By:
• Michelle Vachon

• 29, August 2024 , 7:30 PM

PHNOM PENH — In a few months, the first quarter of the 21th century will be behind us, which may make people look into what has been accomplished so far and what the goals – and dreams – are for the next 25 years. 

While the monuments and sculptures at Angkor and throughout the country have shown who the Khmer of the past centuries were and how they shaped their world, there is no museum in Phnom Penh where can be seen the works of Cambodian artists since the late 1990s or early 2000s, works that would reflect what the country has gone through since the end of war and conflicts in the late 1990s and how Cambodians have since envisioned the future. 

This led Carlo Santoro, who had noticed a small, unused room at the back of Meta House’s exhibition and conference space in Phnom Penh, to set up a small-size museum in that space.  

The various elements of a museum are present in the Mini-Museum of Contemporary Art Phnom Penh, or MiMu Phnom Penh, including short texts on the arts and artists in the country and labels under the paintings, sculptures and installations. There are works of some of the leading artists who emerged in the early 2000s, examples of the various styles and artforms that today’s artists have made their own, and even works by a few foreigners who became part of the art scene in the country over the last 20 years.  

Among them are works by Sophea Pich whose sculptures and artworks have been exhibited in Southeast Asia as well as Australia, France, Hong Kong and the United States to name a few countries; the late Srey Bandol whose teaching at the art school of the NGO Phare Ponleu Selpak in Battambang province has contributed to training the recent generations of artists in Cambodia, and whose work has featured at galleries and in museums in Australia and Europe; Vuth Lino whose work has been exhibited in Asian countries, Europe, North America and Australia, and who has been part of the Sa Sa Art Projects group of artists who marked the art scene in Phnom Penh since the 2000s through exhibitions and training programs. 

 And there also is a work by British artist Nicolas Grey who has been in Cambodia for years, producing intricate works reminiscent of book illustrations of the 1900s—an exhibition of his works was recently held at Java Creative Cafe Toul Tom Poung in Phnom Penh. 

Due to the limited space, some works are exhibited on a rotation basis. 

Works by Cambodian contemporary artists exhibited at the museum MiMu Phnom Penh. Photo: Khun Vannak

The scope of the museum is all set in this [21st] century, understanding the contemporary art that started to be created and seen around the turn of the millennium [the early 2000s]—neglecting the fact that [the late] Svay Ken had already been painting for some time [scenes of everyday life in Cambodia]—and sort of paved the way for this contemporary art,” said Nico Meterham, a German filmmaker and director of Meta House where several of the artists featured in MiMu Phnom Penh were exhibited over the years.   

Santoro is an Italian architect who has been involved in the arts in Cambodia ever since coming to the country in 2017. 

A professor of art, architecture and urban design at the American University in Phnom Penh, he taught at the North South University in Dhaka in Bangladesh in the mid-2010s. And, while in China from 2003 to 2013, he was a researcher and architectural designer at the Zhongke Architectural Design & Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing, and a fellow researcher in cultural heritage preservation at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing. 

A member of the International Association on Psychology of Art in Italy, he was involved in art projects in Cambodia over the years including setting up an experimental art gallery at the Factory Phnom Penh Art Space in 2019 that, due to the COVID-19 epidemic, was moved in 2021 to the train station in Phnom Penh, and has since closed. 

As Santoro explained, while MiMu is meant to very modestly fill the gap of a contemporary art museum in the country, reflecting the scope of works an actual museum would display, setting up a contemporary art museum in Cambodia or any country goes beyond exhibiting artworks in a building.   


Works by Cambodian contemporary artists exhibited at the museum MiMu Phnom Penh. Photo: Khun Vannak

First, he said, “the majority of contemporary art museums started with the idea that collectors would put their collections to the use of public service. And then their collections would get bigger and bigger through time. You have seen this in the United States [where] all of these great museums have been created through collections.”

Then, those collections—because a museum would probably need the contribution of more than one collector—have to include more than one art style or medium. “A private collection that has the consistency of all the interpretations of contemporary art in Cambodia might prove challenging [to find, although] not impossible,” Santoro said. “That process of coordinating collectors, of gaining the trust of the collectors can be a challenge. Moreover, you have to get the trust of the artists as well as of the collectors.” 

Then, some collectors may hesitate to show publicly the works they have acquired, Santoro said. There still is this general idea in Cambodia that artworks should be traditional or related to tradition and religion, the official line being that artworks must reflect national pride or set policy. An approach that mixes artworks and advertising, artworks often reflecting a time or place as it is or as it was while advertising is designed to make a product or destination look good.

“So these elements are all big challenges,” Santoro said. 

And when these challenges have been handled, a museum’s hopes are that the artworks on display will resonate with people and make them feel, think or act in response to what they have seen, whether a painting, sculpture, installation or digital artwork, Santoro said. 

In the meantime, the MiMu may serve as a sample for a future contemporary art museum, enabling people to see the works of some of Cambodia’s major artists since the beginning of the 21st century. 

Since Santoro is relocating in September to Manilla in the Philippines after 7 years in Cambodia, the museum will now be managed by Ernst Altmann. A German photographer who spent his childhood in Florence in Italy, Altmann is a photographer who has also been involved in street art. His work has been exhibited in Germany, Italy, Great Britain, and his street-art scene projects shown at contemporary art events in Prague in the Czech Republic, Germany and Turkey. He is now living and teaching in Phnom Penh. 

Meta House where the MiMU is located at 48 Street 228 in Phnom Penh.

For information: https://meta-house.com/ or https://www.facebook.com/MetaHousePhnomPenh/

Works by Cambodian contemporary artists exhibited at the museum MiMu Phnom Penh. Photo: Khun Vannak