Words After Phnom Penh
Dire après Phnom Penh (Words after Phnom Penh)
165 images, 2015
Words After Phnom Penh is a work rooted in the events that occurred in Cambodia in the 1970s. After several years of civil war, the Khmer Rouge soldiers entered Phnom Penh on April 17th 1975 and took power. Installing a regime of fear, their first action was to evacuate all cities. In three days, the Cambodian capital was emptied of its three million inhabitants. The population was sent to the country side to be reeducated in order to create a ‘new pure’ population. This left Phnom Penh empty and nearly abandoned until January 7th 1979, when Vietnamese troops arrived in the capital and destroyed the Khmer Rouge regime. The programmes of the Khmer Rouge claimed the lives of almost two million victims.
How long would it have taken for the entire population to be eliminated? Finally and very slowly after all those difficult events, life came back to the city. But forty years later, this work shows that the loss is still felt here. The viewer can see that the city of Phnom Penh still remains empty, despite all the traces of life to be found there. The people seem to have left forever.
With the images comes a text that you can read here in french, english or german.
This work exists also as a book that you can see here.
165 images, 2015
Words After Phnom Penh is a work rooted in the events that occurred in Cambodia in the 1970s. After several years of civil war, the Khmer Rouge soldiers entered Phnom Penh on April 17th 1975 and took power. Installing a regime of fear, their first action was to evacuate all cities. In three days, the Cambodian capital was emptied of its three million inhabitants. The population was sent to the country side to be reeducated in order to create a ‘new pure’ population. This left Phnom Penh empty and nearly abandoned until January 7th 1979, when Vietnamese troops arrived in the capital and destroyed the Khmer Rouge regime. The programmes of the Khmer Rouge claimed the lives of almost two million victims.
How long would it have taken for the entire population to be eliminated? Finally and very slowly after all those difficult events, life came back to the city. But forty years later, this work shows that the loss is still felt here. The viewer can see that the city of Phnom Penh still remains empty, despite all the traces of life to be found there. The people seem to have left forever.
With the images comes a text that you can read here in french, english or german.
This work exists also as a book that you can see here.