Cambodia News

Cambodia loses an institution

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Title: Cambodia loses an institution
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Michael “Big Mike” Hsu, the longtime owner of Sharky Bar on Phnom Penh’s Street 130, died suddenly at his workplace on Sunday. He was 68...

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Michael “Big Mike” Hsu, the longtime owner of Sharky Bar on Phnom Penh’s Street 130, died suddenly at his workplace on Sunday. He was 68. Hsu was found in his office. Friends believe he suffered a heart attack although an official cause of death has not been determined.</div>
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Hsu, who was born in Shanghai but raised in New York City, first came to Cambodia in the mid-1990s, while working with the Asian Development Bank in Thailand. During that visit, he saw a demand for a bar catering to expatriates in Phnom Penh, which had been flooded with UN peacekeepers and development workers in the run-up to national elections. He opened Sharky Bar, more commonly known as Sharky’s, in 1995.</div>
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Over the years, the often raucous bar took on its own legend, becoming a Phnom Penh institution. Sharky’s celebrated its 20th anniversary last December. Throughout the last decade, Hsu had worked to turn the bar into a quality live music venue. He had once worked as a talent scout in the US and brought live music, including a full band open-mic night, into Sharky’s each week.</div>
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“The change . . . to a live-music bar was the best one for us,” Hsu said in an interview with the <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Post</em> last week, adding a characteristically bold claim. “We are after all the longest running rock ’n’ roll club in Indochina.”</div>
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hose around him remembered him for his signature strain of rousing rhetoric.</div>
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“Mike loved to talk and lived to talk, which is why he was so successful as a host and bar owner,” said Joe Wrigley, a Phnom Penh-based musician who performed frequently at Sharky’s.</div>
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“I don’t know what proportion of Mike’s words was fact: he kind of wrote his own story. Mike had the ability to make something happen. If he believed it, you believed it. He could talk up an idea from nothing into something,” he continued.</div>
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Anthony Mrugacz, who ran the now-shuttered Equinox bar and live music venue for nine years, expressed shock at Hsu’s sudden passing. “He was my main competition, but we had high respect for each other,” he said.</div>
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Al Schaaf, a close friend of Hsu, called him “the driving force that . . . helped develop Phnom Penh’s music scene”: “Rock ’n’ roll will never die and neither will my memories of Big Mike," he said.</div>
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Friends of Hsu gathered nearby at the Exchange bar on Sunday evening and a Buddhist ceremony in memorial to his life was held at Sharky’s yesterday morning. Some shared their grief on social media.</div>
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“RIP Big Mike . . . thanks for the intro last night. You are indeed a loss to Phnom Penh’s music industry . . . You will be missed by many,” wrote Chuck Erz, whose band Moi Tiet played at Sharky’s on Saturday night.</div>
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“Larger than life. RIP Big Mike,” wrote local musician Robin Narciso. “What you did for the rock scene in Cambodia is unmatched, we shall remember you.”</div>
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US Embassy spokesman Jay Raman spoke highly of Hsu as a Phnom Penh cultural figure. “The US Embassy expresses its condolences on the passing of Mike Hsu, the owner of Sharky Bar. Mike was a fixture in the Phnom Penh music scene for many years and a true original. He will be missed,” he said.</div>
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Yesterday afternoon the Sharky’s Facebook page shared a moving post on Hsu’s passing. “It’s been brutal, a truly large flame has been extinguished. Heartbreaking, utterly heartbreaking. Big Mike walked up those steps to Sharky Bar like he did everyday and in the end they had to carry him out. He never walked back down those stairs. His spirit will live in that bar until the end of time,” it read.</div>
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Tonight there will be a gathering at Sharky’s in honour of its former owner.</div>
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Mike Hsu is survived by his brother, Robert Hsu.</div>

Cambodia loses an institution

Michael “Big Mike” Hsu, the longtime owner of Sharky Bar on Phnom Penh’s Street 130, died suddenly at his workplace on Sunday. He was 68...

A recreated concert fit for King and Queen Mother

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Title: A recreated concert fit for King and Queen Mother
Author: Unknown
Rating 5 of 5 Des:

On May 9, 1956, in a display of bi-national friendship, a band from the United States Air Force played a concert on the front lawn of t...

