At dusk on Saturday I went to TS1 Gallery by Yangon River’s Lanthit Jetty to attend an evening of performance art. Attention Please! was dedicated to ten female Myanmar artists. Largely unfamiliar with such work, I found it all fairly bemusing, and at the same time energizing and inspiring. The venue was also terrific – the kind of white cube often encountered in great world cities, but uncommon in Yangon. It’s set within the regular daily life of the port, making it nicely atmospheric. “Berlin inside, Burma outside” – my friend Nathalie Johnston’s description.

Nathalie is Director of Exhibitions for Pun + Projects, which runs TS1. The gallery launched on April 5, and in three months since then has sought to build a platform notably for visual arts. Solo shows are currently scheduled for two leading contemporary painters: Soe Naing, opening on July 12, and Aung Myint, opening on August 9. Saturday’s event brought together established stars such as Phyu Mon, born in 1960, and young artists such as Thwe Thwe, born in 1991.

One feature of the event was its exclusivity. Among close to 100 people present an hour or two in, there were as many foreigners as locals, and I doubt that any of the locals had much of a link to the port. Media figures were present in great numbers. There we all were, then, in an artistic bubble watched, from a safe distance, by people who for years have worked in Yangon River transit sheds, and taken Yangon River ferries.

I asked Nathalie about TS1’s plans for bridging the Berlin/Burma divide. She told me the gallery has every intention of reaching out to kids congregating on the jetties while their parents scrape together a living, and to adults employed in the port or using it as a transportation hub.

I hope something will come of that, and of other initiatives to connect this exciting new project with ongoing port activities. It would be a shame if Berlin were to edge out Burma in this corner of Yangon. That’s already happening in several other parts of the city.