Vuth Lyno
25
2018
Three-channel video with sound
32:07min
25 is a three-channel video that looks at the legacy of the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC), 1991-1992, a UN peacemaking
project in the country. At the time, UNTAC was the largest peacekeeping mission of the UN and was deemed its most successful. For 25, Vuth talked to three individuals whose fathers were part of the UN mission. Upon the completion of the UNTAC mission, UN peacekeepers went back to their respective countries, leaving behind their children with local women. In Vuth’s account: “The project started from when I learned about biological children of UNTAC peacekeeers who now live here in Cambodia.
Many of these children do not have fathers
as their fathers went back to their respective home countries. Several I met are of African descent.” Twenty five years later, three of these children met and shared their experiences, contemplating on how UNTAC has affected their lives. The work unravels aspects of the aspirations of an international South-South imaginary by introducing into the picture the voices of individuals who had to live through the mundane violence inflicted upon a generation of interracial children left behind because of the supposedly
utopian project of peacekeeping.
Image courtesy of the artist
Vuth Lyno (b. 1982, Phnom Penh) is an artist, curator, and co-founding artistic director of Sa Sa Art Projects, an artist-run space in Phnom Penh initiated by Stiev Selapak collective. His artistic and curatorial practices are participatory in nature, exploring communal learning, experimentation, and sharing of multiple voices through exchanges. Vuth holds a Master of Art History from the State University of New York, Binghamton, New York, supported by a Fulbright Fellowship (2013-2015), and a Master of International Development from RMIT University, Melbourne, supported by the Australian Endeavour Award (2008-2009). As an artist, Vuth works with various media including sculpture, photography, sound, light, and video, usually resulting in an installation. He is particularly interested in the agency of human stories, materiality, and how the audience engages with them. His interest intersects micro histories, notions of community, placemaking, and production of social situations. He often involves project participants in the production of meaning of the artwork. Vuth has presented his artworks widely in Cambodia, regionally and internationally including at major exhibitions and festivals such as Asia Pacific Triennial, Biennale of Sydney, Singapore International Festival of Arts, and the Gwangju Biennale. His artworks have been presented in institutions such as Museum of Contemporary Art Taipei; Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane; Metropolitan Museum of Manila; the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney; the National Gallery of Indonesia, Jakarta; Centre for Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw; Guangdong Times Museum, Guangzhou; Osage Gallery, Hong Kong; and Chiang Mai City Arts & Cultural Centre.
