Thursday November 29th 2007
17 artists exhibiting at the department of plastic arts of the ministry of culture. 5 Khmer artists and 12 international artists coming together to produce a series of works on the theme : with a body comes suffering. The crowd was overwhelming but the greatest success story is not about the sale, not about the many hundred people but about the khmer artists who exhibited the first time their works. The Selapak Neari were on a magic cloud that night. Veasna and Kanitha's mother was so proud of her daughters who proved her right to keep on supporting them to follow their dreams. What more moving that to see these artists shine like stars!
Thank you to the people of the department of plastic arts specifically Suos Sodavy and to the international artists who helped to pay for the exhibition's expense. But the most important of all is to ANA (Arts Network Asia) who made it possible that these Khmer artists could come together meet, work and connect with other artists.
Sunday 18th November 2007
Qudy Xu a trainer gave a lecture on self confidence to the Selapak Neari. It is all about body language and learning how to present themselves under a positive image of being an artist in today's Khmer society. Tith Veasna was good at expressing her ideas which were opposite to what we were saying, it is not always easy to do so.
Thursday 15th November 2007
The Stiev Selapak had their first opening as an art group. The television Apsara came to film and interview them. And they all went crazy by taking photo of the group. Being different all the way!
Sunday 11th November 2007
Last session of portfolio. Yet the Selapak Neari wanted to finish their collage started last week. It was indeed interesting to observe how much their always wanted to finish properly a work of art. Afterward, they had to finish their portfolio by learning how to give a title, dimension, medium used and the year. They included their old works and the ones they did with the Selapak Neari program.
Sunday 4th November 2007
The Selapak Neari did a very meticulous workshop with Virginie Noel : collage. It was a peaceful and quiet workshop where each one of them were concentrated on their paper. Cutting, placing and looking for more images. What a mess afterward.
Anoli Perera did a lecture on the art history of Sri Lanka. The Stiev Selapak join the lecture. It was captivating and as Chhea mentioned, it is amazing how the artists in Sri Lanka were not afraid of political repression. Indeed the art movement in Sri Lanka is far beyond Cambodia's art scene. May the Selapak Neari and Stiev Selapak start a new way also!
