Autumn 2021 Explores Looting, Censorship, and Regional Shifts

The Autumn 2021 issue of ArtReview Asia examines cultural heritage threats across Southeast Asia, with Bangkok-based writer Max Crosbie-Jones investigating the looting and restitution of artifacts in Thailand and Cambodia. The death of British art dealer Douglas Latchford in 2020 revealed decades of stolen antiquities in his private collection, leading to their return to Cambodia and raising questions about museum accountability. Indian documentary filmmaker Anand Patwardhan discusses challenges from government censorship, proscriptive identity politics in academia, and Western-centric film markets, maintaining optimism as a survival strategy. South Korean filmmaker Park Chan-wook presents his first solo photography exhibition opening in Busan this October, diverging from his cinematic work. Additional columns analyze political co-option of India's weather cycles, rediscovered comic-strip archives in Thailand revealing alternative political histories, rising popularity of Indian Parallel Cinema, and the shift of blue-chip galleries from Hong Kong to Seoul. Critiques target the Tokyo Olympics' political controversies. The issue features deep dives into Korean novelist Hwang Sok-yong's autobiography and reviews of works by Iranian photographer Hoda Afshar, artists Simon Fujiwara, Mé, Liu Wei, Anthony Chin, Green Zeng, Hetain Patel, Yao Cong, and Yukinori Yanagi.