Phnom Penh – Living Arts City Workshop: Archive
Information
Sam Sophea, Dobin Son with Jacquie Clarke PhD (School of Architecture and Planning, University of Auckland, New Zealand)
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Based on Cambodian artist Vandy Rattana’s photographic series titled ‘Bomb Ponds’we were able to observe how the pond was transformed from an act of terror andviolence into a site of beauty and resilience. The ecological processes in the landscape transformed a sad part of Cambodian war history into a living ecology that could be expressed as a beautiful artistic object. We were interested in observing Vandy’s perspective of looking at Bomb Ponds by collecting a series of moments in the transformation continuum.
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We used collage to layer all nine of Vandy’s photographs into one image using high transparency to give the image depth and mystery and as each pond has developedits own unique ecology, some almost disappearing, others holding water and aquaticlifeand some thick with vegetation. We took inspiration from Vandy’s message ofcapturing moments in time of Cambodian history.
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We observed the various radiation impacts of each bomb pond landscape and also observed that the geometric idea of radiation was repeated in other urban space ssuch as the famous national stadium designed by Cambodian architect VanMolyvann. And also in the French urban design system that radiated streets in semicircular orbits around the significant monuments of Phnom Penh..We related thoseurban radiations with shape of eclipse based on bomb ponds, to point out memoriesand urban landscape ordering in Phnom Penh.
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In fact, many historical and architectural structures and public space in Phnom Penhare threatened by adhoc new development. We related those urban spaces to theerasure and violence of the bomb cavities so as to be able to offer some moment and opportunity for viewers to reminisce on the history of Phnom Penh.
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It is good that the negative part of history recovers with beautification, but weshould not forget what happened, what was built and what existed.
