The Curatorial Fellowship is designed to develop the skills and experience of emerging and potential programmers in the arts sector, with a particular focus on performing arts practitioners but visual and film practitioners are also welcome. Practitioners include both artists and arts administrators. This is the first year that Cambodian Living Arts (CLA) has run this fellowship.
CLA has annually run Cultural Season since 2018 which consists of a series of performances, workshops, exhibitions, and talks that take place over 2-3 months. The target audience is young, particularly university students. The year season will take place in Phnom Penh in Febraury-March, with some works invited to go on a province tour for the rest of March, where we will present performances and workshops in four provinces.
All three Fellows have worked together closely, with Lead Curator Jean-Baptiste Phou, throughout the program. This year’s theme is “Your Kind, Our Kind” which is chosen by the Curatorial Fellows, who design and develop the program for Cultural Season 2023.
Curatorial Fellows 2022
Jean-Baptiste PHOU
Jean-Baptiste PHOU is a writer and multidisciplinary artist born in France to Chinese-Cambodian parents. He started his artistic career in 2008 after working in investment banking. First an actor, he performed in plays and musicals in Cambodia, the USA and in France. He then launched his theater company where he wrote, directed and produced his own plays. His productions include ‘Cambodia, Here I Am’ performed in both French and Khmer and ‘The Anarchist’, adapted from the novel by Soth Polin. In addition to theater, he also explores other mediums such as texts, sound, image and movement. His work tackles issues around identity, migration, minority experiences and the aftermath of the Khmer Rouge genocide. He joined NGO Cambodian Living Arts from 2017 to 2020 as their Head of Creatives Programs. In 2021, he resumed his artistic practice and released his first film ‘My Mother’s Tongue’, first an audio drama turned into an experimental documentary. Furthermore, he has curated and directed several festivals related to the Cambodian contemporary art scene and society.
SEREI Vankosoan
Kosoan hold Bachelor’s Degrees in Classical dance choreography at Royal University of Fine Arts and in Education at Institute of Foreign Languages, Royal University of Phnom Penh. She has been working at Royal University of Fine Arts since 2017. She has taught, danced and toured as a dancer for many years. In 2018, Kosoan was given a principal role in “Neang Wadhana Devi” or “Metamorphosis” by the late Her Royal Highness Princess Norodom Buppha Devi, the former director of the Royal Ballet of Cambodia. Kosoan commits to promote and preserve the legacy of her ancestors. Hence, she always explores new opportunities to further contribute to the art form. She has involved in coordinating workshops and regional conferences at her respected institution which allow her to discover new interest and skills and buil d connections with artists of various fields from local and international organizations. Kosoan is assisting a professional research team working on classical dance archiving under the supervision of Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts. Recently, she is doing joint research on sociocultural impact of Covid-19.
BORNNOEM Milya
Milya is a Cultural exchange Program Coordinator from the Japan Foundation Asia Center, Phnom Penh Liaison office that strongly promote cultural exchange between Japan and Cambodia. There are plenty of art events that aim to promote mutual understanding, tighten friendship between JapanCambodia and create new opportunities for Cambodian Artists to experience Japan by providing fellowship program to Japan, participate in art/performing art/film event in Japan and even bringing the first Japanese Film Festival to Cambodia.
In 2019-2020, She has been selected as the regional representative for Mekong Cultural Hub which is the sister organization of CLA that aim to play a role as a bridge between her arts community and a regional network of people working in arts, culture and development in Taiwan, Thailand, Myanmar, Laos, Vietnam, and Cambodia. After 2020, she still carries on her mission to be a role to connect and expand her network within her communities to become one of the cultural leaders who is ready to take lead and to provide more opportunities to art community in Cambodia.
In 2020-2021, She has been selected as the fellow for the Living Arts Fellow of Cambodian Living Arts (CLA) which is a professional development program for artists and arts managers that was going to work closely with artists and cultural leaders from around the region, building a network of some of the most innovative people working in the arts and culture. Through the program, she was able to explore topics relevant to her work in the arts, and develop her personal, professional and cultural perspectives.
SOY Chanborey
Borey was trained in Lakhaon Khaol (The Cambodian Classical Male Masked dance) at Secondary School of Fine Arts from 2002 to 2011. His specialization is Giant role, He earned a BA in Choreography at The Royal University of Fine Arts from in 2015. He also learnt and performed Large shadow Puppet with SovannaPhum Arts association. About contemporary dance, he performed in a work choreographed by Belle Sodhachivy Chumvan at the Institute of France and also worked with contemporary dance company from France. He choreographed his first work called “The Feeling of Street Dance” in 2010.
He has toured the dance performance ofLights and Shadow (consisting of Classical dance, Lakhaon Khaol and Large Shadow Puppet) choreographed byHer Royal Highness Princess NORODOM BUPPHA DEVIin 2014 in Europe and Bahrain. He also joined an exchange workshop and performed in Japan. He was a former member of Amrita Performing Arts from 2014. At Amrita Performing Arts, he was trained as a contemporary dancer in a “Young Choreographers Platform (YCP)” with senior artists there. He has then developed a new contemporary dance piece called The Realas part of YCP and his other new dance, Contrast was ranked the first place in the Cambodian Contemporary Dance fest in 2018 by the Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts. He also joined a workshop and performed in the Golden Age piece by German-Korean choreographer Jee-ae Lim at Asian Culture Center (ACC) in Korea from October to November 2016. His best friends and he created a performing dance troupe called Lakhaon Khaol Youth of Cambodian 2016.He has performed in The Trojan Women Project in New York in 2019. Now he is working on two new projects called Calling for Rainby a renown multidisciplinary artist, Kvay Samnang and Trillionth I choreographed by Peter Chin of The Trible Crackling Winds dance company in Canada.
He was also a former member of the Regional Representatives in the second cohort (REPs 2021-2022) from Cambodia at Mekong Cultural Hub.
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