Village Festival at the White Building

Artist: Lyno Vuth
Location: Phnom Penh, Cambodia
Year of completion: 2014
Researcher: Kelly Carmichael

Village Festival at the White Building was as a public festival that occurred as part of a larger event, the ‘Our City Festival 2014’. Acknowledging the accelerated pace of urban change in Cambodia’s cities, Our City Festival (OCF) was founded in 2008 and brings together artists and creative practitioners to focus on urbanism and its influence on contemporary culture. Presenting art and architecture themed exhibitions, events, performances, screenings, educational talks and tours and workshops, OCF “examines Cambodia’s present, remembers its past and envisions its future through a creative vision.”

Bonn Phum Nov Bo-Ding took the form of multiple, cross-platform exhibitions and events throughout the White Building neighbourhood in Phnom Penh, Cambodia’s capital city.It presented new media works and performances and a retrospective of artists working in what is known as the White Building. Organised by Sa Sa Art Project Bonn Phum Nov Bo-Ding attracted many Cambodians and foreigners who never visited the White Building before. Its focus was on creating a collective and participatory experience,engaging residents of the building in shaping the events.

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The festival reconnected the Phnom Penh’s population with a site of historical significance and also gave the city an opportunity to celebratethe White Building as an active and creative community or micro-city.The festival turned the neighbourhood into a large collaborative and shared space of creativity.Demystified, those who typically avoid the White Building learnt about its history and the creativity it houses.As a public festival,Bonn Phum Nov Bo-Ding activated the building and surrounding environment through art, architecture and ideas. On a deeper level, and as one part of Our City Festival, this socially engaged, participatory project acted as a catalyst for discourse on the role of the arts in society.

Sa Sa Art Projects founded in 2010 by the Cambodian arts collective Stiev Selapak. Director Lyno Vuth (currently a Fulbright Fellow undertaking an MA in Art History at Binghamton University).

All copyright belongs to Shanghai Academy of Fine Arts, Shanghai University.