20 Arts and Cultural Festivals to Visit in Southeast Asia in 2020
It’s the year 2020 and the world is rife with new Instagram filters, hashtag 2020vision (yes, we get it) and the perennial “new year, new me” declarations. Well, if you’ve got travelling and #jetsetter on your new year’s resolution list,…
Asian Arts Media Roundtable 2019: When Asian Critics Meet
By Akanksha Raja and Ke Weiliang (1,444 words, 6-minute read) The inaugural Asian Arts Media Roundtable (AAMR) took place between 24 to 25 May 2019 at LASALLE College of the Arts, Singapore. Organised by ArtsEquator, the two-day gathering of over…
Masked dance tradition rises from near extinction in Cambodia (via Reuters)
PHNOM PENH/BANGKOK (Reuters) – Cambodia’s centuries-old tradition of masked dance was nearly wiped out by the Khmer Rouge’s “Killing Fields” regime, but a handful of artists managed to keep it alive and are now working to pass it along to…
Eleven New Elements from the Asia-Pacific Region Inscribed on the List of UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage
Meeting in Mauritius until 1 December, the Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage inscribed eleven elements from the Asia-Pacific region on the Lists of UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage. Among them, two elements have been added to…
Cambodia Town Film Festival presents perspectives beyond ‘Crazy Rich Asians’ (via Long Beach Post)
Kilong Ung was just a teenager when the Khmer Rouge overtook his hometown of Battambang in Cambodia. Under the new regime, he and his seven sisters, along with their parents, were forced into concentration camps, where they worked 13 hours…
Vietnamese Cultural Week opens in Cambodia (via Nhân Dân)
NDO – The Vietnamese Culture Week opened at Chaktomuk theatre, in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, on September 11. The opening ceremony was attended by the Cambodian Minister of Cults and Religion Him Chhem, Cambodian Minister of Culture and Fine Arts Phoeurng…
Cambodian FB users rage over dance ownership (via The Nation)
August 31, 2018 18:20 United Nations’ cultural agency Unesco’s Facebook page has hosted a heated debate between Cambodians and Thais over Bangkok’s proposal for the inclusion of “khon” masked dance on the agency’s Intangible Cultural Heritage list. Social network users…
“Between Tiny Cities (រវាងទីក្រុងតូច)”: De-cyphering Conversation
By Nah Dominic (1080 words, five-minute read) A white circle 10 metres in diameter greets us on entering the flexible performance space in Loft 29. I stand next to B-boy Erak Mith of Tiny Toones (Phnom Penh, Cambodia). He is…
AExGTF Chats: “Between Tiny Cities (រវាងទីក្រុងតូច)” at George Town Festival
Between Tiny Cities (រវាងទីក្រុងតូច), a two-hander dance performance dovetailing b-boy vocabulary with contemporary dance, was the result of a three-year cultural exchange between Tiny Toones in Cambodia and Darwin City Rockers in Australia. It was presented at George Town Festival…
Bonn Phum: Cambodian Village Festival
By Sunitha Janamohanan Bonn Phum, the Village Festival, now in its fifth year and attracting hordes of young Cambodians, took place from April 6 – 8 2018, in the grounds of the Kok Ampil pagoda. Founded by Lomorpich Rithy with…
Cambodia’s first contemporary dance company: ‘we were blacklisted for not being Cambodian enough’ (via SEA Globe)
April is hot in Cambodia, with temperatures regularly hitting the mid-30s. And in the tourist town of Siem Reap, performers at New Cambodia Artists (NCA), the country’s first contemporary dance company, lay down in their studio as they wait for…
An orphaned artist paints for support (via The Phnom Penh Post)
Self-taught artist Yi Kakada has spent the past six years demonstrating his skills by painting on walls, fences and other public areas, often without getting paid. Born in Battambang province, he lost both his parents at an early age. Now…
Famous photographer finds his old painting (via The Phnom Penh Post)
As alumni of the Royal University of Fine Arts (RUFA) returned to retrieve paintings they had made for their assignments, a well-known Cambodian photographer spotted one of his among the pile. In a picture posted on Facebook, Mak Remissa, who…
Modern dancers go toe-to-toe with Cambodian tradition (via the Christian Science Monitor)
Performing a dance in red stilettos is not allowed at Angkor Archaeological Park, but that’s not stopping Khun Sreynoch from working on it. As members of Cambodia’s first contemporary dance company, Ms. Sreynoch and her closest colleagues have known each…
The Legacy of Kak Channthy, Cambodia’s Rock and Roll Heroine (via Saigoneer)
For many Cambodian music fans, March 20 was a heartbreaking day because Kak Channthy – the 38-year-old female vocal of the band The Cambodian Space Project – passed away in an accident in Phnom Penh. Founded in 2009, The Cambodian Space…
Cambodian photographer’s image honoured as one of the best in the world (via SEA Globe)
Cambodian photographer Ly Min has been recognised in the 2018 Sony World Photography Awards, with his image Cave of Skulls being selected among the top 50 in the world in the Open Travel Category The Open competition rewards the best…
Inspiring Arts: Phal Saravuth (via AsiaLIFE Cambodia)
Cambodian Living Arts believes that arts and cultural expression are essential to a thriving future for Cambodia. This month, we tell the story of Phal Saravuth, leader of Yu Vek Selapak troupe, a group of young artists skilled in dancing,…