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On May 9, 1956, in a display of bi-national friendship, a band from the United States Air Force played a concert on the front lawn of the Royal Palace in Phnom Penh to an audience of the royal family and thousands of Cambodians. Many more listened over the radio.</div>
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Sixty years later, on Sunday night, that concert was recreated in Phnom Penh with a US Air Force quartet from Washington playing for King Sihamoni and the Queen Mother at the Raffles Hotel Le Royal.</div>
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Joining the quartet on stage in the historic hotel’s Empress Room were two Cambodian classical musicians as they played songs, including some composed by the late King Father Norodom Sihanouk, which had made its debuted at the 1956 performance.</div>
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The 1956 show was an event that might have faded entirely into the well of history had one local arts promoter, Anton Isselhardt of the Arts Plus Foundation, not discovered an obscure article about it while sifting through archived newspapers. After the discovery, Isselhardt approached the embassy with the idea to recreate the event.</div>
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“It was just such a fantastic idea. When do you ever get the chance to recreate something like this we didn’t even know existed?” said US embassy spokesman and event organiser Jay Raman.</div>
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<img alt="A quartet from the United States Air Force on Sunday recreate a concert that was performed 60 years ago for Cambodia's royals. US Embassy" height="364" itemprop="contentURL" src="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/sites/default/files/styles/content_full_width/public/music_2.jpg?itok=B5O3Fg0H" style="border: 0px; display: block; height: auto; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; width: 546.5px;" title="A quartet from the United States Air Force on Sunday recreate a concert that was performed 60 years ago for Cambodia's royals. US Embassy" typeof="foaf:Image" width="546" /><br />
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A quartet from the United States Air Force on Sunday recreate a concert that was performed 60 years ago for Cambodia's royals. US Embassy</div>
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In an introductory speech, US Ambassador William Heidt said the event also celebrated current Cambodia-US ties, which he noted were “stronger now than ever”.</div>
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At 6:45pm on Sunday, Heidt led King Norodom Sihamoni and Queen Mother Norodom Monineath Sihanouk into the Empress Room to giddy applause. In attendance was Minister of Environment Say Samal, Minister of Culture and Fine Arts Phoeung Sakona, as well as ambassadors from Britain, the European Union, France, Russia, Singapore and other dignitaries.</div>
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The quartet played seven compositions, including one surprise piece, Monica, written by Sihanouk in honour of the Queen Mother (whose middle name is Monique), who was brought to tears by the pleasant tune.</div>
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After the show, Ikeda Bonsamnang, a Cambodian clarinet player who performed with the quartet, admitted nervousness at playing a mere few metres from the Cambodian monarchs. He had only practised twice with the quartet prior to Sunday night, he said.</div>
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Master Sergeant Bryce Bunner, a violist from Indiana, said that the whole trip, which took months to be approved through several command chains, had been a bit of whirlwind after they got the final go-ahead.</div>
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“This all just came together really quickly,” he beamed. “It’s been amazing.”</div>
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“I have never been to Cambodia. This is my first time,” said Major David Alpar, director of the US Air Force Band. “It’s been an absolutely wonderful experience. One that I am never going to forget.”</div>

A recreated concert fit for King and Queen Mother

On May 9, 1956, in a display of bi-national friendship, a band from the United States Air Force played a concert on the front lawn of t...

A glimpse of China’s migrant marriages

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Title: A glimpse of China’s migrant marriages
Author: Unknown
Rating 5 of 5 Des:

A travelling photo exhibition opening today in Phnom Penh focuses on the life of a Cambodian bride in China, featuring images taken ove...

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A travelling photo exhibition opening today in Phnom Penh focuses on the life of a Cambodian bride in China, featuring images taken over the course of nearly two years by Chinese documentary photographer Yan Cong.</div>
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When Cong, who is based in Beijing, first travelled to Jiangxi province, in China’s southeast, it was to fill a gap she saw in photo reportage: images of Cambodian women who migrate to China to marry Chinese men – and balance the uneven gender ratio created by China’s one-child policy.</div>
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In the exhibition, <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">High Expectations, Hard Realities</em>, Cong seeks to show a perspective never before seen. “The story in China was never told in Cambodia,” she said yesterday. “It’s always the story of women who had escaped the most extreme cases.”</div>
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In the village she sought out – a new home to many Cambodian women – Cong struck a friendship with one in particular, Buntha, who became the sole subject of her exhibition.</div>
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Buntha had travelled to China a year earlier to marry after a visit from marriage brokers to her village in Kampong Cham. At the time Cong met her in October 2014, the 35-year-old had just given birth to a son and was preparing to move to a larger city to follow her husband’s work.</div>
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Cong persuaded Zou, the husband, to let her tag along on their bus. And so she began to intimately document Buntha’s life. She often slept on the floor of their new home in southern China. “We became like family,” she said.</div>
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The resulting set of images, 19 in total, features portraits of Buntha in her new home; in her husband’s home village; and with her husband and now 18-month-old son.</div>
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The photographs often focus on daily struggle: in China, women face extreme pressure to bear their husband a son, and to care for him, Cong explained. “In rural China, it’s very hard to change this kind of traditional thinking,” she said. “And it’s very hard to be a housewife.”</div>
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And for Cambodian brides, the struggle is compounded by the challenge of living in a foreign place. Buntha has never returned to her family in Kampong Cham – though Cong has now visited them. She carried little with her on the flight from Cambodia aside from a few photographs.</div>
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After a week in Phnom Penh, the exhibition will move to Kampong Cham, and then on to Siem Reap, Cong said. She hopes to better inform communities where women are vulnerable to false promises of the reality of life in China. “It’s not so different from here,” she said.</div>
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A memorandum of understanding to crack down on human trafficking between Cambodia and China is in the works – 82 women were repatriated to the Kingdom from China in 2015. But many more women remain in China. “I personally met a lot of women who were happy – or had chosen to stay anyway,” Cong said.</div>
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For Cong, focusing on the individual changed her perspective. “As soon as I got to know [the family], I knew the focus would be Buntha, the woman who travelled to a country she barely knows to marry a stranger and start a family,” she said.</div>
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“These women are risking everything to go to China just to give birth to a boy.”</div>
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<em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">The photo exhibition </em>High Expectations, Hard Realities<em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> opens today at The Royal University of Economics (RULE), #93 Monivong Boulevard, and runs through May 8. The exhibition is presented with the support of Winrock International and USAID’s Countering Trafficking-in-Persons program.</em></div>

