Samrong Knong Memory Sketch

Location: Cambodia
Project Type: Small grant projects

The overall goal of the Samrong Knong Memory Sketch project is to reconstruct the memory of Sarong Knong, a former security centre, through arts and dialogues for educating and healing victim-survivors and non-recurrence of mass atrocity in Cambodia.

The Samrong Knong Memory Sketch project is designed in participatory ways. This is important because it opens spaces for the younger and older generations to express their experiences under a violent past, preserve Khmer Rouge crime sites, and promote understanding of local crime site violations and remembrance through artworks and exhibitions.

The main aim of this project is to engage young people, especially university students, in the memorization process, through the arts.

Youth for Peace organization will use participatory approaches to engage both generations to reflect and learn about the mass atrocity in Cambodia and transform the local crime site into a place of learning; therefore, both these target groups will benefit from the project. In the process, the project will work through university students located in Battambang province. The project will provide capacity to them and then transfer their knowledge skills into the Samrong Knong community peace learning center.
Under YFP’s technical and financial support, they will lead and engage communities in sketching and constructing images of the scenery of sites called “The Lost Memory Site.” Moreover, the project will engage historians, NGO partners, and representatives from the Victim Support Sections of ECCC to consult while developing the sketch.
Education and dissemination of the sketch, create a travelling exhibition. YFP will design and create an exhibition that will travel through two targeted places in Battambang province. The memory sketch will contribute to more understanding of local crime site violence and promote the importance of preserving local crime sites of the Khmer Rouge regime.

The main outcomes and key deliverables envisioned for the project are understanding the history of the Samrong Knong crime site through field research and dialogues. Secondly, transforming the events of tragedy that occurred during the Khmer Rouge era into a collective memory that the community people and outsiders can learn about the place in the future. Thirdly, through the final sketch, which will be printed on a banner to display at the Samrong Knong, encourage dialogue and storytelling, which will be used to develop a future model of the crime sites. This project will cooperate with the Samrong Knong commune and Transcultural Psychosocial Organization (TPO).