Seeking to Build Society Through Art: The Cambodian Circus, Phare (via Performing Arts Network Japan)
The Kingdom of Cambodia was established in 1993 after suffering the Vietnam War, the horrors of Pol Pot and his regime, civil war and countless rebellions. The reconstruction of this country has been supported by around 3,500 different international non-government…
Noir Nights in Phnom Penh (via AsiaLIFE Cambodia)
Fascinated by the diversity of faces found in Southeast Asia, artist Chris Cole has spent the last two decades immortalising Phnom Penh and Bangkok’s notorious nightscapes. Marissa Carruthers catches up with him ahead of his latest exhibition. “I’m not a…
Meta Moeng: a bridge-builder in Cambodia’s art world
By Ben Valentine (1,600 words, 10 minute read) Meta Moeng was the first person I met from Cambodia’s arts scene. This was in 2014, and I was eager to learn more about the country’s arts ecology. She was then the…
A Child of Cambodian Refugees Finds her Past through Poetry (via Electric Literature)
Cambodian-American poet Sokunthary Svay is tired of hearing about the Khmer Rouge. After concluding a yearlong review of Cambodian literature available in English, Svay found that nearly every accessible text about the country of her birth concerned either Angkor Wat,…
Ghost Stories (via Mekong Review)
In her article, “The Persistent Presence of Cambodian Spirits: Contemporary Knowledge production in Cambodia”*, Courtney Work argues that the presence of spirits in Cambodian culture has been made a subjacent subject in the dialogue of empire, but that the human…
Oscar predictions: Cambodia frontrunner in best foreign language film category
“The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, is an annual awards show celebrating achievements in cinema across a number of categories from the past year. “First They Killed My Father” is among the 92 films on the Academy’s initial…
![Nov Cheanick: From Humble Beginnings to Transcendent Art [Cambodia]](https://artsequator.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/RADAR_VOA-Cambodia-455x250.jpg)
Nov Cheanick: From Humble Beginnings to Transcendent Art [Cambodia]
Although modern art is little known in Cambodia, Nov Cheanick hopes his work can inspire Cambodians. PHNOM PENH — Battambang is best known as Cambodia’s second city and a hub of free expression, the home of numerous artists, musicians, and…
![Exploring Female Empowerment through Dance in Cambodia [Cambodia]](https://artsequator.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Radar_Cambodia_Dance_FemaleEmpowerment-1-455x250.jpg)
Exploring Female Empowerment through Dance in Cambodia [Cambodia]
“During the autumn of 2016, I ventured out to Siem Reap in Cambodia to undertake a three-month artistic residency with the pioneering all-female contemporary dance company, New Cambodian Artists (NCA). I have previously worked with NCA as a contemporary dance technique…
![Photographing the Soul of Cambodia: Interview with Sophal Neak [Cambodia]](https://artsequator.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/Radar_Cambodia_SophieNeak_Artasiapacific-1-455x250.jpg)
Photographing the Soul of Cambodia: Interview with Sophal Neak [Cambodia]
“Sophal Neak was born in Takeo, a province in southern Cambodia, in 1989. Since 2011, her works—in particular her photographs—have been showcased across Asia, Europe and Australia. Her unique and uncompromising take on history and people, as well as her…
Epic Arts, Cambodia
By Ben Valentine (1091 words, 10-minute read) The Asia Europe Foundation’s Culture360 and ArtsEquator present a series of 5 co-commissioned articles that look at arts groups, artists and performances in Southeast Asia that are comprised of or address artists with disabilities….
![‘A Cambodian Spring’ Wins at Brooklyn Film Fest [Cambodia]](https://artsequator.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Radar_Cambodia_daily_A_Cambodian_Spring_4-1-455x250.jpg)
‘A Cambodian Spring’ Wins at Brooklyn Film Fest [Cambodia]
“A Cambodian Spring, a documentary that chronicles the lives of three activists as they fight evictions and rights abuses in the run-up to the 2013 national election, was awarded Best Feature Documentary at the Brooklyn Film Festival on Sunday. The two-hour…
![NGO Cheers Opening of Animation Studio in Phnom Penh [Cambodia]](https://artsequator.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Radar_Cambodia_Animationstudio_Chhunly-1-455x250.jpg)
NGO Cheers Opening of Animation Studio in Phnom Penh [Cambodia]
“Visitors to the Institut Francais tonight will be met by life-size cardboard characters inspired by the 2D animations and illustrations of Phare Creative Studio, a new social enterprise that helps fund NGO Phare Ponleu Selpak in Battambang City. The launch…
![Major Exhibition Takes Contemporary Cambodian Art to US [Cambodia]](https://artsequator.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Radar_Cambodia_Disassociation_OeurSokunthevyJavaArts-1-455x250.jpg)
Major Exhibition Takes Contemporary Cambodian Art to US [Cambodia]
“The theme of the exhibition is as intriguing as Cambodia itself: a land in which events of the past 50 years continue to weigh on people, even those far too young to have witnessed them. “Cambodia: Looking Back on the…