KHIEV Kanel, KHUN Vannak, SOVAN Philong

"Metis : Exploring Humanity's Ties to the Ocean"

Institut Français du Cambodge — gallery

19 November –19 December 2025

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In 2025, Cambodia was selected, along with Turkey, Bangladesh, Madagascar, Martinique,

Mexico, Costa Rica, Congo-Brazzaville, Ecuador, the Pacific Islands (Fiji, Polynesia), São

Tomé and Príncipe, Indonesia, Senegal, Cape Verde, Morocco, and Mauritania, to carry out

a project presented at the Third United Nations Ocean Conference in Nice in June 2025.

This initiative of the Metis Fund, created by the French Development Agency (AFD), aims to

integrate arts and culture into development projects and this year focused on issues related

to the oceans.

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The proposal jointly developed by Khiev Kanel, a video artist who has continued his work on

and with surveillance cameras, Khun Vannak, a performer, and Sovan Philong, a

photographer, was selected. They chose to work with the community of a small fishing

village near the Thai border. As one of the artists explains: “It’s like an adventure, a journey

across the ocean to a crossroads where a community of people lives and works, known as

the Avlatan Bridge or Avlatan Village. Apart from travelling by boat, the only means of

transport, the inhabitants can communicate with one another thanks to a wooden bridge one

kilometre long, which is the only route allowing them to move from house to house, or from

home to the school or the village pagoda.”

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In keeping with the objectives of Metis, the artists worked in dialogue with the local

population, immersed themselves in the community, set up workshops with children, created

their own artworks, and presented them locally during three stays of at least one week each,

knowing that every trip to and from the village requires a full day of travel.

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This exhibition reflects the entire experience, presenting the works created by the three

artists — a video installation, a filmed account of the performance, an exhibition of

photographs — as well as a documentary video about the project and works produced

during the workshops conducted with the villagers.

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Whatever the artistic forms or techniques used, the whole project highlights the inhabitants’

relationship with the ocean, their only horizon and sole source of livelihood. Something that

must be preserved at all costs.

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Bio

Born in Phnom Penh in 1980 shortly after the end of the genocide perpetrated by the Khmer

Rouge, Vannak Khun grew up in a modest family in the city's Sino-Khmer neighborhood,

located between the central market and the O'Russey market. After obtaining a master's

degree from the National University of Management, he worked for several years for NGOs

before taking up the position of financial administrator in a French communications agency.

In 2014, he discovered photography at the Studio Images of the French Institute, under the

direction of Philong Sovan. It was during this period that art became for him a real passion.

Photo Phnom Penh, 2025

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He has been fully devoted to it since 2019. His practice combines photography,

performance, and painting. He has developed a unique style using his own body and objects

to address themes related to identity, memory, and social issues in Cambodia. His work

often deals with sensitive topics such as the environment, education, spirituality, and

resilience. He was deeply influenced by his childhood in post-war Phnom Penh.

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Vannak Khun has exhibited extensively in Cambodia and abroad, notably in France, Japan,

and Taiwan. He is also the co-founder of Phnom Penh Insolite—a cultural tour of the capital's

hidden neighborhoods—and Art Home, a hybrid space combining a gallery and cultural

exchanges. His practice continues to evolve, combining the poetic, the sensitive, and social

engagement, with recent projects focusing on environmental issues.

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