A glimpse of China’s migrant marriages

A travelling photo exhibition opening today in Phnom Penh focuses on the life of a Cambodian bride in China, featuring images taken ove...

Davy Chou's Diamond Island to screen at Cannes

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Title: Davy Chou's Diamond Island to screen at Cannes
Author: Unknown
Rating 5 of 5 Des:

French-Cambodian filmmaker Davy Chou’s upcoming feature film Diamond Island is set to be screened at France’s prestigious Canne...

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French-Cambodian filmmaker Davy Chou’s upcoming feature film <em>Diamond Island</em> is set to be screened at France’s prestigious Cannes film festival in May this year.<br />

The festival announced yesterday that the film had been chosen as 
part of the competitive program for the La Semaine de la Critique 
(Critic’s Week), which focuses on discovering new talents. <br />

Prizes include €15,000 (about $17,000) and a distribution grant worth €20,000.<br />

It will be the second Cambodian film to be shown at this year’s festival, with Rithy Panh’s <em>Exil</em> in the official selection’s “special screenings” section.<br />

<em>Diamond Island</em> tells the story of 18-year-old Bora who 
leaves his village in Kampong Chhnang to work on the construction sites 
of Koh Pich (Diamond Island) in Phnom Penh where he encounters his 
estranged older brother who introduces him to the world of Cambodia’s 
emerging middle-class youth.<br />

“What I wanted while making this film is to tell a story of today in 
Cambodia, to film modern Cambodian youth from different social classes, 
and to capture something of the current march to modernisation the 
country is passing through,” Chou, 32, said. “It’s a very special time 
in my eyes and there are stories worth telling about it.” <br />

Chou, whose short <em>Cambodia 2099</em> was screened at Cannes in 2014, said <em>Diamond Island</em>’s
 selection gave him a “strong feeling of joy” and saw it as a reward for
 all the time and energy he and his team had put into the film.<br />

“I used to attend the festival in my twenties, as a simple cinephile,
 watching five films a day,” he said. “Being part of it as a filmmaker 
one day was surely a dream, but I honestly didn’t really expect it to 
happen.<br />

“The selection of <em>Cambodia 2099</em> in 2014 at the Directors Fortnight was a huge surprise, so after you tasted it, you definitely want to come back.”<br />

Shooting on <em>Diamond Island</em> with a French and Cambodian crew 
of about 40 people only finished in January, so Chou was forced to 
submit an unfinished version of the film.<br />

“Editing was final, but [we had not finished] sound mixing and colour
 grading yet,” he said. “So I’m even more glad the film got selected.”<br />

Cambodian Film Commission technical assistance Cedric Eloy said the 
commission was glad to have two Cambodian films at Cannes this year.<br />

“It’s great to see [a] Cambodian diaspora director shooting in Cambodia and taking films to Cannes,” Eloy said via email. <br />

“CFC has supported Davy Chou’s films [one doco, one short, one 
feature] since the beginning and we are proud to see that the film is 
starting a brilliant festival career. <br />

“In the last few years, Cambodian films directed by Cambodian 
directors have been awarded in Rotterdam IDFA, Busan Film Festival, 
Tokyo IFF, which shows that even though the core of the film industry of
 Cambodia is still small, there is enough talent and creativity as well 
as a favourable environment with support from CFC and Bophana Center 
which leads Cambodian filmmakers to the highest level.”<br />

Chou – who is also producing another film with his friend Kavich Neang – said he wasn’t sure when <em>Diamond Island</em>
 would be shown to Cambodian audiences, but hoped the premiere would be 
at this year’s Cambodia International Film Festival in December.<br />

“Wait and see!” he said.<br />

</div>

Davy Chou's Diamond Island to screen at Cannes

French-Cambodian filmmaker Davy Chou’s upcoming feature film Diamond Island is set to be screened at France’s prestigious Canne...

