An Outdoor Art Exhibition Showcases U.N. Development Goals for Battambang
Students are assembling one of their installations that show how a community can meet sustainable development goals in its own way. Photo: Olivia Audo
- By Teng Yalirozy
- October 20, 2023 1:00 PM
PHNOM PENH–An outdoor art exhibition is held this month in Battambang City with set purposes: to reflect the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals that are crucial for the city’s development, and express both the challenges and opportunities they present.
The exhibition “Battambang Imaginée Art Festival,” or Imaginary Battambang City Art Festival, involves the works of 27 artists who collaborated to create the installations exhibited at the Sar Kheng Gardens Park along the Sangker River from Oct. 21 through 28.
Most of the artists are students of the NGO Phare Ponleu Selpak in Battambang who attended workshops held in February 2023 by three leading Cambodian artists: Eng Daneth, Khvay Samnang and Vuth Lyno.
The artists divided themselves into five teams, with each one building an artwork to communicate how a particular Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) might be applied to the future of Battambang in the year 2030, said Bryce Merkl Sasaki, communication and media manager for Phare.
“So one of the artworks looks at how electricity can transform a village home, and another sculpture visualizes how water can be cycled through an entire community in a sustainable way,” he said.
As Sasaki explained, students’ artworks showcase the province's creativity, cultural heritage, and commitment to development and environmental issues through large-scale sculptures and installations they created with natural materials.
The works were built around the goals 6, 7, 8, 14, and 15, which include clean water and sanitation, affordable and clean energy, decent work and economic growth, life below water, and life on land, Sasaki said.
The project will help people connect with the reality of the sustainable development goals, he said. “Although there is some overlap between the various themes of the SDGs…they've taken a global goal and applied it to the local level in Battambang.”
The young artists have been able to communicate the SDGs in a unique and creative way that is specific to the future of the province, he added.
The exhibition in Sar Kheng Gardens Park, which opens at 5 pm on Oct. 21 and is held through Oct. 28, features five installations.
“We know there will be lots of visitors and foot traffic, even if it's just curious passersby,” said Sasaki. “We hope that everyone in Battambang Province who cares about sustainable development and who cares about the arts will stop by to admire our students' artworks and maybe encounter a new perspective on the world along the way.”
The exhibition opening event on Oct. 21 will include a performance by Phare Ponleu Selpak circus artists.
The workshops during which the installations were conceived and built in February 2023 were funded by the Agence Française de Développement (French development agency) and more specifically by the Metis Arts and Development Fund, an initiative launched in 2021 that leverages the arts and artists to strengthen the impact of ongoing development efforts led by the agency.
The Agence Française de Développement is celebrating this year the 30th anniversary of its supporting development projects in Cambodia.
