Reflections on Cultural Production and Prospects for Reconciliation in Cambodia
by Ly Daravuth and Ingrid Muan
Where is Reconciliation? by Ly Daravuth
In this portfolio, Ly Daravuth, co-founder of the Reyum Institute for Art and Culture and the Reyum Art School in Phnom Penh, inquires into the bleak truth behind "official" statements and acts of peace. Through a lyrical textual refrain and a collection of images from disparate violent events in recent Cambodian history, this portfolio highlights the irony and the danger of superficial acts of justice and reconciliation where what is needed is work that is deep and meaningful. Implicit in Daravuth's portfolio is a warning against superficial and false gestures of reconciliation. It asks: how can such gestures be avoided, resisted, and replaced with more meaningful efforts toward reconciliation and justice? What distinguishes constructive, high-level gestures of peace from hollow, hypocritical gestures that only embody and reinforce harsh realities?
Notes on Pchum Ben by Ly Daravuth
Rather than exploring an intervention purposefully designed to help a troubled community, this photo essay explores an existing cultural-religious ritual and finds within it potential resources for reconciliation. In this piece, Ly Daravuth describes a traditional Khmer Buddhist ritual in which offerings are made to the dead. His striking photographs capture some of the expressive and aesthetic qualities of this ritual-in particular, the in-gathering of distinct elements (rice grains, sand grains, candles, persons) into beautiful and meaningful forms-that are relevant to reconciliation. The interdependent, egalitarian aesthetic of the ritual constructs the possibility of an inclusive experience of mourning. Daravuth suggests that the Pchum Ben ritual can be a symbol of and a step toward healing, mourning, and reconciliation in Cambodia, a country grappling with a long legacy of domination, violence, and genocide. Download the PDF version here (4 pages / 84 KB)
The Goodness of Lives (partial draft) by Ingrid Muan
It is with great sadness that we acknowledge Ingrid Muan's tragic and sudden death in January 2004, which cut short a life filled with promise. Ingrid was co-founder of the Reyum Institute for Art and Culture and the Reyum Art School in Phnom Penh. Among many unfinished projects remains this partial draft of a working paper. "The Goodness of Lives" appears here as she sent it to us in December 2003, with her original concept paper and description of the Reyum Art School attached. We made only minor changes, such as completing footnotes and correcting the spelling of a few names.
In this draft, Ingrid takes an unsettling event at the school as a starting point for a reflection on the seemingly insurmountable obstacles to the reconstruction of Cambodian society in the aftermath of genocide. This paper reflects upon and struggles to come to terms with what Ingrid saw as the breakdown-in almost every quarter of Cambodian life-of the values essential for reconciliation. The paper describes the rampant opportunism, dishonesty, and corruption that are the legacies of prolonged violence and domination, and it questions whether arts-based work can in fact overcome these deep-seated patterns. This paper begins to document a project in which Ingrid-despite her self-described cynicism-invited young art students to proactively engage with their own values by reflecting upon and making art in response to traditional Khmer Buddhist stories, stories that illustrate the qualities "essential for living a good life": generosity, honesty, equanimity, tolerance, compassion, self-determination, and diligence. Ingrid was confronted with resistance to this project from people who were uncomfortable with her asking students to think critically about what are, for many, sacred texts. Her paper, partial as it is, raises important questions about the possibilities and limitations of using traditional texts as the basis for creativity and innovation. Also implicit in her paper are questions about the roles and responsibilities of peacebuilders who are "outsiders" (i.e. not originally from the communities in which they are working), and the dangers of artist-peacebuilders succumbing to the ubiquitous cynicism that often inscribes the contexts in which they work. Download the PDF version here (8 pages / 1.1 MB)