Beloved writer Kong Bunchhoeun dies

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Title: Beloved writer Kong Bunchhoeun dies
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Prolific Cambodian songwriter, poet, filmmaker and author Kong Bunchhoeun passed away yesterday in Norway at the age of 76. His death w...

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<br />
Prolific Cambodian songwriter, poet, filmmaker and author Kong 
Bunchhoeun passed away yesterday in Norway at the age of 76. His death 
was announced by his family on Facebook.<br />

Bunchhoeun composed over 200 songs during the 1960s and 1970s, 
writing for “Golden Age” greats, including Sinn Sisamouth. Most of his 
work centred on his hometown of Battambang, earning him the sobriquet 
“Master Poet of Songkae River”.<br />

For most Cambodians, Bunchhoeun is most recognisable as a songwriter.
 “His loss is a great loss for Cambodia,” said Seng Dara, a music 
researcher and radio host. “He composed songs for so many singers: Ros 
Sereysothea, Pen Ron, So Saveurn, Eng Nary.”<br />

But Bunchhoeun also wrote poems and novels, beginning when Cambodian 
literature flourished under the patronage of the late King Father 
Norodom Sihanouk. He survived the Khmer Rouge regime in part by taking a
 writing hiatus, according to Heng Sreang, the director of PEN Cambodia.<br />

Even today, there is “no real record” of how many novels he may have 
written, Sreang said. And while he often remained out of the public eye,
 he at times became vocal on the page.<br />

Bunchhoeun’s most well-known work of literature, <em>The Destiny of Tat Marina</em>,
 published in 2000, is a loosely fictionalised account of his niece Tat 
Marina’s affair with Svay Sitha, an undersecretary of state at the 
Council of Ministers, and the subsequent acid attack that left her 
suffering ghastly wounds. Marina identified Sitha’s wife, Khourn Sophal,
 as her attacker.<br />

An arrest warrant for Sophal was signed, but she was never arrested. 
Bunchhoeun saw Marina’s story as an opportunity to speak out. “By 
highlighting the case of Tat Marina, we can hold up a mirror to the ills
 affecting Cambodian society,” he told the <em>Post</em> at the time.<br />

It was the last book that Bunchhoeun would publish in the Kingdom. 
After receiving death threats, he sought asylum in Thailand and later in
 Norway, according to Sreang.<br />

Bunchhoeun continued writing in self-exile, publishing at least 10 
books from abroad, said Vong Socheata, a devotee of Khmer literature who
 counts the writer among her favourites.<br />

“Less well known to most Cambodians are his novels written in the 
1990s and early 2000s, but people who love novels love his work,” she 
said. “He touches on everything: philosophy, psychology, history.”<br />

In the wake of Bunchhoeun’s death, many fans took to social media to 
express their grief. Among them, on Twitter, was film director Rithy 
Panh. Bunchhoeun counted filmmaking among his many modes of expression, 
Panh said, and some of his early novels were made into films after the 
fall of the Khmer Rouge regime.<br />

“We have lost one of our greatest authors, a remarkable poet and 
songwriter – and maybe the last contemporary one,” Panh wrote in an 
email.<br />

Heng Sreang, of PEN Cambodia, noted the irony that he died outside of his home country. <br />

“The sad thing is that Cambodia did not and has not taken care of its
 great writers. We have few surviving talented people – with little care
 from the government,” he said.<br />

So Phina, head of PEN Cambodia’s women writers committee, said she hoped Cambodian writers might draw inspiration from his work.<br />

She highlighted a particular poem, <em>Chivit Ney Chivit (Life of My Life)</em>: “In my whole life, I don’t want anything more than freedom to write,” it reads. <br />

He is survived by his wife, Uch Kolab, and three children.

Beloved writer Kong Bunchhoeun dies

Prolific Cambodian songwriter, poet, filmmaker and author Kong Bunchhoeun passed away yesterday in Norway at the age of 76. His death w...

Young Cambodian artists get time in spotlight

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Title: Young Cambodian artists get time in spotlight
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Young Cambodian artists will be displaying their creative talents during the fourth annual Reek Sai Khmer Cultural Art Exhibit...

