Reimaging Community, Art, and Social Transformation in Cambodia

Reimaging Community, Art, and Social Transformation in Cambodia

Academic Year:
2021 - 2022 (June 1, 2021 through May 31, 2022)
Funding Requested:
$500.00
Project Dates:
-
Applicant(s):
Overview of the Project:
My upcoming special exhibition, “Angkor Complex: Cultural Heritage and Post-Genocide Memory in Cambodia” (scheduled to open at the University of Michigan Museum of Art in January 2024) will showcase the work of contemporary artists who exemplify trends in how Cambodians are responding to the still-fresh wounds inflected by the Khmer Rouge regime and related upheavals that have shattered the country. Since several contemporary artists are engaging with the forms and functions of ancient Khmer temples and sculptures and are trying to position them at the intersection of trauma and healing, I shall include several ancient architectural fragments and sculpture in my exhibition. Travel to Cambodia is currently almost impossible, because of pandemic related travel restrictions and closures. Thus, I hope to bring into the classroom, via Zoom, the voices of women and men from diverse walks of life: contemporary artists based in Cambodia and in the diaspora, monks, Khmer Rouge survivors, community organizers, primary school teachers, world renowned scholars, and prominent collectors, many of whom I have gotten to know in recent months while conducting field research for the exhibition. These short-guest lectures will help foster greater respect for justice, common humanity, and diversity, and help my students critically appreciate the role of the arts in suturing post-genocide societies.
Final Report Fields
Project Objectives:

In Fall 2021, I conceptualized and taught a new course HISTART 489/689: Curatorial Seminar: Cultural Heritage and Post-Genocide Memory in Cambodia" centered around my exhibition, "Angkor Complex" scheduled to open at the University of Michigan Museum of Art in January 2024.  As part of this course, I invited two contemporary Cambodian-American artists (Pete Pin and Amy Lee Sanford) to speak about their artwork to undergraduate and graduate students enrolled in my seminar. 

Project Achievements:

 

The artists talks challenged my students to nuance their own assumptions of human actions. They also learn that for elderly survivors of the Khmer Rouge genocide and for younger generations who have inherited the trauma, healing unfolds at many levels: personal, communal, societal, and national. It also transpires in many spaces: in classrooms, monasteries, studios, clinics, and law courts. The chance to ask artists questions honed student skills in synthesizing and presenting information orally. The artists talks also fostered greater respect for justice, common humanity, and diversity and greater critical appreciation of the role of arts in suturing post-genocide societies.

Continuation:
The project is continuing beyond the course period -- in recent months I have been writing and revising object labels, and working on the exhibition layout. Some students who enrolled in the course remain in touch with me. Two of them, were even inspired to join the UM Museum Studies Certificate Program on account of this course and are now considering museum careers.
Dissemination:
The course will help develop an exhibition that will open at UMMA in January 2024. The exhibition will bring together 85 artworks spanning a millennium (ca. 12th century CE to the present day) from public and private collections worldwide.