AkihideMISHIMA(Styrism inc.)
MY BELOVED Kim Hak
Interviewer: Taro Amano
Interviewee: Kim Hak
BankART Station, Yokohama, Japan
Hosted by Rei Foundation Limited
Yuki Tanzawa (Arigato Design Consulting)
The exhibition brings together 56 photos, divided into four chapters: Along the Mekong River（メコン川沿い, The capital city Phnom Penh（首都プノンペン,
Around the great Tonle Sap Lake（広大なトンレ・サップ湖周辺）, and Down south to the sea and coastal provinces
（南へ、海と沿岸の地方へ）
Rei Foundation Limited, based in New Zealand, is proud to present My Beloved, an exhibition of photographs by Cambodian artist Kim Hak, at BankART Station (Yokohama, Shin-Takashima Station) from 2-17 November 2024. The exhibition will feature 56 photographs of Cambodia, the country where Kim Hak was born and where he continues to live, taken over a period of 10 years during his travels across the country. On Saturday 2 November, the first day of the exhibition, a photo book with the same title as the exhibition will be published. Cambodia is well known for its World Heritage Site, Angkor Wat, and its history of political upheaval and turmoil in the 1970s. Kim Hak was born in 1981, two years after the fall of the Khmer Rouge regime, and grew up in a period in which his country was undergoing drastic change and development. In this exhibition, Kim Hak presents photographs that delicately illuminate the richness and diversity of Cambodia's landscapes, always precisely framed and unprocessed in color, showing the universal and serene beauty created by nature, human life, and the passage of time, as Kim Hak himself found it in the ever-changing scenery. It is a realistic portrait of Cambodia, a land rich in art and culture, beautiful people, and natural beauty. My Beloved is a love letter to Cambodia, the country Kim Hak has been observing for the past 10 years.
Open 11:00-19:00, Saturday 2 November – Sunday 17 November 2024
Venue: BankART Station
Free admission
Hosted by Rei Foundation Limited
With cooperation from TV Man Union Inc., Luftzug, BankART1929
Curated by Takuma Hayashi
Venue music: Masato Hatanaka
Technical direction, venue composition: Yutaka Endo
Contact: hello@reifoundation.com
Cambodia is more than just the mysteries of Angkor Wat and the history of the Khmer Rouge. My Beloved is my response to these preconceptions as a photographer. This is the place where I was born. It breathes art and pulsates with culture. The beautiful people and abundant nature continue to breathe life into me.
Before I devoted myself to photography, I worked in the travel industry and traveled to every corner of Cambodia for seven years from 2003. During that time, I worked for two years as part of the archaeology team of the Apsara Authority, which protects and preserves the Angkor ruins, and felt the breath of history up close. I also spent another five years at a travel agency in Phnom Penh. Then in 2012, I set off on a journey to pursue the landscapes of Cambodia with my camera in hand. I set foot on the land of the Mekong River, the endless Tonle Sap Lake, and further on to the land that leads to the southern coastline. Sometimes alone, and sometimes I shared the journey with close friends and family.
This trip was a valuable experience that allowed me to further imprint the profound knowledge of Cambodia that I have acquired through my work.
In the ever-changing landscape of Cambodia, I find the eternal grace woven by the breath of nature, the activities of the people, and the flow of time. I know that even in change, there is a tranquil beauty that remains unchanged.
From the beginning of this project, I felt that dawn symbolises a new era for Cambodia, and I continued to pursue a world enveloped in soft morning light. Therefore, I always chose to shoot early in the morning, the moment when the night quietly breaks. This album of the trip is a subjective record that reflects my own inner self, but in the extremely precise cut frames, the natural colors without effects subtly but surely highlight the rich expressions and diversity of the Cambodian land.
It took me 10 years to complete this work. During that long time, I witnessed the rapid transformation of Cambodia's landscape. New construction booms and waves of urbanisation
came, and places that once existed disappeared or lost their former appearance, changing dramatically.
My Beloved is my own personal journey, written by the method of analog photography, and at the same time a love letter filled with deep affection for my hometown.
Each photograph is deeply engraved with my emotions and sentiments about the place I photographed. I did not just point my camera, but stood there, breathing in the air, smelling the scents, and carefully feeling the light and wind touching my skin. I released the shutter while listening to the voice of the land.
As if carefully opening an envelope and gently taking out a letter from it. My work is intended to convey to the world the gentle time that flows in Cambodia and its rich colors.
This journey is also a hope to deliver hope and dreams to a new generation looking to the future. May our ever-changing hometown remain a place full of hope for the younger generation.
Cambodia 2012-2022
Kim Hak (b. May 05th , 1981, in Battambang City, in the northwest of Cambodia) is a photography artist . Kim Hak was born two years after the fall of the Khmer Rouge regime and he grew up listening to his parent’s memories of that time. Now, he uses his art practice to raise awareness of this country’s past – to remember, reclaim and reinterpret Cambodian social history from before, during and after the Khmer Rouge era. Hak’s work has explored a number of themes related to the cultural fabric of Cambodia, including survivor stories (memory, refugee camps, host countries, Cambodian diasporas, healing process, communities, humanity, and renaissance), the funeral of King Sihanouk, architectural documentation and also the wider changing landscape of his homeland. He has exhibited extensively throughout Asia, Oceania, Europe, Canada and the United States of America. His work has featured internationally at art and photography festivals and has been published in a number of prominent photography journals.
http://kimhak.com/biography/
+855 12 556 539
kimhakphotography@gmail.com
BankART Station, 5-1 Minatomirai, Nishi-ku, Yokohama, B1F, Shintakashima Station
www.bankart1929.com
Yuki Tanzawa (Arigato Design Consulting)
On the first day of the exhibition, a gallery talk by the artist Kim Hak was combined with an exclusive performance of a new work by Sok Nalys, a Khmer Robam Boran dancer, and Ros Sokunthea, a Khmer classical and contemporary musician from Cambodia. This is a special video showcase of the performance.
On Saturday 23 November, Kim Hak’s book My Beloved was given its Cambodian launch at Factory Phnom Penh in Phnom Penh, as part of the Photo Phnom Penh Festival, organised by the Photo Phnom Penh Association. At the Phnom Penh book launch, the artist gave a talk about the exhibition, the book and how the project came about.
My Beloved, a book by Kim Hak
Publisher: Rei Foundation Limited
Cambodian traditional cloth (krama) cloth cover, B4 oblong, top binding, 256 pages
ISBN: 978-0-473-72779-6
List price: ¥10,000 + tax
Publication: 2 November 2024
Binding: Takuma Hayashi
Editing: Rei Foundation Limited
Printing: Live Art Books