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<br />
Young Cambodian artists will be displaying their creative 
talents during the fourth annual Reek Sai Khmer Cultural Art Exhibition 
at the Chaktomuk Conference Hall this weekend.<br />

The two-day event, first organised by a group of culture-conscious 
students from the Royal University of Fine Arts in 2012, will feature 
exclusively student artists. The theme of this year’s event is 
“Achievement and Future”.  <br />

The point of the gathering, said lead organiser Proumchin Vicheth, 
was to promote Khmer art among the younger generations as well as to 
educate young Cambodians about the importance of cultural preservation.<br />

“We encourage young people to love Khmer identity, preserve and develop their works,” said Vicheth.<br />

“We’ve gathered artists with different artistic achievements and products to be in one place for the public,” he added.<br />

The weekend will feature colourful paintings, art workshops, chapei 
dang veng – a single stringed instrument – performances, film 
screenings, traditional Khmer games, speeches by artists and historians 
and even sketchbook competitions. <br />

There will also be performances of Lakhon Khol, a masked dance featuring shadow-puppets enacting the Reamker Khmer epic.<br />

Vicheth said the exhibition was an opportunity for aspiring artists 
to gain exposure with a wider audience. Last year’s brought in around 
1,000 people, he said. This year he was hoping for more.<br />

“The exhibition has been organised as a chance for artists to display
 their achievements to local or international audiences who come to 
visit,” said the organiser.<br />

“I hope that this exhibition will encourage artists to start creating artistic works to show off at the next event,” he added.<br />

Supporters of Reek Sai include the Royal University of Fine Arts, the
 Royal University of Phnom Penh, Pannasastra University, the Institute 
of Technology and Build Bright University.<br />

<em>The Khmer Cultural Art Exhibition will be held tomorrow and 
Sunday at the Chaktomuk Conference Hall on Sisowath Quay from 8am-8pm. 
Tickets for the Lakhon Khol performances cost $5 per person or $4 for 
students. Free entry for general admission. For more information 
telephone 010 552 372, 089 605 366 or 011 505 276.</em><br />

</div>

Young Cambodian artists get time in spotlight

Young Cambodian artists will be displaying their creative talents during the fourth annual Reek Sai Khmer Cultural Art Exhibit...

Battambang artist gives a one-day exhibition

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Title: Battambang artist gives a one-day exhibition
Author: Unknown
Rating 5 of 5 Des:

Young Italian-educated illustrator and artist Phal Ranon’s work will be on display for the first time in Phnom Penh for one nig...

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<br />
Young Italian-educated illustrator and artist Phal Ranon’s work
 will be on display for the first time in Phnom Penh for one night only 
at the Mito Hotel tonight.<br />

Ranon, 25, was born in Battambang. Despite not coming from an 
artistic family, he started to show a talent for drawing at about 9 
years old, inspired by Cambodia’s culture, landmarks and landscapes.<br />

“In high school, I knew how to draw landscapes and people bought them
 from me so I could get money to pay for school, which inspired me a lot
 to continue down this path,” said Ranon.<br />

However, he said that in order to appreciate and express his love for
 the Kingdom, he needed to sharpen his artistic talent at a top 
institution.<br />

In 2013, Ranon received a full scholarship from an Italian friend to 
study in Milan, Italy, at the Academy of Fine Arts of Brera, where he is
 currently in his third year.<br />
<br />

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<a class="shadow-box-item" href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/sites/default/files/styles/full-screen_watermarked/public/ele.jpg?itok=nd6UE4-U" rel="shadowbox" target="_blank" title="Ranon is studying at Milan’s Academy of Fine Arts of Brera.  Athena Zelandonii"><img alt="Content image - Phnom Penh Post" height="364" itemprop="contentURL" src="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/sites/default/files/styles/content_full_width/public/ele.jpg?itok=GE37qhPB" title="Ranon is studying at Milan’s Academy of Fine Arts of Brera.  Athena Zelandonii" width="546" /></a><div class="node-image-caption" itemprop="description">
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Ranon is studying at Milan’s Academy of Fine Arts of Brera.  <span class="icomoon photo"></span>Athena Zelandonii</div>
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When Ranon posted one of his drawings of Phnom Penh’s Central Market 
to Facebook last year, the image went viral and his friends encouraged 
him to put on an exhibition.<br />

“So I decide to use my holiday from university this year to hold a one-night exhibition to show my different works,” he said.<br />

Tonight’s exhibition will feature 70 works in inks, watercolours, 
pencil, oils and acrylics that he completed in his spare time. <br />

He said his favourite was of the National Museum because it showed Cambodia’s art heritage and culture to people.<br />

“My purpose in this exhibition is to bring different creative 
concepts to Cambodia, to encourage and inspire young people and to value
 Cambodian artworks,” said Ranon.<br />

<em>Phal Ranon’s exhibition will go on display at Mito Hotel (former 
Mittapheap Hotel), #11 Street 174 (Oknha Ket), tonight from 6pm to 10pm.
 Entry is free.</em><br />

</div>

Battambang artist gives a one-day exhibition

Young Italian-educated illustrator and artist Phal Ranon’s work will be on display for the first time in Phnom Penh for one nig...

