One day…
One day…. Re-enactment photoby Ali Sanderson and Panca Evenblij
‘ A male mental nurse, a journalist and a world famous writer. Three people of about thirty, the fourth at least fifty,Two woman and two men.One of the woman is married to a Cambodian she met in france a fer years earlier. She is the one with the closest contact to young left-radical Cambodians. Her husband is a revolutionary and was initially posted to the embassy in east Berlin.
By the time the four swedes are travelling through Democratic Kampuchea he is probably already dead,crashed by the revolution he fought for. His wife and other Swedes do not know this.
They assume he is too busy to meet them, too occupied with his revolutionary duties.’ Their clothes seem strikingly unpretensious.is this a deliberate choice? In the plane were the Swedish delegation, and a dance troupe from Romania in holiday clothes. The cloud cover opened and three of four swedes saw for the first time the country to which they had devoted the most recent years of their lives.A visit to the country that had shut itself in. The land of dreams. The slaughterhouse.
Gunnar Bergstrom, Hedda Ekerwald, Jan Myrdal and Marita Wikander. Those who were there.What would their attitude be now to the enthusiastic testimony they once brought home from their journey through mass murder?Perhaps that’s the answer? That the swedes did see, but said nothing when they came home so as not to damage a revolution which was basically a good thing? Or perhaps they saw things and situations that they can only now understand in context with hindsight?Had their mouths been full of well-meaning white lies to “conceal deficiencies for the time being?”Or were they completely taken in?The delegation travelled through what has been described as the worst example of genocide in the twentieth century. They documented the journey carefully. Surely the terror must be detectable somewhere?’…
Portions of texts taken from: Pol Pots smile (Po lPots Leende) by Peter Froberg Idling
N.B. These photographs are a re-enactment, all characters appearing in these images are actors.
Camera operation: Cindy GoddenTechnical assistance and lightning: Anders JirasAppearing in photo from right: Panca Evenblij, Anders Jiras, Ton, Toh, Doi, Ali Sanderson, Pontus Arthursson Thanks to staff of Hotel le Royal, Phnom Penh
About the exhibition
ART OF SURVIVAL
The Khmer Rouge Art Project
Meta House Phnom Penh, Cambodia 2003
Art of Survival follows in the footsteps of the disturbing and thought-provoking exhibition ‘The Legacy of Absence’, shown at Phnom Penh’s Reyum Gallery in 2000. Launched to coincide with Khmer Rouge Tribunal, ART OF SURVIVAL will be followed by an intercultural dialogue project with german artists Horst Hoheisel and Sebastian Brand in cooperation with the Goethe Institute, The results of this project will be exhibited on FEBRUARY 12. The whole project will be documented in photos and video by German filmmaker and director of Meta House Nico Mesterharm and his team.
The Khmer rouge Tribunal has rekindled public interest in the darkest chapter of cambodian history. The five senior leaders of the Khmer Rouge regime have been charged with crimes against humanity and are know in custody awaiting trial. Many Cambodian and internationals believe the trial will bring closure on this era and justice for the victim, both living and dead. Another hope for the trial it will shape a collective history. With the cooperation of international and Cambodians together, there is the opportunity for Cambodia, through reasoned debates, to settle on a singular story of the Khmer Rouge era.
Lydia Perusal, Art Manager of Meta house, considers the exhibition very timely. “ To us it makes perfect sense to approach these darkest years in Cambodian history through visual arts as the Khmer Rouge forbid everything which was related to creativity and freedom in music, visual and performing arts. Cambodia’s artists, who influenced the Southeast Asian subcontinent in the 60s, died or fled in the exile. In recent years, cambodia’s art scene has blossomed again and Meta House is a part of that.”
The Meta House exhibition ART OF SURVIVAL, opening on january 24 allows Cambodian and foreign artists to reflect on the genocide and the impact of the Khmer rouge era on the collective psyche of Cambodia. Cambodian artist Chan Nawath, Chhim Sothy, Van Nath, Soeung Vannara, Hen Sophal, Piteak, Prum Vichet, Svay Ken, Sous Soday, Vandy Rattana and Yam Sokly are joined by the members of the Selapak Neari group, Sokuntevy Oeur, Tith Kanitha, Tith Veasna, Sin Soda and Hiem Ankitha.
International guest artist are Denis Min Kim (France), Francis Wittenberger (IL D) Ali Sanderson (Australia) , Panca Evenblij (the Netherlands) and Rodney Dickson (USA).
This exhibition has to be seen as ‘work in progress’.