Support An Experimental Arts Residency in Phnom Penh!

Please support grassroots Cambodian art!  

Experimental arts residencies in Cambodia by Sa Sa Art Projects

Lyno Vuth and Sa Sa Art Projects

Official Press Release:

khi nào | when: 6g tối, Thứ bảy 1 tháng 9 | 6pm, Saturday, 1 September 2012
Ở đâu | where: CACTUS Contemporary Art Gallery  - Nguyễn Huy Tưởng, P.6, Q. Bình Thạnh,TP.HCM

Please join us for an informal gathering with visiting artist-curator Lyno Vuth, artistic director of Sa Sa Art Projects in Phnom Penh. Lyno Vuth will share his experience working as a young artist in Cambodia, as well as establishing and running an independent art space in his city. This event will be held in Vietnamese and English. Free of charge.

Về Dự Án Nghệ Thuật Sa Sa || Sa Sa Art Projects là một không gian nghệ thuật phi lợi nhuận, được những nghệ sĩ trong tập thể Stiev Selapak thành lập và tự quản lý từ năm 2010 tại Campuchia. Nằm trên đường Sothearos Boulevard (thủ đô Phnom Penh), Sa Sa Art Projects là một không gian ủng hộ và tổ chức những hoạt động nghệ thuật thử nghiệm và đường đại. Việc này được làm qua những hoạt động lưu trú, giảng dạy, giao lưu và sự tham gia của cộng đồng. Bạn có thể tìm được thông tin tại trang www.sasaart.info

Về Vuth Lyno || Vuth Lyno là Artistic Director của Sa Sa Art Projects. Đa số những dự án và tác phẩm của Lyno là nghệ sĩ mang đậm tính chất thị giác kết hợp với âm thanh. Những hoạt dộng của Lyno thường thường tồn tại dựa trên sự tham gia của cộng đồng, để nghiên cứu về những hoạt động xã hội và nền văn hoá khác biệt của Campuchia. Ông cũng là người phụ trách quản lý những cuộc triển lãm và hội thảo tại Phnom Penh. Lyno là Quản lý Nghệ thuật thị giác cho Hội Thảo Nghệ Thuật Thanh Niên Campuchia năm 2012, Cũng vào năm 2012, tác phẩm của ông được triển lãm tại Gwangju Biennale (Hàn Quốc) và cuộc triển lãm nghệ thuật Đông Nam Á trong chuyến lưu diễn RiverScapes IN FLUX.

About Sa Sa Art Projects || Sa Sa Art Projects is a non-profit artist-operated space founded in 2010 by the Cambodian art collective Stiev Selapak.  Located in the historic apartment bloc The White Building on Sothearos Boulevard, Sa Sa Art Projects serves as a venue to support experimental art practices.  We do this through residencies, classes, talks, and community participation.  More information at www.sasaart.info

About Lyno Vuth || Lyno Vuth is Artistic Director of Sa Sa Art Projects.  His art practice encompasses photography and sound.  His works tend to be participatory in nature, and to engage specific Cambodian communities and cultures unique to them.  He also curates exhibitions and organises related events in Phnom Penh.  Lyno is Visual Art Curator for 2012’s Cambodian Youth Arts Festival, and in 2012 is exhibiting at the Gwangju Biennale and in the touring exhibition of Southeast Asian art, RiverScapes IN FLUX.

nhờ | thanks: Alec Schachner, Sophie Hughes, Phuong Quoc Tri, CACTUS Contemporary Art Gallery, the institute of Lower Learning

Phnom Penh: Out and About

Some street scenes from our recent trip to Phnom Penh.

The ubiquitous tuk-tuk.

Cruising through the Russian Market (Phsar Toul Tom Puong).  It gained popularity with the foreign crowd in the 1980's, when the only foreigners were from the Great White North.

Don't pick pockets in the market or you'll end up here! The wall of shame.

The hulking remnants of French Colonialism.

A Soviet brutalist architectural aesthetic with tropical flair.

Kool & The Gang.

Also, recommended guesthouse in Phnom Penh: Velkommen Guesthouse. Clean, minimalist, inexpensive, kind staff, and good location near the riverside.

Phnom Penh: The Choeung Ek Genocidal Center (The Killing Fields)

"Silence is not what remains when all noise has been suppressed" - J. Baudrillard 

 A rickety ride to The Killing Fields in Charlie's tuk-tuk.

Traveling from city to country...

An ominous sky opened its angry maw soon after we arrived, drenching the land below, flooding the mass graves, and bringing the horrific past bubbling to the surface.

The Khmer Rouge set up hundreds of prisons and killing fields throughout Cambodia.  As Choeung Ek was only 15 km southeast of the city, this verdant swathe of once peaceful countryside was transformed into an extermination center where at least 17,000 people were killed.  Below, the bamboo stakes mark off a single mass grave where the remains of hundreds of women and small children were discovered.

This gnarled, ancient tree once held blaring loudspeakers that spewed the sounds of Democratic Kampuchea throughout the night.  The swirling cacophony created by the speakers and the thundering electrical generator that powered the music was an effective tool to block the sounds of suffering and death emanating from the camp.

The ground appears to be littered with old rags, but in fact, the remnants of the dead surface from the mass graves after heavy rain.  Interspersed with colorful bits of fabric are more grisly reminders of the past.  Including teeth, pieces of jawbone, and shards of bone.  

Some forty mass graves remain on the site, left undisturbed. 



Over 5,000 human skulls interred from the graves now rest in this Memorial Stupa.

They are surrounded by thousands of multi-colored cranes.

Choeung Ek Genocidal Center is a forty-five minute drive from the city center. 

Phnom Penh: Tuol Sleng Prison (S-21)

Tuol Sleng Prison, known as S-21, is the one of the most haunting places I have encountered yet.

Once a high school in central Phnom Penh, S-21 was turned into a prison, torture chamber, and execution center during the Khmer Rouge's inhuman reign in Cambodia from 1975-1979.

Classrooms lined with makeshift wooden cells to hold detainees.

Barbed wire covering the front of Building C to keep prisoners from leaping to their deaths.

A room with a view.

On the inside looking out.

The infamous Khmer Rouge leader "Duch".  Recently sentenced to life in prison for crimes against humanity.

Durian now grows in the courtyard of the complex.

A terrifying and heart-breaking experience.  The horror is palpable and still clings to the staircase walls and thickens the air.  A very important place to learn about and feel (viscerally) the true depths of evil in the heart of Phnom Penh.