New exhibit explores where Cambodia, the West intersect

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Title: New exhibit explores where Cambodia, the West intersect
Author: Unknown
Rating 5 of 5 Des:

When Eng Rithchandaneth travelled to the United States in December for a month-long residency in Vermont and a stop in New york, it w...

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When Eng Rithchandaneth travelled to the United States in December for a month-long residency in Vermont and a stop in New york, it was the first time the 23-year-old artist had left Cambodia.</div>
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“I was afraid to get into my studio – I didn’t know what I was going to do,” Rithchandaneth said. The resulting two-part work – a sculpture installation and a video – comes to Phnom Penh this evening as part of a multi-disciplinary exhibition at Sa Sa Bassac.</div>
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Futurographies, which features the work of 11 different artists, explores disparate themes about the relationship between Cambodia and the West and crossing between the two. Three of the artists are based in Phnom Penh, while the rest are members of the Cambodian diaspora, working either in the US or France.</div>
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The initial iteration of the exhibition was conceived by a team of students and artists at the New School, a university in New York City, and went on show there from November to January.</div>
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One highlight was <i style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">My Asian Americana</i>, a video piece by Studio Revolt, a team based in Cambodia and the US. The work shares the stories of Cambodian-american deportees: nostalgia for their childhood in the US, and a readjustment to their new home in Cambodia.</div>
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Flags hung from the gallery wall by Korean-American artist David Kyu were a blend between those of Southeast Asian nations – Cambodia, Indonesia, Vietnam – and the American stars and stripes. The photography of Pete Pin, who splits his time between Phnom Penh and the US, explored his Cambodian family history. Visual and written journals by Chath Piersath recorded his experiences in Cambodia, the US, France and Turkey.</div>
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Bringing the works to Phnom Penh, co-curators Chum Chanveasna and Robert McDonald have transformed Sa Sa Bassac’s gallery in Phnom Penh into a lively conversation between the artists’ varied work.</div>
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However, McDonald said yesterday that the Sa Sa Bassac curators wanted to adjust the emphasis for the local audience.</div>
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“We wanted to use the opportunity here to focus the show on a bit of a different angle – something more about the foundation of the diaspora,” McDonald explained.</div>
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That foundation includes sculpture by Yim Maline, a local documentary project by the Genealogy of Bassac Group and the work of Rithchandaneth, who began her artistic career with Sa Sa Art Projects in 2012.</div>
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Daneth’s work, <i style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Feeling, Destroy</i> which is new for the Phnom Penh exhibition, is striking: a video of the artist throwing her own sculptures into a river in Vermont, making them part of the riverbed. Those that remain – clay representations of skulls and bones – will be on display in the gallery.</div>
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“I didn’t want to bring it back to Cambodia – I wanted to keep it in the US,” she said.</div>
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She added that her work deals with both these personal themes and larger ones: the differences between the US and Cambodia, the future, and “what happens at the end of development”.</div>
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For Sa Sa Bassac, which often displays the work of Cambodian artists on their own, an exhibition with so many artists offered curators an opportunity to create something unique.</div>
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“You get to create dialogues between different artists’ work. When you do solo exhibitions, it’s more about the dialogue between the artists and their own work,” McDonald said.</div>
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After its run at Sa Sa Bassac – made possible by a crowdfunding campaign – the exhibition will travel to the New School’s Paris gallery.</div>
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“When my work can exhibit in New York or in another country, it makes me really happy,” said Rithchandaneth.</div>
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“My work goes first, before me,” she added with a smile.</div>
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<i style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Futurographies opens tonight at 6pm Sa Sa Bassac, #18E2 Sothearos Boulevard. The exhibition runs through March 26.</i></div>

New exhibit explores where Cambodia, the West intersect

When Eng Rithchandaneth travelled to the United States in December for a month-long residency in Vermont and a stop in New york, it w...

Svay Sareth wins top prize in Singapore

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Title: Svay Sareth wins top prize in Singapore
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Rating 5 of 5 Des:

Cambodian contemporary artist Svay Sareth has been announced as the overall winner of the Prudential Eye Awards for Contemporary As...

