Memorial to millions is set for 2017 unveiling

The exhibition will feature Séra’s preliminary sketches, such as this one. Photo supplied

On the small, grassy triangle between the French Embassy – where he and his family took refuge in April 1975 – and the Japanese bridge, artist Phouséra “Séra” Ing plans to erect a memorial to the Cambodian genocide that is wholly separate from the Khmer Rouge regime’s sites of horror.

“Nowhere in this country do you have something in the public space talking about this period. For me, it is a shame,” says the French-Cambodian sculptor, painter and cartoonist. “Tuol Sleng is a horrible place, and it belongs to the Khmer Rouge history.”

The central sculpture – cast in bronze and currently receiving its finishing patina in Siem Reap – not only eschews this notion of grotesque, hallowed ground, but also embodies the experience of a specific event: the forced evacuation of Phnom Penh.

It features six figures – mostly disembodied and abstract, surrounding a central figure – whose head is bowed and feet dug into the ground.

“The figure is in the position of praying, but the feet are in the expression of working,” Séra explains. “On that day [April 17, 1975], people didn’t have any other power other than praying and work.”

The sketch for the sculpture’s central figure. Photo supplied

Cambodia in brief: October 5, 2016

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