Organized by Wonder of Mekong, Photo by Suthep Kritsanavarin

From 03 May -31 May 2022(For Public, Free Entrance)
Time:​​ 8:00AM-12:00PM (Morning Shift); 2:00PM-6:00PM (Afternoon Shift)

Opening reception on 2nd of May for Invited Guest ONLY!

"Tonle Sap: Heart of the Mekong" by photographer Suthep Kritsanavarin, which opens May 2 and will run until May 31, 2022, at the Bophana Center in Phnom Penh as part of the Wonders of the Mekong project. The exhibition illustrates the remarkable biodiversity and life on the Tonle Sap Lake, while calling attention to the wide-ranging consequences of climate change, human activities and development on the lake.

The extraordinary photographs portray the diverse way of life of fishing communities around the lake. One collection of photos tells general stories about the environment, geography, and biodiversity of Tonle Sap, while another series of photos compares the lake during the dry and flooding seasons, demonstrating how life and people adapt to these dramatically different conditions.

Situated in the middle of Cambodia, the Tonle Sap is the largest freshwater lake in Southeast Asia and one of the most productive inland fisheries in the world. Its fish provide a source of protein for millions of Cambodians and people from neighboring countries in the region. However, this remarkable lake is undergoing rapid change from dam construction, habitat loss, and overfishing, with consequences for people and nature alike. The exhibit aims to educate the public about the importance of the Tonle Sap and promote its protection and conservation.

Photographed by Paul K. Cummings

Neither journalist nor photographer, Paul Cummings was postwar Cambodia’s first tourist and was able to document various rare aspects of Cambodia after a brutal war and a bloody revolution.

Heading a pioneering tour company, he led the first tourist group to visit Phnom Penh and Angkor Wat after the fall of the Khmer Rouge and made many private visits to the country to survey tourist areas commencing in 1983.

“Welcome to Cambodia: From War Zone to Tourist Destination” is a selection of the hundreds of images he took of Cambodia at that time, and will form a permanent part of Bophana Center’s website.

Organized by Y-Dang Troeung, Photographed by Colin Grafton

Only recently have artists and scholars begun to reflect more on the meaning of Cambodian history after 1979, when hundreds of thousands of Cambodian refugees fled overland to the refugee camps along the Thai-Cambodian border. The largest of these camps was Khao-I-Dang Holding Center (KID), a refugee camp that expanded to the size of a small city of over 130,000 people in 1980. Here, and in other refugee camps along the border, Cambodian people lived out their lives as intervals of loss and joy, awaiting resettlement in Western asylum countries or repatriation back to Cambodia.

The exhibition will bring together the voices of artists, activists, and community members for a collective conversation focused on Cambodia's artistic renaissance today, with a focus on remembering the history of Cambodian border camps.

In addition to the online exhibition you are visiting, this exhibition is also on display at the Bophana Center​ from today until August 14, 2021. Please send a message to the Bophana Center's Facebook page (Bophana Center) or email at communication@bophana.org to book a place. The center can only accommodate 10 people at a time.

This exhibition will take place alongside a series of related events throughout the month of July. Please follow the Bophana Center's website or Facebook page.

This event is sponsored by the Interdisciplinary Histories Research Cluster at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.