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Cambodian contemporary artist Svay Sareth has been announced as the overall winner of the Prudential Eye Awards for Contemporary Asian Art, which took place on Tuesday at Singapore’s Marina Bay Sands Hotel as part of the city’s Art Week.</div>
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The prestigious awards celebrate emerging contemporary artists from all over Asia, and are broken down into five categories. Sareth’s work was nominated in the Sculpture category, where he was in competition with China’s Yang Mushi and Bangladesh’s Promotesh Das.</div>
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After being named winner in his category, Prudential’s seven judges then selected Sareth as the winner of the Overall Best Emerging Artist for the 2016 edition of the awards.</div>
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Combined, the two prizes are worth $50,000. Sareth has also secured an international solo show, set to take place at London’s prestigious Saatchi Gallery later this year.</div>
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Speaking from Singapore after the announcement, Prudential Eye Awards director Niru Ratman described 43-year-old Sareth’s story as “incredible and inspiring.”</div>
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“His artwork draws on a very specific context but transcends that,” he said. “He produces works that are funny, poetic and confident.”</div>
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Under Pol Pot, Sareth and his family sought refuge in the Site 2 refugee camp in Thailand, where he first started to make art. After the fall of the regime, he went on to co-found Battambang contemporary art school Phare Ponleu Selpak.</div>
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Sareth’s art is notable for often taking as its starting point the materials and practices of war. In the past, he has made sculptures out of camouflage material and iron, and has undertaken feats of great endurance.</div>
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His most recent solo exhibition, held at Phnom Penh’s SaSa Bassac last September, focused on the cheap rubber sandals sold by travelling salesmen and included a video in which Sareth broke apart the straps of the sandals with his teeth. “These objects hurt me,” he told Post Weekend at the time – referring in large part to the footwear’s association with the Khmer Rouge. “After I realised that [they] hurt me, I thought, eat it, and you will see.”</div>
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Speaking from Singapore yesterday, judge Gu Wenda said it was a combination of Sareth’s “lived experience” and the “stunning visual elements” of his work that secured the first place prize.</div>
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Wenda, who is himself a highly celebrated artist in China, said that he also admired Sareth’s cross-disciplinary approach. “A lot of it is a cross, a mix – that’s the charm and challenge of the contemporary art,” he said.</div>
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The Prudential Eye Awards were created in 2014 to champion art from across the entire Asian region – from Turkey to Australia. This is the second year running in which a Cambodian artist has been successful: in 2015, Khvay Samnang championed in the photography category, but lost out on the overall prize to Japanese collective Chim Pom.</div>
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Speaking before the awards took place, director Niru Ratman said that the ongoing success of Cambodian artists in such a geographically wide-ranging competition was striking.</div>
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“We get nominations from almost all the countries, and we don’t really expect two artists in consecutive years from what is a very small art scene,” he said. “So there’s obviously something going on in Cambodia.”</div>

Svay Sareth wins top prize in Singapore

Cambodian contemporary artist Svay Sareth has been announced as the overall winner of the Prudential Eye Awards for Contemporary As...

Live installation takes over gallery at Asia Foundation

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Title: Live installation takes over gallery at Asia Foundation
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Over the next month, artist Kong Vollak will complete work on his newest solo exhibition, all the while the public will be able to ...

