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Publication Project Vann Nath – Sera :
« Cambodia, Contemporary Memory »
Submitted by Soko PHAY-VAKALIS

Goals and description of the project :The Sharing of Memory and Creation
This project was born out of a desire to work with the Bophana Audiovisual Resource Center in Phnom Penh, founded in 2006 through the initiative of two Cambodian filmmakers, Rithy Panh (filmmaker of S21, la machine de mort khmère rouge, and more recently Un barrage contre le pacifique) and
IEU Pannakar (ancient Director of Cambodia’s Cinema), who faced up to the critical condition of the audiovisual heritage of the country.

The aim of this project is artistic collaboration on the subjects of memory and violence, and promote diversity of Cambodian cultural expressions. Before the next disappearance of a “direct memory” - witnesses and survivors, Vann Nath is old and will die one day - it is important to transform this “direct memory” to “cultural memory” (art, cinema, literature ...) so that our society can preserve and rehabilitate the past - even painful - in today's discussions. Indeed, art has an important role in the work of transmission between generations.This is why the involvement and participation of young Cambodians, at different stages in their backgrounds and creative work, make up an essential part of the project.

Creation Workshop with Vann Nath and Sera at the Bophana Center: June 2008 and January 2009
We have had two creative workshops organized at the Center Bophana in June 2008 (1 month) and January 2009 (15 days intensive) with a dozen young Cambodian artists from Art School Phare Ponleu Selpak, Royal Universty of Fine Arts will and Reyum Institut. They are invited to create works of plastic , from the archives of the Center Bophana (documentary films, TV), in the presence of two of the greatest artists - the painter Vann Nath and Sera, both survivors of the genocide.

Vann Nath, born in 1946 in Cambodia, is one of the seven survivors of Tuol Sleng, a torture center by the Khmer Rouge and re-named S-21. After his liberation, he denounced the genocidal ideology of the Khmer Rouge by means of his paintings, which depicted the atrocities suffered by the prisoners of S-21. VANN Nath has participated in numerous films by Rithy PANH since 1990 : S-21, The Khmer Rouge Death Machine (2002)... Today, in spite of fragile health, VANN Nath is continuing his work of memory and transmission.

Sera (Phousera ING) was born in 1961 to a Cambodian father and a French mother. He has ceaselessly interrogated the griefstricken memory of Cambodian history through his various artistic practices: drawing, painting, sculpture and graphic novels (bandes dessinées). His work evokes and pays homage to the nameless dead and “disappeared” of mass crimes.

Young Cambodian artists from Workshops
- Phe Sophon
- Khong Channa
- Khun Sotha
- Sou Sophy
- Chin Borey
- Chea Sereyroth
- Nov Cheanick
- Both Sonrin
- Pen Robit
- Lim Sokchanlina
- Kou Konthea
- Sao Srey Mao

Although they differ in their aesthetic and in the techniques they use, the Cambodian artists will offer the public art works that open up new relationships with the world, by means of archives and memory. This exhibition will include two distinct but convergent parts, which will emphasize the memorial works, emphasizing the creation and the exhibition of “Cambodia, Contemporary Memory”, as well as the creation of a film.

Press Articles
- Michelle Vachon, “Creation through emotion”, Cambodia Daily, 12-13 July 2008, 2 pages
- Chheang Bopha, “De la mémoire à la création, rencontre entre trois generations d’artistes
cambodgiens”, Ka Set Webmaster, July 31th 2008, 3 pages
- Aurelie Colladon, “Atelier de creation “Vann Nath – Séra”, représenter la mémoire”, Petit Journal
Webmaster, July 14th 2008, 1 page
- Stéphanie Gee, “Entretien avec Richard Rechtman”, Ka Set Webmaster, February 5th (first part with 2
pages), February 6th (second part with 2 pages)
- Michelle Vachon, “French Psychiatrist Helps Artists Express Khmer Rouge Horrors”, Cambodia
Daily, 7-8 February 2009, 1 page

Promotion of the Project:
This project aims to reach a wide audience, the Cambodians themselves but also Westerners. The setting up of exhibitions, documentary and website will promote our project and to broaden our audience. A consistent media campaign (newspapers, TV, radio) will broadcast to a big media.

Production of a Documentary Film by Guillaume Petit (with the help of Rithy Panh): the film will document the creative processes of the artists and record their observations and reflections on the connections between memory and art.
Partner: Centre Bophana

Two Exhibitions in Cambodia:

The paintings and drawing produced by the workshop participants, together with the documentary film, will be presented initially from November 5th until December 30th 2009 at the Bophana Center, then, a second time on February 2010 (dates not yet defined). Visits and cultural activities will be organized during the exhibition, including a roundtable on the theme "Contemporary Art and Challenges of Memory."

Website « Cambodge, Mémoire contemporaine » by Around Disign (Phnom Penh)
Artistic Director : Cedric GERTGEN
Partner : Around Design

Presentation of the book "Cambodia, Contemporary Memory"
The work from these workshops, written in three languages (English, French, Khmer), will be built in a constant relationship between the texts and images, offering the look and thought a new field of experience. A selection of old and new works of Vann Nath and Sera will restore consistency and originality of their artistic career. Will also work with the comments of young artists - Excerpts from interviews filmed - face their artistic productions or those of their peers. The photographs in color or black and white Sokcha Lim Lina, one of the participants of the workshop will demonstrate a personal plastic research while giving shape to this movement that memory is the leitmotif of the book.

Summary:
– Introduction, Ashley Thompson (Art critic, Associate Professor in History of art, of University of Leeds)
– Rithy Panh (filmmaker, Director of Center Bophana), « Le Centre Bophana »
– Soko Phay-Vakalis (Art critic, Associate Professor in Aesthetics of University of Paris 8), « The memory works in response to the tragedy of history »
– Pierre Bayard (Professor in Literature of University of Paris 8, Psychoanalyst), « How to represent evil? Ae
– Richard Rechtman (Psychiatrist and anthropologist, « Trauma and desubjectivation. The example
of Cambodia »
– Interviews with Vann Nath and Sera with Anne-Laure Porée

The book "Cambodia, Contemporary Memory" will be accompanied by a DVD directed by Bophana Production and it will contain a documentary film of about fifteen minutes describing the collective work of visual artists.

The art book will be presented at the Festival of Books "Reading Celebration" hosted by the French Cultural Center in Phnom Penh in October 2009. It will then be circulated in Cambodia via the usual distribution network and exhibitions (Center Bophana at Phnom Penh from 5 November to 30 December 2009, Phare Ponleu Selpak at Battambang in February 2010) and France in the end of 2010.

Specifications
- Book with a DVD describing the workshop
- In three languages: French, English and Khmer- 120 pages with text and reproductions of works in color
- Soft cover, with color flap
- 1500 copies
- Size 21 x 21
- Iconography: 120 reproductions of works and photographs taken during the workshops.
- Book graphic designed by Sera
- Responsible for editing Sonleuk Thmey : Jean-Christophe Sidoit and Anna Tuyen
- Management authority: Soko Phay-Vakalis
Printing: STC (JSRC) Printing House in Phnom Penh

Partners
- Centre de Ressources Audiovisuelles Bophana
- Phare Ponleu Selpak
- Around-design
- University of Paris 8

Curator Biography
Mrs Dr. Soko PHAY-VAKALIS is an art critic and Associate Professor in Fine Arts Department of the University of Paris VIII. She has lectured and published extensively on the mirror and memory of genocide in contemporary art as well as contemporary Chinese art. She was born in Cambodia and moved to France in 1976. Today she lives in both countries.
Email: soko.pgay@gmail.com