The genocide remembered

Bophana Audiovisual Resource Centre and non-governmental organisation (NGO) Cambodian Living Arts (CLA) are marking the 40th anniversary of the fall of Cambodia into the hands of the radical communist Khmer Rouge in 1975 through an exhibition in Phnom Penh that share stories from the years of terror. 

Cambodian Living Arts, a programme of the Marion Institute, is a non-profit organisation based in Cambodia. 

The mission is to facilitate the transformation of Cambodia through the arts. The organisation collaborates to create an environment where Cambodian arts empower and transform individuals and communities. 

They do this by building the capacity of artists and the arts community, by promoting awareness of the arts, and by advocating for the arts with cultural policymakers and major institutions. They aim to create value and understanding of what it means to be Cambodian and to create a sense of unity and shared culture. 

They believe that through creativity they can each expand their potential as human beings. 

CLA was founded in 1998 by Arn Chorn-Pond, genocide survivor and internationally acclaimed human rights spokesperson. During the Khmer Rouge, he survived by playing propaganda music in death camps. Between 1975 and 1979, 25 per cent of the Cambodian population perished, and it is thought that approximately 90 per cent of Cambodia’s artists were among the dead. 

Arn created CLA to honour the surviving master artists and help ensure the future of Cambodia’s traditional arts.