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Over the next month, artist Kong Vollak will complete work on his newest solo exhibition, all the while the public will be able to look on. Silhouettes of Tomorrow land, launched on Friday at the Asia Foundation, will take shape during a live installation, the first of its kind at the Community Art Gallery.</div>
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The artwork takes the city’s rapid – and at times, chaotic – growth as its starting point. Last week, a single wire sculpture already hung from the ceiling in the back corner of the otherwise empty gallery; a finished work of art, to the uninformed observer.</div>
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Once finished, it will comprise equal parts printmaking and sculpture, with the gallery divided in two, Vollak explained. Wires, like the tangles that hang over Phnom Penh’s street, will connect the two elements.</div>
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Vollak graduated from the Royal University of Fine Arts in 2006 with a degree in sculpture, and has exhibited in Phnom Penh and abroad. Since 2013, his work has centred on urbanisation and change.</div>
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He’s used to depicting buildings, he said, “but this time, I’m taking [them] from the sky down to the ground”.</div>
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Vollak’s murals feature imaginative cityscapes, often with a strong surrealist bent. In a recent charcoal print, for example, he constructs dark, futuristic structures peppered with mundane yet modern details – tiny, European-style outlets.</div>
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In Silhouettes of Tomorrow land, Vollak seeks to continue this fusion of the concrete with the abstract. “Behind the work is Phnom Penh, but the main point is for the imagination,” he said.</div>
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<a class="shadow-box-item" href="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/sites/default/files/styles/full-screen_watermarked/public/life1.jpg?itok=PmgPGl8H" rel="shadowbox" style="border: 0px; color: #f0a420; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank" title="Artist Kong Vollak. Victoria Mørck Madsen"><img alt="Artist Kong Vollak." height="338" itemprop="contentURL" src="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/sites/default/files/styles/content_pic/public/life1.jpg?itok=dkKuIiXt" style="border: 0px; display: block; height: auto; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px;" title="Artist Kong Vollak. Victoria Mørck Madsen" typeof="foaf:Image" width="225" /></a><br />
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Artist Kong Vollak. <span class="icomoon photo" style="font-family: "icomoon_ppp"; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"></span>Victoria Mørck Madsen</div>
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Key to this notion of imagination is the live installation, which in a way mirrors the rapid construction of buildings throughout the city.</div>
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And while Vollak admires the careful work of Vann Molyvann – the “original plan” for the city of Phnom Penh, he said – the blueprints for Silhouettes of Tomorrow land will come together as he works.</div>
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The new exhibition marks the third time that Vollak has worked in an open gallery. He completed a series of murals in public view at Sa Sa Bassac several years ago, and another live installation during an artist residence in New York City.</div>
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Silhouettes of Tomorrowland is the fifth exhibition in the Community Art Gallery, which opened in November 2014.</div>
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Makara Chheng, the gallery manager, envisions it as a place where the Foundation’s work in Phnom Penh – its urban services project, focused on waste management – comes together with community discussion.</div>
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“How do we make Phnom Penh a livable city?” he asked. “The gallery is a place for reflection, for stimulating these ideas.”</div>
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Likewise, Vollak anticipates the presence of students, artists and others will generate conversation and shape the work as it progresses, as with the city itself.</div>
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“A lot of people never see how the artist [is] working, they just see when the artwork is already done and hangs on the wall,” Vollak explained. “This way, it makes a lot of questions.”</div>
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Kong Vollak’s live installation will take place through February 16 at The Asia Foundation, #59 Street 242. Once complete, Silhouettes of Tomorrow land will run through April 15.</div>

Live installation takes over gallery at Asia Foundation

Over the next month, artist Kong Vollak will complete work on his newest solo exhibition, all the while the public will be able to ...

Photo exhibit migrates to capital’s Meta House

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Title: Photo exhibit migrates to capital’s Meta House
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A photography exhibition by Swiss photographer Beat Presser opening tonight at Meta House charts the course of human migration thousa...

Photo exhibit migrates to capital’s Meta House

A photography exhibition by Swiss photographer Beat Presser opening tonight at Meta House charts the course of human migration thousa...

Ma Chanpanha marches to his own beat in China

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Title: Ma Chanpanha marches to his own beat in China
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Cambodian singer Ma Chanpanha was in China this week to show off the Kingdom's new generation of original musical talent. Cha...

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Cambodian singer Ma Chanpanha was in China this week to show off the Kingdom's new generation of original musical talent.</div>
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Chanpanha, 23, was the sole representative selected by the Cambodian government to perform in Beijing at the 2015 China ASEAN Friendship Concert last week.</div>
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He will also perform in Yunan province today.</div>
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In previous years, Cambodian performers sent to perform overseas would generally do traditional songs. However, Chanpanha is singing his own compositions.</div>
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“Being a song composer and singer I’ve faced a lot of challenges because it’s a different way of doing things to most musical artists in Cambodia. Originality isn’t really valued here, even by my own family”, said Chanpanha.</div>
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“I am so excited that they recruited me as a youth to represent my country”, he said. “I didn’t expect that it is only me who represent the country.”</div>
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Chanpanha was one of a growing number of young original songwriters that the government was keen to encourage, said Ministry of Culture and Fine Art undersecretary of state Ouk Socheat.</div>
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Socheat said Cambodian music had for years suffered from a lack of originality with most songs just recycled or copied from overseas, but that is beginning to change.</div>
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"I'm happy to encourage young people to show their artistic talent", he said.</div>
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On Sunday here in Cambodia, even more original talent will be on show at the Mic Original Song Contest being held at the Cambodian Institute of Technology.</div>
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“It is a big event compared to previous events in the country and we will run two programs in the event: original song contest to find the three best songs and original song from senior singers,” said organiser Seng Pyseth.</div>
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Our purpose is to encourage senior singers and young generation who have new talent to get into the music industry and we try to promote the concept of original songs."</div>
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Chanpanha said Cambodian music now was similar to how it was in the 1950s when few new songs were being written and there was a strong influence from other countries.</div>
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However then the 1960s and 1970s came along with an explosion of original music and ideas. "I believe Cambodian youth generation is better now because they are full of talent and passion”, he said.</div>

Ma Chanpanha marches to his own beat in China

Cambodian singer Ma Chanpanha was in China this week to show off the Kingdom's new generation of original musical talent. Cha...

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