Phnom Penh’s first contemporary art fair
By Danielle Khleang

Hosted at Factory Phnom Penh, a former factory turned into a multi-use creative space, Penh Art includes over 100 works of art from 36 artists. Detail view of Sothea Thang’s work in the foreground.

Conceptualised and managed by three cultural sector professionals in Cambodia, Erick Gonzalez, Miguel Jeronimo and Dorian Leroy, Penh Art, Phnom Penh’s first contemporary art fair, aims to support the development of contemporary visual arts among emerging artists. What was originally conceived as a multi-venue arts festival set for March 2021 was postponed and downsized to a single venue art fair at FT Gallery, Factory Phnom Penh to accommodate the necessary safety precautions arising from the ongoing global pandemic.

According to Miguel, the fair was designed as an open call to national and international emerging artists to build a platform. He says, “It is for new talent to have pathways to full-time arts careers, celebrate the progress of Cambodia’s arts development, and connect new artists with big names to share experiences.” He adds, “That is why the open call is not set only for Cambodians.” The international angle was intended to attract new works and ideas from the international community.

Selected by a jury of seminal figures from the Cambodian arts scene including visual artists Sopheap Pich, Chhim Sothy, Vuth Lyno, curator Moeng Meta, and Penh Art coordinator and artist Erick Gonzalez, the fair featured around 100 artworks by 36 artist, including the work of Cambodian and foreign artists residing in Cambodia. “I saw works from artists I did not know before,” says Lyno. “It was a way to get a sense about who is out there. Also, there was quite a mix of submissions, and it was interesting to see this broad range.”

Looking at the breadth of artworks, Penh Art brought together a wide range of artistic talent with representation from three continents: Asia, Europe, and North America with the greatest concentration of artists being Cambodian. This review reflects on the implications of “international” as a concept used in the premise of the fair and concludes with a look at preferences among emerging young Cambodian art patrons.

A distinct feature of the fair is the Guest Artists Exhibition. As stated on the website, it is a “collective exhibition of some of the best and most international Cambodian artists” shown “as an inspiration for the new creative generation of Cambodia.” According to Dorian, the open call included international artists to “build a bridge between cultures.”

Sopheap Pich's 'Trees' tower above visitors as they enter the foyer of Penh Art.

The wording around the Guest Artist Exhibition sets up a dichotomy between the international and the national that parallels the core expatriate organising body and nearly entirely national jury committee. This dichotomy calls to mind two questions:

Why is there a high value placed on being international and how does being described as international connote credibility for Cambodian artists, and what are the implications of this?
What does an majority expatriate organising body of Penh Art mean for the authorship of Cambodian contemporary art on the international and national stage and within the fair itself?

Through conversation with Miguel and Dorian, though there were plans to facilitate dialogue between international and national stakeholders, these were hampered by the COVID-19 pandemic. The main channel of exchange seems to be housing national, nationally residing, and international artists’ work in one exhibition as well as some digital outreach and a catalogue of the exhibition. While the catalogue does well to promote the visibility of included artists beyond the duration of the fair to an international audience, its accessibility to different segments of Cambodian society can be questioned because it is published in English rather than in Cambodia’s national language, Khmer.

Other investments could be made to increase multi-directional flows of artistic influence between international and Cambodian participants in future iterations of Penh Art. This could help mitigate or draw out conversations about inequities among national, nationally residing, and international artists within Cambodia, not counting the other stakeholders in the fair’s success.

Two visitors to Penh Art considering Chan Phoun's 'Let Me Out Bricks', wood, chains, paint and plaster arm casts, 98 x 92 x 60cm.

Considering this, the fair does resist international institutionalised expectations of Cambodian arts to represent the values of the emerging scene. Canonical arts and culture writing about Cambodia in the post-Khmer Rouge era has been saturated by narratives of trauma and healing. This is to the extent that the international art market has been implicated as a norm entrepreneur limiting the conceptual scope of work that is visible from outside Cambodia.

Penh Art represents new visual narratives that reflect the aesthetic taste and content priorities of not only emerging artists but also the emerging domestic art market. According to recent research by Dr. Amanda Rogers, Associate Professor of Geography with Swansea University and Reaksmey Yean, an innovative early-career Cambodian art curator, writer, and researcher on creative expression and arts making among young Cambodian’s found that “audiences want to go to the arts because they want to see something different and highly relevant; it must be ‘new all the time’”. Two examples of this type of work in the open call exhibition are from the emerging painter, Sovann Chanra Alan, who created ‘Unbroken Heritage’, and a performance photography and stop-motion work, ‘The Simultaneous’ by The Collective, made up of Mao Sovanchandy, Chen Vannak and Mean Pisey.

*Sovann Chanra Alan, ‘Unbroken Heritage,’ dimensions not given. Photo courtesy of Miguel Jeronimo.*

Sovann’s skull, adorned with traditionally styled Cambodian motifs, reflects the aesthetics of current Phnom Penh streetwear worn by young people darting around the city on motorcycles. This reflects a broader trend of young urban aesthetics concerned with contemporising traditional heritage. This has been echoed in the recently viral Time 2 Rise music video featuring popular rapper VannDa’s collaboration with chapei master Kong Nay.

Meanwhile, The Collective’s photography performance work continues the role of the arts for social, political, and environmental critique of Cambodia’s evolving society that shares visual continuity with the works of senior artists including Khvay Samnang. It too reflects the emerging art patron’s interest in highly topical subject content.

In its first year, Penh Art has ambitiously set its sights on making a bold impact on the Cambodian arts ecosystem domestically and regionally. Looking ahead to future iterations in the less restricted post COVID-19 years, Penh Art has the opportunity to continue strengthening its aims to be an influential force for Cambodian arts development.

The first edition of Penh Art took place at FT Gallery, Factory Phnom Penh and held its closing ceremony on 24 July.

The catalogue can be downloaded here.