BOOK
LAUNCH and EXHIBITION OPENING
"CULTURES
OF INDEPENDENCE"
An
introduction to Cambodian Arts and Culture in the 1950`s and 1960`s
Thursday,
January 10, 2002
from
5 to 8:30 pm
REYUM
47
Street 178, Phnom Penh, Cambodia
(855)
(0) 23 217 149
358
pages, 260 x 260 cm, extensive illustrations
Languages:
Khmer and English
Price
$25 US (plus shipping)
Please
contact Reyum for further information at reyum@camnet.com.kh
In 1953, Cambodia became an independent nation state after ninety years of
French Protectorate rule. During the late Protectorate and in the two decades
following independence, an emerging urban elite undertook the task of
conceiving, defining, and building a "modern Khmer culture". The
impulse for creating these new forms stemmed both from a specific will to define
an independent nation, as well as from broader regional movements towards
modernisation and development. Whether consciously or not, most of the work
produced during this period took up questions of how to create forms that would
be recognised as both Cambodian and modern. In other words, for example how to
create a contemporary architecture which incorporated ideas of international
modernism while still keeping a local specificity, or how to take forms
established elsewhere - such as the novel or cinema - and produce these forms as
part of Cambodian culture. The efforts and innovations of this period were cut
off by the encroaching war of the early 1970s and the subsequent rise to power
of the Khmer Rouge regime.
Today, traces of the work produced during the period just before and after
independence remain scattered, while only some participants from the time
survive. Through our book publication, and the exhibition that accompanies it,
we hope to document and present some of the ways in which new forms of Cambodian
art developed during the 1950s and 1960s. We try to uncover the historical
events and the processes of thinking which motivated the creation of these
forms.
Our publication is organised in sections: "modern Khmer architecture",
"speaking theater", "Khmer film", "modern music",
and "modern painting" as well as a final section on the founding of
the Royal University of Fine Arts. Each of these sections opens with a brief
introductory essay providing a historical survey of the form under
consideration. This introductory essay is followed by several articles written
during the 1950s and 1960s which we reprint in order to recapture in more
immediate form, some of the feeling and thoughts of the time. Also included are
in-depth interviews with surviving participants of the particular area under
consideration.
Table
of Contents
Introduction
1.
MODERN KHMER ARCHITECTURE
A
Conversation with Vann Molyvann
Document
reprints :
House Building (Kambujasuriya 1954)
Nouvelles Constructions Nouveaux Styles (Cambodge d'Aujourd'hui 1958)
Phnom Penh's Building Boom (Cambodia Today, 1959)
Urbanisme (Le Cambodge s'aide lui-même, 1961)
List of Vann Molyvann's Buildings by Trudy Vann
2.
SPEAKING THEATER
Introduction
Document
reprints:
Kram, November 13, 1946 (Journal Officiel)
National theater is a light which to the viewers is still dark (Kampuchea, 1956)
Molière au Cambodge (Etudes cambodgiennes, 1965)
Le Théâtre parlé a trouvé une forme originale au Cambodge (Kambuja, 1965)
Le 15 juin, journée commémorative du retour de Preah Vihear (Réalités
cambodgiennes, 1968)
Shakespeare en Khmer (Etudes cambodgiennes, 1968)
Research on Lakhaoun Khmer (Kambujasuriya, 1971)
Interviews
A
Conversation with Chheng Pon
A
Conversation with Pich Tum Kravel
A
Conversation with Pring Sokhon
3.
CAMBODIAN CINEMA
Introduction
Document
reprints:
Cinéma ambulant (La Dépêche du Cambodge, 1962)
An investigation of film (The New Week, 1964)
Interviews
A
Conversation with Ly Bun Yim
A
Conversation with Yvon Hem
4.
MODERN MUSIC
Introduction
Document
reprints:
Inventory of the Musique Royale, 1943 (National Archives of Cambodia)
Kram, 1946 Ecole Nationale Cambodgien de Musique (National Archives of Cambodia)
Songs of HM King Sihanouk, 1945-1950 (National Archives of Cambian
On the radio (Kampuchea, 1956)
The Royal Cambodian Radio Transmission Station (Cambodia Today, 1959)
La Radiodiffusion Nationale (Cambodge d'Aujourd'hui, 1959)
Letters on the Twist (La Dépêche du Cambodge, 1962)
Interviews
A
Conversation with Vain Sun
5.
MODERN PAINTING
Introduction
Document
reprints:
Scenes of Cambodian Life, 1960? (National Archives of Cambodia)
Cambodian Painters, 1962? (National Archives of Cambodia)
Interviews
A
Conversation with Pen Tra
A
Conversation with Sam Kem Chang
6.
THE ROYAL UNIVERSITY OF FINE ARTS
Interviews
A
Conversation with Vann Molyvann
Document
reprints:
New Life Infused into the Arts in Cambodia (Kambuja, 1965)
The Royal University of Fine Arts (Kambuja, 1966)
Khmerisation de l'Enseignement (Le Sangkum, 1967)
L'Université des Beaux-Arts (Cambodge Nouveau, 1971)
Reyum Institute of Arts and Culture is a Cambodian non-profit organisation dedicated to the research, documentation, and promotion of Cambodian arts and culture. Reyum presents free exhibitions and lectures, as well as publishing books and educational materials which aim to disseminate our research to a larger national and international audience.