Preah Kunlong (The Way of the Spirit)

Preah Kunlong (The Way of the Spirit), (2016-2017) is part of the artist’s research into the Chong communities of the Areng Valley in the South-west of Cambodia. In 2014, the protests led by these communities, which gained widespread support from various civic and religious groups across the country, forced the Cambodian government to cancel the planned construction of a hydroelectric dam, near the Areng River, by the Chinese company, Sinohydro. The project would have flooded the surrounding valley, destroying the rainforest, the rich wildlife, and the ancestral lands that these communities hold sacred.

Over the course of a year, the artist worked closely with these communities, gaining an understanding of their spiritual connection to the land through the ancestral and oral histories shared. In workshops led by the artist, villagers created from local vines, masks and costumes that reflect their primal connection to nature.  He then collaborated with traditionally-trained dancer Nget Rady to create choreographies in various sacred locations in the valley, that reflect the Chong’s veneration of certain animals, rivers, and forests. The work continues the artist’s continued interest in ritual practice at the intersection of politics and history, It invites us to imagine the place of such animist cosmologies and indigenous histories within broader conversations of Cambodia’s national development and progress.