Samstag, 6. Dezember 2014

A photographic exhibition of former Khmer Rouge



Hello, dear readers. You’ll have noticed my blogs have been a little sparser recently. I have actually been pretty busy, bumbling around the field looking for former Khmer Rouge who are willing to talk to me. I have to admit there has been a bit of a dry spell recently and it has been a little frustrating. However, a little project I have going on the side has kept my spirits up nonetheless.

For the last four weeks, I have been accompanied by the photographer Daniel Welschenbach who has been taking photographs of people with whom I had previously conducted interviews and who lived in areas I was returning to for further interviews. People were surprisingly open to Daniel taking their portrait and the photos which have come out of this are quite impressive indeed.

We have spent some of our evenings in the field designing an exhibition together which will present his photography to the public along with some of the findings of my research. This is an exciting opportunity for me to tell the wider public beyond this blog and the academic community a little about what my findings are. I am especially happy to say that we are planning to present the exhibition in both Cambodia and Germany.

Here in Cambodia we are working together with the Heinrich-Böll-Foundation, the organisation whose office space I am sharing when in Phnom Penh and who I have a doctoral scholarship with. Daniel and I have met several times with the country director Ali and are excited to be able to put together an exhibition on who becomes Khmer Rouge and will hopefully be shown in not only Phnom Penh (in the German Cultural Centre Metahouse) but also in Siem Reap and Battambang. This is a great opportunity for me to tell Cambodians themselves what I have found out about a tragic time in their history.

In Germany, we’ll be coming to a city near you (well maybe) with exhibitions planned in Bielefeld (where Daniel is completing his photographic studies next year), Marburg as my academic and home base, as well as possibly other places too – we’re open to ideas and suggestions! I hope to be able to organise a couple of talks to coincide with the openings of some of these exhibitions so watch this space if you want to hear a little more live on the topics of Khmer Rouge and why people participate in violence!

The exhibition is planned to show the portraits of former Khmer Rouge along with quotations from some of my interviews on why people decided to participate, following elements of myconceptual model, showing how human the reasons were for participating and how it really could have happened to anyone. We want to combine this with some reflections on how the former cadres also perceive of themselves oftentimes as victims, as well as in some rare cases as heroes. It may be a provocative exhibition for some, but it will be based on the findings of my research and I look forward to sharing some of the insights from my research.

This is all still in the planning stage and so things may change a little as they develop, but I am excited enough about this collaboration project with Daniel that I wanted to share it with you already! Now, if you were expecting to see some teaser photos already, I’m afraid I have to disappoint you. Daniel says we need to keep up the suspense until you actually come and see the exhibition for yourself.