ON HIS lightning tour of South-East Asia last year, Barack Obama made
a point of criticising Cambodia’s prime minister, Hun Sen, for his
dismal human-rights record. Cambodians have indeed done horrifying
things to each other (see the obituary).
But what of America’s own legacy in the country? Cambodians have not
forgotten the sustained American bombing campaign between 1970 and 1973,
which drove so many people into the arms of Pol Pot and his Khmer Rouge
army.
“Parachute Skirt with Flowers”, an art installation made of military
detritus collected over three decades, offers a disturbing reminder of
that era. At its heart is a United States Air Force parachute that
landed in Prey Veng village, the home of Leang Seckon, a Cambodian
artist. It was known locally as chhat, Cambodian for umbrella, and Mr Leang remembers how it was used to cover leaky houses during the rains.
Mr Leang’s artwork arrives at the Bronx Museum this month as part
of “Season of Cambodia”, a $2.6m arts festival involving more than 125
artists of different disciplines, performing or exhibiting in 30 New
York institutions, from the Metropolitan Museum of Art to the Asia
Society. The catalyst behind the festival is Arn Chorn-Pond, a
human-rights activist and outspoken critic of America’s foreign policy
during that period. Orphaned as a boy, Mr Pond became a child soldier
with the Khmer Rouge. After the war he was rescued from a Thai refugee
camp by an American pastor, who adopted him. At Brown University Mr Pond
met Amy Carter. It was partly through her father, former President
Jimmy Carter, that he began working with Amnesty International.
During the Pol Pot years Mr Chorn-Pond was stationed in the
north-western city of Battambang where he witnessed horrific violence
every day. He was saved by his skill in entertaining Khmer soldiers on
the khim, a dulcimer-like instrument used to play propaganda songs. Mr Chorn-Pond’s search for his khim
teacher, Yoeun Mek, and their eventual reunion led to the creation of
what is now known as Cambodia Living Arts (CLA). This Phnom Penh-based
organisation tracked down 20 other master musicians, many of them
destitute. It gave them housing, food and a small allowance to encourage
them to pass on their musical techniques and traditions to future
generations. CLA initiated the New York festival.
Cambodia has a long tradition of classical music, dance and film.
King Norodom Sihanouk, who ruled the country until 1970, used to appoint
artists to Cambodia’s diplomatic missions. Sihamoni, his youngest son
and the current king, trained as a ballet dancer in Paris and Prague.
Norodom’s eldest daughter, Buppha Devi, specialised in a classical dance
style known as robam boran, and performed for General de Gaulle and Marshall Tito.
All that changed with the arrival of Pol Pot in 1975. He regarded artists as superfluous. One of his favourite sayings was, tuk min chamnen, dak chenh ka, min kat—“to
keep you is no gain, to kill you no loss”. Thousands died before Pol
Pot fled in 1979 and the terror ended. It took another decade for
cultural life to recover.
Identifying survivors was just the first challenge. Robam boran
dancers start training when they are six years old, and have to learn
thousands of different positions to achieve the required balance of
technical perfection and spiritual poise. One of the festival’s
highlights—to be shown at the Brooklyn Academy of Music—is “The Legend
of Apsara Mera”, which includes a dance that Princess Buppha Devi made
famous. Among the performers are two young stars of the genre, Chap
Chamroeun Mina and Chey Sophea.
The Joyce Theatre in Chelsea will host the Khmer Arts Ensemble, a
privately funded company created by Sophiline Cheam Shapiro, who trained
with the Royal Ballet. The ensemble gives modern twists to classical
dances, folk legends and even Western plays and operas. “A Bend in the
River” (pictured), from a popular Cambodian story of village love and
revenge, receives its world premiere in New York. This event has brought
together for the first time three of Cambodia’s most important
artists—Ms Shapiro, a Moscow-trained composer, Him Sophy, and Pich
Sopheap, a sculptor who is working for the first time as a stage
designer.
Mr Pich already has an international reputation. A child during the
final days of the Khmer Rouge, he emigrated to America and enrolled at
the Art Institute of Chicago. Mr Pich’s works, with their broken Buddhas
and undetonated bombs, have a strong autobiographical feel. He was the
first Cambodian artist to be offered a solo show at the quinquennial
dOCUMENTA exhibition in Kassel, in Germany. During the festival Mr
Pich’s work will be shown at Tyler Rollins Fine Art, the Metropolitan
Museum and the World Financial Centre.
Amrita Performing Arts promotes contemporary dance in Phnom Penh with
the help of several Westerners, including Peter Chin of Canada and a
German choreographer, Arco Renz. Chey Chankethya’s 15-minute solo, “My
Mother and I”, which opens at the Abrons Art Centre on April 18th shows
both her classical Cambodian roots and the influence of these
choreographers.
Only two shadow-puppet companies survived the war. Wat Bo, a Siem
Reap-based troupe, will perform scenes from the “Ramayana” at the World
Financial Centre’s Winter Garden. An unlikely setting perhaps, but the
organisers are confident that the atrium with its giant palms is as
close to the puppeteers’ natural environment as can be found in New
York.
Cambodia had a vibrant film industry during the 1960s and Asia’s
first international film festival was held in Phnom Penh in 1968. Its
best-known director, Panh Rithy, has put together a programme of ten
full-length feature films (including three of his own) to be shown in
New York, along with four shorts.
The link between creativity and memory is raised repeatedly by Mr
Panh, who lost almost his entire family during the Khmer Rouge era. How
to revive a culture after a holocaust is a question that he would like
to see more widely discussed. The festival will introduce new audiences
to Cambodian culture, and remind Americans of their government’s
checkered role in Cambodia’s history.
“Season of Cambodia: A Living Arts Festival” is in New York until July 7th. For events and tickets visit www.seasonofcambodia.com
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